It is by some incredible stroke of luck that 82-year-old Bunkers Hill resident, Bev Wells, is still alive today.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
She was far from her Finchs Road property on Friday afternoon when a Sebastopol CFA tanker crew spotted her through almost zero visibility.
The Sebastopol tanker crew, made up of Kye Margetsen, Peter Matthews, paramedic Michael Platt and Allan Jubber, were driving down Greenhalghs Road to survey burning trees. Fire conditions had changed quickly, but they believed the area had been evacuated.
"The fire was coming across the road, pretty erratic - we couldn't see, and there was embers and smoke everywhere," said Mr Matthews.
"Just as we were driving, I looked to the left for some reason. And I said, "Woah, there's someone there!"
Ms Wells was apparently calm but red-faced when the crew reached her. The CFA crew saw that the front of her family home of 18 years was fully-engulfed by the flames.
"Bev was standing in unburnt ground," said crew leader Mr Jubber.
"There was fire all around her. We grabbed the bolt cutters, cut the double farm gate with a chain on it ... the guys fired water over our heads so we could actually bring her back to the truck."
The great grandmother was taken to safety at a police roadblock, before the Sebastopol crew went straight back to continue the firefight. It was later when she had been taken to the Lucas Fire Station that Ms Wells suffered a heart attack, which required hospitalisation.
The crew was still pulling pieces of charred bark out of their tanker on Sunday.
"It's probably the quickest-moving fire I've been a part of for a while," Mr Jubber said of Friday's 134 hectare blaze. Winds gusted up to 85 kilometres per hour on Friday afternoon.
"Every single truck out there, every single crew, did an absolutely astronomical job.
"The fire conditions weren't the best, we were just lucky we were at the right place at the right time."
