Duo stays inside bushfire zone to save homes from wall of flames

Two elderly men are today being praised as heroes after they remained inside an evacuated bushfire zone to fight a wall of flames and save at least six homes from destruction.

The 'Mt Rae Rd Mob': Allison Hugo, Kim Hugo, Gem Harris, Julie Potter, Ross Milner, Heather Milner, Jeff Green and John Potter regroup after the fires

THE roaring fire on Mt Rae Rd was no match for John Potter and Ross Milner as the pair battled the raging inferno, saving half a dozen houses.

Allison Hugo spoke to The Morning Bulletin on Tuesday morning singing the praises of her elderly neighbours.

The fire came through their road on Saturday afternoon and Mr Potter and Mr Milner stayed to fight the fire.

The fire moving towards Allison Hugo's yard on Mt Rae Rd, Bungundarra.

With resources tied up elsewhere and the Cobraball/Bungundarra region up in flames, the two men took on the fire on their own.

They had a water cart and tractor fighting the fire and moving cattle.

Ms Hugo was at home on her own as her husband was away at work, but seeing how fast the fire was moving, she was frightened and fled to town around 6pm.

Her husband returned home and they went out to the property around 2.30 on Sunday morning to thankfully find their house still standing.

Paddocks burnt in the neighbouring properties on Mt Rae Rd.

The scorched earth came within 10 metres of their yard.

"They came up with the water cart, they were running from one house to the next," Ms Hugo said.

"I am very grateful, I don't know what would have happened if they weren't here.

"I shudder to think what we would have come home to.

"I am very appreciative, we were so lucky they were able to stay and they knew what to do."

The fire was like a “wall of flames”

Sadly two houses on her road burnt to the ground and she discovered a neighbour's horse had sadly died from the fire.

Some other horses had singed burns on their faces but thankfully survived and Ms Hugo has been feeding them with donated supplies from Yeppoon Stockfeed and Rural Supplies.

Ms Hugo has lived at the property for the past four years with her husband and two of her grown-up children who work at the mines.

A neighbours pony Allison Hugo is looking after. Thankfully she is alive after sustaining some burns to her face. Another pony was burnt as well.

She had never been through a fire before and couldn't believe how fast it developed.

"When it was coming it was so scary, it come up so quick, we didn't' know which way it would go, the wind kept changing," Ms Hugo said.

As she was leaving, the sky was full of smoke and it came over black.

"All we could see was a wall of flames coming up the road, it would have been 50 metres up the road from us," she said.

"I just thought I hope these blokes are going to be okay.

No amount of planning could help you in a situation like that.

"It's hard to prepare for something like that to come, you don't know how bad it is, we didn't know that was what was coming our way," she said.

With still months of summer to go, Ms Hugo isn't too worried about more fires as there is nothing left to burn.

"We will be happy when it rains," she said.

Originally published as Duo stays inside bushfire zone to save homes from wall of flames