The stories behind the viral videos from Australia's bushfire crisis | Four Corners

so we got the call to go through down a trail it was really difficult to say we had trees burning on either side we're worried about them coming down flame hearts were jumping to the 67 he made am i well in excess of the crown of the trees sky just constantly was changing color and it just got darker and darker and darker until the fires hit us [Music] [Music] [Applause] please certain moments location of your own agency there on the driveway but there's a lot of fires breaking out up closer to the house quite a lot guys is that yes very much so there's a car nearby and yes so it's really close you need to get your keys get past at the top are you able to safely get out of the way I'm not sure most Rural Fire Brigades knew that there was a bad season coming they knew that the conditions were getting drier and us for around around here we knew that our fuel loadings were higher we haven't had a decent fire for a number of years so something bad had to happen it was going to happen we just didn't know when [Music] Queensland remains in the grip of a widespread bushfire emergency authorities say with strong winds persisting and no rain in sight the unprecedented spring fire disaster is far from over on the Friday afternoon we seen that it had got to a point where we were fairly uncomfortable that we needed to start letting people know so we'd started to door knock and tell people you need to be prepared to leave if you can leave now [Music] [Music] the area been apparent Logies an area that does not normally be and particularly the wet gullies where there is rainforest in those gullies and for us our strategies were aiming to try and obviously protect our critical assets and locked up in a burrow lodge but given the extra extraordinary dry conditions and the extraordinary of erratic fire behavior we just could not do that in the gold coast hinterland bushfires badly damaged the Heritage listed Bennifer a lodge there's a prepare to leave alert for surrounding areas [Music] and as we've just heard in the last couple of minutes the fire at Meridian Springs a watchin act has escalated in the last of the while from an advice to a watch and act and straight to a leave now both started getting warning some more drastic warnings on a mobile phone so I find till the police started coming around lady policemen demand policemen and they were warning us at the time and then I got an evacuate message the smokin emotes were that bad I couldn't see and really disorientated when I walked out couldn't find the gate it was intense in the darkness and the embers very hard to breathe and it was just quick get into that police car yeah no one's around three I've got two houses on four in jabiru Street Chicano Chicana straighteners Jakarta found about 30 might you need to get out don't go back in well the policemen have already picked up somebody else in the smoke that was lost as well we were looking for another gentleman who's 93 we're very concerned about him so we went further up to karna but well that stage and number four homes that caught on fire so the policeman radioed in we needed help urgently from the fire one two three go yeah I'll get there now got two melons and how you put him in and I don't for help you put him in all get out that's all we were so lucky that the policeman had called the former guide and they turned up pretty quickly thank goodness and they put out not only our townhouse but the other four houses and save the street amazing what we saw in terms of the southeast Queensland conditions certainly extended in northern New South Wales we knew that the those conditions would probably not just stay in northern New South Wales put on an effect probably and were predicted to go all the way down the eastern seaboard right down into Victoria it's uncharted territory in New South Wales this evening according to emergency officials in the state they are battling an unprecedented number of emergency level fires declared across a swathe of the state more than a dozen fires that they've warned have the potential to threaten communities and destroy homes we'd already had a significant number of fires we'd seen significant damage and destruction we'd seen thousands of hectares of area burnt we'd also seen the loss of two lives and some serious injuries two firefighters loss of two lives to two members of the public civilian lives I've been region north and the outlook the art world coming ahead in November there was the prospect of catastrophic conditions in the most populated area of New South Wales and and for us that was a there was an unprecedented outlook on the Friday when the fire came through it was travelling on the other side of an embroiderer ever and we had northwesterly winds so that was keeping the fire tracking where it was predicted to go but at about 6 o'clock I got a phone call from a local saying that it had jumped the river and the wind had changed you could feel the wind change to come from the south and that was unexpected and if I became so huge that it created its own weather and we had 80 kilometer winds and it was just roaring along there was nothing you could do so at that stage we changed our plan from stay and protect to flee at first there was no fire you couldn't see anything it was just pitch black and then we turned one of the corners on the dirt road that we live on and the fire front was right there just sweeping across the road as we drove through it there's what's a nice bike socio I don't know I can't believe this how the [ __ ] did this happen we were driving at about thirty kaizen our embers everywhere across the front of the car and I could hear sticks and logs and things falling into the back of the Ute and with visibility so low I had to direct my partner left or right left right so that we'd stay on the road honor just watch the down phrase yet yeah the whole