Glen Huon man Neil Randle captures bushfire’s fury on front door security camera

Beating a retreat to safer ground as fire swept towards his home, Glen Huon man Neil Randle watched events unfold live as a security camera he had placed at his front door continued to broadcast. It was not a view for the faint of heart. WATCH THE VIDEOS

Glen Huon resident Neil Randle captured amazing footage from his front door security camera showing how close the fire on Bermuda Rd came to his house. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Beating a retreat to safer ground as fire swept towards his home, Glen Huon man Neil Randle watched events unfold live as a security camera he had placed at his front door continued to broadcast.

It was not a view for the faint of heart.

The astonishing footage shows smoke, then flames, approaching his home, burning all around before the camera eventually failed in the extreme temperatures.

Astonishingly, his home and his parents’ home nearby survived.

“I was watching it intently. I was just recording at the same time. I was down at Glen Huon Park,” he said.

“Probably the worst thing is, like obviously, watching the camera, you see the fire go through and you think, ‘f..., everything is gone,’ because of how intense it is.

“The camera cut out from the heat and then you don’t know what is going on.

“You can’t get any access and you’re just waiting to get in to see if your house is still there.”

Mr Randle said the fire approached quickly and unseen.

“We were all up there on Monday morning and the fire passed Frying Pan [Creek].

“We were trying to stop it down the bottom of Frying Pan, because once it passes there it’s going to come up our hill.

“We put insulation on all the doors and windows because it doesn’t burn. We had two fire pumps, two house pumps, any hoses we could think of [to wet the property down].

“We were looking at a fire southwest of us. It was coming up the hill. You could see the flames and the smoke was it was stinging our eyes.

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“But it came up from the northwest corner. We couldn’t see it, the smoke was too thick. I thought there was no point being up here, so I said ‘Look, I’m going to get going, don’t be too far behind.”

Two other people at the property evacuated safely minutes later.

Scrolling through images of the blackened surrounds of his home today, Mr Randle said the experience, though traumatic, had been valuable.

“It’s a good experience now because I haven’t lost the houses, but you learn a tonne from it — what you’d do differently.”

Hopefully these are lessons he will not have to put into action any time soon.