A miracle for Cudgewa: Holy Trinity Church survives savage blaze
Fire tore through Cudgewa, destroying the main street and many houses. But Father Mitch Porter was stunned when he returned to find the 100-year-old church still standing — and now he wants to thank the heroes who saved it.
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Cudgewa’s Holy Trinity Church came within a metre of disaster — and Father Mitch Porter believes a miracle is all that stopped it being destroyed.
The fire that roared through Cudgewa on the night of December 30 was not unexpected.
“We knew it was coming and I had been at the church removing records in the afternoon. There are some that go back 100 years.”
Those documents couldn’t be replaced and Father Porter wasn’t taking any chances. When the fire hit he was at home in Corryong, about 13km away.
“We were looking for spots and embers but primarily we were watching Cudgewa go up,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun.
He didn’t think there would be anything left.
“It was legitimately terrifying. I haven’t been properly scared in a long time, but when we got to Tuesday morning it was fear - right in the gut.”
He’d been told the “whole main street was gone”.
Father Porter was stunned to discover the church, which is well over 100 years old, was still standing.
“We lost the down spouting, it was all melted and the fire had cooked to within a metre of the LPG tank. The flames probably licked the tank.”
If the fires weren’t enough, a large tree came crashing down but fell away from the church.
“If it had fallen the other way we wouldn’t have a church. There was so much that could have gone wrong. It had to be hand-of-God stuff.”
Father Porter is keen to meet whoever saved the church from the inferno. It is situated next door to the CFA, where several brigades where based, and no one has been able to tell him who the hero was.
“It could have been one bloke on a truck, I don’t know. I was down at the pub the other day and I said to them there ‘tell me who it is and I will kiss their feet’.”
He and his small congregation returned last week for the first sermon after the fire.
“Inside it was filthy with ash, but we got it cleaned and some ladies brought some fresh flowers.”
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Cudgewa CFA captain Paul Carkeek lives next to the church so his home also had a narrow escape.
“It burnt all around it.”
There were 14 trucks in Cudgewa that night ready to “save the town”, he said, adding he believed the church’s survival was more down to “luck” than divine intervention.
Originally published as A miracle for Cudgewa: Holy Trinity Church survives savage blaze
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