time we were driving and escaping it's there you're thinking that if there's a tree down we're not going to get out have we made this decision and we might die on the road yep so he's second-guessing yourself the whole time Jesus Christ we had nearly a hundred fires and and probably just under half of them were not contained on the worst of the days in November there I think we got to 17 fires burning concurrently at emergency warning alert level so you're talking the highest level of risk you're talking the highest level of exposure and the potential for the greatest loss we got a call from one of the neighbors of one of the residents we're looking after he was in real trouble he needed help he was surrounded by fire and he didn't know what to do so we got the call to go through down a trail train 311 so while we're going down this trail I was the one driving it was really difficult to see we had trees burning on either side were worried about them coming down visibility was about two meters or so in front the smoke was just so thick you just could not see through it at the time you you know it's a risk in hindsight once you've actually got back and had a rest you realize how how dangerous it really was all preparations are underway across New South Wales where the government has declared a seven-day state of emergency ahead of catastrophic fire conditions forecast for tomorrow with 850 thousand hectares already burned 150 homes confirmed lost in the state and three people dead the worst of the fire situation in New South Wales could be yet to come [Music] I was out on the boat in the morning with the kids there was no wind down here I wasn't expecting any major fire action that day but the gospel's mountain fire had been traveling for some time had been going for some time so when we got the page for an instant response we collected our crews and we were out of the area within about half an hour probably about five minutes before the actual fire front hit the wind actually dropped off considerably but the noise of the fire we could hear coming up the valley the embers were getting thicker and falling faster and then we could actually see flame ear spot fires galore down here we're talking about 6070 made of five or seventy made of fire the flame heights were jumping to the 60 70 meter mark in well in excess of the the crown of the trees the spot fires were just developing rapidly everywhere all the way around us I actually noticed when a small spot fire started up maybe 400 meters away from where we were there was a helicopter water bomber Pitts it up actually was trying to put it out but the bush was so dry it had no hope and then very quickly it started spotting even closer and within minutes suddenly there were huge flames bearing down on us that's [ __ ] nasty man I've never seen that before burning through the ITCZ so [ __ ] hot there was no chance we were gonna stop it it I mean it was so big there was so much flame everywhere that I mean we just had some little hoses and it was at that point sort of got a little bit chaotic for me and yeah I probably got a bit quite a quite a bit scared actually not sure where to go like everywhere was burning and yeah it was a good few minutes where I I really I thought I was gonna get burnt badly or this might be it on advice of Commissioner Fitzsimmons New South Wales will be in a state of emergency from today for the next seven days fire authorities fears about what the current surge of searing weather might bring have been realised of the hundred or so fires that have stalked us waves of New South Wales for weeks now for lept to emergency level under the horror conditions earlier today with temperatures quickly reaching beyond the 40 mark I just got home and climbed into bed and I think it was I think it was not short of just before midnight that I got a phone call from my deputy deputy commissioner Rob Rodgers who indicated that they've got reports from the field about a an awful accident involving some firefighters and the reports were for serious injuries and potentially fatalities the loss of two volunteer firefighters who died last night while fighting a blaze southwest of Sydney represents a grim new low point in the current bushfire emergency deputy captain Jeffery Keeton and firefighter Andrew O'Dwyer were killed when a falling tree caused their vehicle to roll but completely guts you but not only a fatality a double fatality depriving us of two extraordinary individuals [Music] breaking news an emergency warning has been issued for a fire burning north of Adelaide in catastrophic conditions the 20th of December was a total fire ban day in South Australia it was one of those high fire danger days that we are on standby for we were gearing up in fact we just work we just had a briefing for what we were going to expect on that day residents of cuddley Creek and surrounds are being warned to take shelter as it's too late to leave [Music] it was about a kilometer from us and we are watching it and there's helicopters and sirens and it's getting pretty dramatic I turned around and saw the whole hillside to our north was fully alight and the whole hillside to the east was fully alight the vineyard wasn't for you light but you know if I could see the spot fires everywhere and there was no controlling it we lost all our sheds 40% of their vineyard was burned all our equipment was burnt I lost my cabin which was very dear to me one man has died trying to defend his home run self a father and his late 60s was found dead on his burnt-out property this morning the disruptive and devastating bushfire crisis continues with Victoria now threatened what happened was we had lightning strikes go through Gippsland started a number of fires through those were significant and understand we put out as many as we possibly could face with three out-of-control bush fires and soaring temperatures emergency officials have taken the highly unusual step