Flood hell for leather fire victims

There isn’t much that will render Gaspar Roman, a vibrant Chilean leather artisan, speechless.

Mogo leather shop owner Gaspar Roman stands in the remains of his recently burnt out shop now submerged in floodwaters. Picture: Jane Dempster

There isn’t much that will render Gaspar Roman, a vibrant Chilean leather artisan, speechless.

But as he watched the remains of his burned-down shop in Mogo on the NSW south coast become submerged in flood waters on Monday, there were no words to describe it. It was a sight of biblical proportions.

“I cannot believe it,” he told The Australian. “From one extreme to the other. It’s crazy.”

Mr Roman and his partner, ­Lorena Granados, lost both their home and their leather goods business — Roman Leather — on New Year’s Eve when the Clyde Mountain bushfire swept through the historic tourist town just south of Batemans Bay.

It was one of at least five businesses on the main strip razed by flames that “rained down like demons” on the town.

Roman Leather had been operational in Mogo for almost 17 years, but had moved to its new ­location on the main street only in September last year.

The shop, like many of the other stores along the main street, was made of wood and stood on timber pylons.

The construction caused it to ignite in a huge fireball as the bushfire raged through town.

Ms Granados said they had been left in the dark about which government agency was co-ordinating the clean-up of their home and business. This was delaying their ability to move forward, and now the floodwaters would only prolong that process.

“The delay is frustrating because now we’ve allowed another disaster to make a bigger mess of what was already there,” Ms Gran­ados said.

“It’s surreal, from fire to floods. It’s truly unfathomable. The rain is welcome, but it’s perhaps a bit too much rain.”

The couple and their three children — Jessica, 22, Aisha, 20, and Dante, 12 — have been staying in temporary accommodation at Batehaven along with dozens of other people also displaced by the bushfires.

They are hoping to move into a new rental soon, but have no clue when they’ll be able to rebuild their shop and return to work.

“I’m sick of living out of a suitcase,” Ms Granados said.

“I’m ready to unpack, to rebuild, to get back to work.”

When The Australian spoke to the Roman-Granados family last week, they were hopeful the predicted rainfall would finally signal an end to the worst bushfire season on record in NSW.

“We have nothing left, but at least if there’s some meaningful rain we’ll know that the bushfire nightmare for the town is over,” Ms Granados said.

“We are in a much better place now than we were a month ago.”

The Clyde Mountain fire is currently under control at advice level after burning through more than 98,000ha.

When the blaze approached the township of Mogo in the early hours of December 31, fears were held for not only the residents’ lives but also the lives of the ­animals housed at the Mogo Wildlife Park.

In the end they all survived, thanks to 15 zoo­keepers who worked tirelessly to protect them as the flames swept through.