Rick Hodge and Greg Brick bravely save neighbours homes from Buchan fires

Susie Edwards expected to return from her holiday in Perth to find her Buchan home burnt to the ground. But the brave efforts of two neighbours meant hers and many others still have their properties.

Susie Edwards was on holiday in Perth when the phone calls started.

There was a fire. It was very bad. It was getting closer.

And then: “Your home is probably gone.”

“It was awful,” Mrs Edwards told the Sunday Herald Sun.

“Your emotions were all over the place.

“I thought for sure it was gone.

“I couldn’t believe it when I was told that it was safe,”

Mrs Edwards’ Buchan house is still standing thanks largely to two mates who dashed from home-to-home putting out spot fires that were flaring as the fire passed through.

Susie Edwards neighbours saved her house from the flames at the base of the property in Buchan. Picture: Alex Coppel.

While Susie Edwards was away in Perth her neighbours Rick Hodge (left) and Greg Brick (right) saved her house from the flames at the base of the property in Buchan. Picture: Alex Coppel.

In a twist, the home of one of the men — Buchan Caves Hotel owner Greg Brick — was destroyed in the same fire.

Mr Brick didn’t know it was gone when he joined mate Rick Hodge, who lives on a hill opposite Susie and her husband Darryl just a few kilometres out of town.

“I think I got pocket-called by Leanne [Ricks wife ] and it sounded Iike she was running. I called Rick and he asked if I could come up.”

That was about 9.30pm on December 30. The next few hours were filled with he and Mr Hodge going to a trio of properties putting out fires, before going back down the hill into Buchan to refill water.

“Rick and I were putting out spot fires at his place and then the mobile rang and it was [a neighbour] asking for a hand.”

Buchan house destroyed during the fires. Picture: David Crosling

At that property they saw how dangerously close the flames were to the Edwards home.

At one point it was “coming from every direction” and they drove through walls of fire to get water.

While they managed to save those homes, it was Mr Bricks whose property went up in flames.

His son went to check on the property with a friend the next day. Access was so bad they were gone several hours.

“He came back and said ‘it’s all gone’ and I said ‘what all of it’?...he said ‘ it’s all gone, it’s all on the deck.”

Mr Brick wasn’t able to see it for himself until two days later and found the area looking like a “bomb site”.

Mrs Edwards told the Herald Sun she felt terrible his home was lost.

“We weren’t there to defend ours so I thought it would surely be gone...and they [the Bricks] have lost everything. When Rick called me to say ours was OK I told him I don’t know how I can thank you.”

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Mr Hodge said they were only doing what any neighbour or friend would do.

“Everyone in Buchan was really doing the same thing.”

The pair worked into daylight until the immediate danger at passed. Then Mr Brick went to his pub to cook meals for the exhausted firefighters.

“Once he went to bed I did the dishes,” Mr Hodge laughed.

The pub was destroyed by a fire in 2014 but rebuilt in 2016 after a remarkable crowd funding effort by the community raised $600,000.

Originally published as Rick Hodge and Greg Brick bravely save neighbours homes from Buchan fires