of telling tens of thousands of people in East Gippsland to leave on the morning of the 30th it was a Monday and for the past few days this guy had been looking really smoky so it was nothing different and we knew that day was the day we were warned the fires were likely to hit GU and girl and we'd all be impacted so we were just keeping an eye out all day watching the sky and by the afternoon things really started picking up and the sky just constantly was changing color and it just got darker and darker and darker until the fires hit us [Music] [Music] that really seemed to smash us being on top of the hill fairly rapidly and it wasn't one single wind direction the whole time it was like this the sky was filled with insects that were flying in every direction and it could be getting bird on the frontier face and backs of my ears at the same time the smoke that was being blown directly at me it was just the thickest smoke I've ever experienced I guess it was yeah my main issue and fear was the amount of smoke I was breathing in I don't know how that would have gone if that hose was actually completely screwed because the structure that was on fire house was that was the closest the fire got to our house and it was quite scary because I thought we were gonna lose the house but somehow we both got to that structure on time and sort of dealt with it [Music] there would have been a good hour and a half where it was quite intense and we were running around quite crazily and then wind did start to die down and it was quite a big relief then knowing that the worst of it had passed and that we were we were going to be ok [Music] [Music] so we were at the yeah at the agenda boy on radio I was up there of a couple of mates helping them and and it come up on fire near me actually the app that it had starting the Badger Forest Nica bago you know and I was at that stage I thought it was going to be very very serious for us there's points out there what hadn't been burnt for 50 odd years and yeah was I was very concerned yeah dad always said to me burn it or it'll burn you and that's what's happened ask myself and my wife were quite lucky it sort of burnt to the creek and then went around us to a degree took all that back end of our farm out but time from me onwards all the way to one dollar was like a war zone and I kept ringing my brother which is my neighbor is he okay and he said it was on health lever for him I tried ringing my dad and my other brother I couldn't raise him anyway I finally got hold of mum and she said I can't find him and and then it just alarmed to me like I saw I fought the worst because when we were standing here at the house we sent a fireball leave our house or our gully and go straight towards their place and I fought the worst and I mom said she couldn't find him so I just jumped in the you and I didn't know me you could jump logs two-foot-high but it did on the road I got to my parents place and my mother was sitting on the on the porch outside with a head in a lap saying they're gone and that was just I didn't I want to feel I didn't I sort of looked where they were and they were yeah they were gone they were gone it was it was terrible like the only 40 meters from the house something must have like a fireball must has dropped on them and yeah it was tough it was tough yeah that was a person that liked to help people you know and exactly the same for my brother Patrick like you know Patrick Patrick was a life of the party like you know like you wouldn't get to better blokes on them to like your stuff it's tough like you know like we're a big part of the you know the show society of kebaya you know they're gonna be missed and we just hope that I'll come fuel their shoes yeah it's tough now [Music] there is nothing you can prepare for for that whether it's whether it's visiting an accident scene whether it's spending time with families in their darkest hour when they're when they're struggling to even comprehend what you're talking about or whether it is attending a funeral and trying to pay tribute there's no rulebook for that though there is there is no script for that there is no God for that we've got to do what we think is right we've got to do what we think is appropriate and I hope with the with the you know reflection of time that that we have pulled together and we've appropriately paid tribute to these to these remarkable individuals as well as the year and the decade come to an end to the country is burning it's been labeled the worst fire season ever recorded what's been called an apocalypse and nightmare looking like the gates of Hell Malik who don't you need to be aware that the fire is still heading in your direction and that this morning is a time for gathering information they're unsure overnight exactly where the fire has traveled and exactly how many homes and lives have been impacted [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yeah we were definitely expecting just the standard beautiful mallacoota holiday full of being outdoors being in the Sun being with family and friends and that's certainly not how it panned out it went from like a really thick dusty gray orange color of the smoke to really bright red to then pitch black and that was I think it was 8 a.m. on New Year's Eve that it was completely dark as if it was the dead of night quarter past 8:00 in the morning there we go I don't see the other side of the street you hear stories about it going dark before a fire front of our eyes but nothing can really prepare you for how what's what a strange experience that is just complete and utter the darkest darkest night with a lot of passion spoken here stinging yours road and and stinging your eyes see anything pitch-black we knew the fire was somewhere nearby in that situation you can't actually tell where the fire front is but everything's black and red and that obviously freaks everybody out that it must be somewhere just nearby