Black Saturday a day burnt into our memory

IT was a day never to be forgotten. Black Saturday claimed the lives of 173 people, injured another 414 and burnt 2133 houses.

The five men who were in that CFA truck on Black Saturday (from left) Gary Cheesman, Ian Maxfield, Bruce Jewell, Reg Murrill ...

IT was a day never to be forgotten. Black Saturday claimed the lives of 173 people, injured another 414, burnt 2133 houses and killed more than one million animals.

They are the bare statistics of Australia’s worst natural disaster on February 7, 2009. But what of the emotional cost, the mental scars that for so many will never heal, and what was promised but remains undelivered, are questions that may never be answered.

There were heroes that day. Those at the firefront knew their lives could be forfeited, and their conduct stands as its own tribute. In the words of one firefighter, they went “to hell and back".

Bruce Jewell, along with Gary Cheesman, Reg Murrill, Ian Maxfield and Matt Smythe, are representative of all the brave men and women who fought the fires that dreadful day.

They remember screaming to each other to be heard above the roar of the bushfire. They took breaths of scorching-hot air they thought would be their last. Would they do it again? “Bloody oath,’’ said Mr Jewell. “It’s what we do".

No bravado there. No bragging words.

Yes, this is what firefighters do every time they go willingly into harm’s way. The inferno that pursued their fire truck that day burst like a nuclear explosion and was captured by Herald Sun photographer Alex Coppel in the picture on Page 1 today that showed why Australia is one of the world’s most fire-prone places. The fire was all-consuming.

Black Saturday has left is dark scar across hills and hamlets. Kinglake and Marysville were towns turned to ashes. There are those who would rather they had done more that day. Better we honour the names of those who fought the fires and remember those who perished.

Those who died have left grieving families still wondering why? The “why’’ was forensically examined by the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. Of its 67 recommendations, 20 are still to be fulfilled.

Not all of the fire refuges promised have been built. Not all the houses have been rebuilt. Not all of the $401 million in the bushfire relief fund has been distributed. More than $26 million remains, although the Government says it will be properly spent. There have been lessons learned.

This year, five years on from Black Saturday, the state was able withstand the return of 40-degreeplus days that would again threaten towns and communities. Victoria’s emergency services excelled. The advice on what was being described as a potential Black Friday was to “leave and live".

On Black Saturday, people died when they stayed to defend homes that proved indefensible.

Shrieking winds drove the fires, throwing the embers so far in front that new fires exploded. The winds were cruelly capricious. Some people died. Others survived. It seemed the winds acted on a whim.

There have been other deaths since. They, too, are victims of the fires. Marysville doctor Lachlan Fraser, whose home and clinic were destroyed, says with sadness: "There was one suicide of someone I know, probably a couple of people who took overdoses that I recall and in the following years people had issues with relationships and alcohol."

The aftermath of the Black Saturday fires smoulders among communities.

It sparks in the minds of its survivors and the families of its victims. It torments them still. No one has died in this summer’s scorching heat. But it will come again. Leave and live.