Kinglake Black Saturday survivor warns of complacency
A woman who defended her home from Black Saturday's flames now faces a chilling reality – her fire-ready neighbours have vanished while forest fuel loads grow.
Kinglake resident Sue Zuber well remembers racing through her garden, fire hose in hand, as Black Saturday’s fire storm engulfed her property on February 7, 2009.
Ms Zuber and her husband, Erwin, along with 11 other families living on Royal Crescent managed to defend their homes, while so many others were engulfed in flames.
“It got so dark we even grabbed solar lamps out of the garden to see”, Ms Zuber said, despite it being 5pm in the middle of summer.
But she and Erwin are not sure if they would do it again, 16 years on.
The neighbours, who made up the Royal Crescent Community fire guards or “Royals” as they preferred to be called, have disbanded, despite the Zuber’s attempts to keep the group going.
The fuel loads in the forest a few hundred metres from their home have grown back, with dense layers of bark and other fine fuels among thick stands of ash saplings and tall trees.
Ms Zuber said up until Black Saturday many people “didn’t look at the forest as a potential threat”, and today it was just as “difficult to get people to engage in being aware of the threat”.
