Bushfire crisis: Return to life in ruins, but ‘we’re the lucky ones’

In the end, nothing could protect the tiny town of Dargan from a ‘black tornado of fire twice as high as trees’.

Dargan resident Fiona Farquhar sits among the ruins of her home in Dargan. Picture: Sam Mooy

In the end, nothing could protect the town of Dargan from the “black tornado of fire twice as high as trees” that tore through the Blue Mountains.

With the village rendered in­accessible due to fallen power lines, Fire and Rescue NSW teams flew drones over the dense bushland on Monday to assess damage, after a weekend of severe bushfires claimed about 100 properties across the state.

At least 24 homes were destroyed­ on Valley View Road in Dargan, where 87-year-old ­Eugen “Ike” Mjadwesch ­returned to the rubble where his home once stood.

Mr Mjadwesch, who fled post-war Germany, had lived in the Blue Mountains since he built his house in Dargan 60 years ago.

“I know what it’s like to leave everything you have behind. But I had more when I left Germany than I have today,” he said.

Eugen "Ike" Mjadwesch walking through what remains of his Dargan house. Picture: Sam Mooy

He teared up when he realised the urn holding the ashes of his late wife Ruth was now indistinguishable from the burnt remnants of his other possessions.

“I left her here to look after the house,” Mr Mjadwesch said.

While he evacuated, his neighbour, David Wilpour, stayed to defend­ his own home and tried to also fight the flames closing in on Mr Mjadwesch’s home. “I tried to defend­ it with the fireys, but the temperature was just too high. It was insane,” Mr Wilpour said.

He successfully fought flames away from his own home, despite having just one arm and with a “black tornado of fire” oncoming. “It was just black all around from the smoke, but the fire you could see swirling … (the fire was) twice as high as trees,” Mr Wilpour said of the fire that arrived about 2pm on Saturday.

Rural Fire Service drone footage shows bushfire devastation in the Dargan area.

“It just exploded and we knew the home was lost. And then everything turned dark. I have no idea how high the fire was above the trees, because it just blew me backwards onto the ground when it exploded.’’

At the entrance to Valley View Road, Fiona Farquhar refrained from sifting through what remained­ of her house, knowing asbestos in the ruins could pose a health risk. “You want to get in there and start looking, even for any pieces of jewellery, but you just can’t,” Ms Farquhar said.

She had evacuated to Mount Victoria on Saturday when she saw neighbours from Dargan had fled their homes and were driving in search of an evacuation centre.

She then got a call from her neighbour, who had stayed to defend his property. He told her flames had engulfed her home and he was watching it burn. “Such is life. We’re the lucky ones really,” Ms Farquhar said. “I don’t know whether we’ll start again here.”

At 1am on Sunday, Leam Dzwinek sat in his backyard on Valley View Road, drinking a beer to celebrate the mammoth effort he and firefighters had made to save his home. Vision recorded by a friend shows him fighting off a 30m-high flame with a garden hose earlier in the night.

But as they began drinking, a spot fire “just lit up in front of the shed”, and the plumber had to race back to his hose to put it out.

Vehicles remain stranded after fire tore through Dargan in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Picture: NSW RFS

While his home was saved, he lost his pig, Brutus, 12 chickens and ducks, as well as a swing, trampo­line and cubby house his kids played in.

Without power in the town for what could be weeks, Mr Dzwinek was bolting up his home on Tuesday and preparing for a Christmas at his former partner’s home in Lithgow. “Now I’ve got no neighbours anyway, living on this quiet street. It’s weird,” he said.

His neighbour Glen was defen­ding a property he looks after as a caretaker on Saturday and had to jump into a neighbour’s dam and douse his head repeatedly to stay cool and safe. “The heat was so hot, it was bubbling my skin. I couldn’t take it,” he said.