A BALLARAT man and his girlfriend have joined in the fight to stop save homes and livestock from a fast moving fire that raced through the south west of the state at the weekend.
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Daniel Brogden and his partner Claire were among 150 guests at a wedding at Gazette Homestead, just south of Penshurst, when a large bushfire tore down on the small settlement.
As guests were being evacuated, the couple offered to stay back and help fight the blaze.
“We’d been at the wedding earlier in day at Dunkeld and we’d all been bussed in to the reception,” Mr Brogden said.
“At about 8.30pm we noticed a red glow in the sky and then about 30 minutes later, the CFA turned up and we all had to bunker down in the stables.
“The busses had to come back through a CFA escort, fortunately everyone was able to get out and be evacuated back to Hamilton.”
Mr Brogden said his partner is a CFA volunteer and put her hand up to help and he also decided to help, jumping on board the Ripponhurst truck.
“We were out until 3-4am the next morning,” he said.
Mr Brogden said it was a surreal moment, tinged in sadness after the property owner’s brother had his property destroyed. He said the experience had made him keen to also join the CFA volunteers.
“Everyone was devastated that they lost the house, but at least everyone was safe,” he said.
“It’s hard to put into words (how we felt), we weren’t really panicked at all and there didn’t seem like anything else we were going to do. Why drive away and escape the drama when you know you can do something to help?”
Gazette homestead’s Elle Moyle said owners were in contact with the local trucks throughout the night. “We got everyone inside because the buses weren’t here to collect people. We had no power as well and hardly any phone service,” Ms Moyle said.
“Luckily the bus drivers finally turned up and we were able to evacuate everyone safely.”
As well as the home, two hay sheds were also lost, but livestock losses were fortunately kept to a minimum. Some pastures were also lost.
“We were fighting to keep the homestead. All of the pine trees were alight and the whole horse paddock was on fire.
“I got them (the horses) out.”
She said embers from the fire were flying “up to one-and-a-half kilometres”.
“That’s how the next fire started,” she said.
“We had chainsaws cutting down trees and everyone out there – all the fire trucks, all the neighbours came over – it was a really good effort. No-one has had any sleep.”