not long after that we actually received the message that it was all systems go we're to alert the town lights and sirens and you know it was coming and it was coming at us with some ferocity and to get ourselves into position when the sirens went off on the fire trucks we all got together and got in the two boats third a novice and literally by torchlight we took it very slowly and we went about 500 meters offshore we had the ABC radio on in in the boat so we were listening to constant updates we had our masks on we had hoods on tails wrapped around our face and we just sat there in silence and then I looked at the fires near me up and I realized that that fire was actually coming straight towards us so we made the decision at that point that we were going to stay and we were going to go to the beach I remember just being physically pushed by by the arm winds like that was the scariest moment for me I remember I was trying to stay calm because there were kids screaming Oh like shaking um they were kids screaming on the beach the end of roads I actually think that the left though heaps of gas but those exploding I think maybe some cars I don't really know we just heard sounds and we we saw fire where we thought our houses were and we we could say that some houses had already been completely like raised there was not even a structure left it was completely flattened [Music] I started preparing the house hosing all grass around the house gutters and as the fires approached we all jumped in the boat pretty quickly looking back in the boat from the lake it was hard to see anything the smoke was that intense the fires were burning it was so hot the wind was raging through there I couldn't even keep the boat straight in the water the lady next door was in the water up to a waist she wouldn't get in the boat but her house burned down within 20 minutes and happened that quickly kangaroos were jumping in through the water steam coming off and it was horrific what we saw and it's something that I never want to see you again [Music] this is the bateman's very evacuation center the smoke is really bad it's hard to see - the wind change four minutes ago and this happen a purple lipstick this is the middle of the day it was mayhem down there a batemans bay we had issues with radio communication for starters so from from the real fire services side of things some of our networks had gone down we had no mapping the mobile phones were intermittent at this stage and then later in the afternoon they cease working there was a lot of people that were at their properties and trying to stay and defend but ultimately a lot of the houses there just wasn't enough fire trucks I don't think there was enough fire trucks in in Australia really to look after what was happening down there [Music] we're told from the air fire control center that we're just going to south mirror for poppy to protection we were head down there they would tell us what to do once we got there we were driving along we could see a long way into the distance there was considerable amount of smoke so we knew something was going on down there but we didn't know to what extent it was quite a sunny day there was no clouds in the sky other than that large smoke cloud once we turned into Holmes Road it turned from day to night within a matter of seconds we started experiencing never attack when we proceed down the road the wind started to change direction he noticed the amber attack was getting her heavier and faster it was until we got around the final Bend that my drivers just said no way this is way too dangerous either fire front now and at this stage we had fire front in front of us and also on our right-hand side my driver just stopped this is no way we appreciate it we're turning around we were about 50 meters behind the lead truck and I heard the lead truck which was Jasper and his crew they were putting messages through that what they could see 50 meters ahead was quite dangerous and they were going to retreat and at that moment myself and my crew we saw exactly what they could see we saw the flames had turned and were coming straight towards our convoy so at that stage one of my crew members Danny he put up the fire blanket he had a tear beside it he put the fire blanket up and passed it through to myself to keep that radiant heat coming through the windows the heat the flames and our whole crew we could sort we could feel that heat coming through the truck we could see the flames coming in horizontally which is very unusual to be in a situation to see flames moving horizontally in front of the windscreen and around the truck we managed to get the truck turned around and facing the direction we had come from and were beginning to make our retreat when the truck came to a complete standstill we believe the air brakes had melted or being destroyed by the flames which caused the brakes to lock on making the truck unable to move so we were just sitting there having to wait it out inside the truck with flames hitting the side of it and smoke starting to to creep in through the truck doors all right so this is probably the hardest part for us is when we'd go on around cows truck we're receiving messages saying flash over flash over our truck is dead our truck is dead their truck is dead oh they that's what I just passed [Music] what do we do do we drive past mental even do we stop do we try and save him at this stage the emotions are sort of starting a bit heavy in there where we're trying to stay calm but we're sort of panicking because we've got we know there's two trucks gone that immobilize if we went back to help these guys we would have put herself in danger and more the like it would have been suffocated when our truck was on fire we came up with a plan that when it was safe to exit we were going to all get out and put our breathing equipment on and we knew that the safest way for us to get out at that moment was to to walk a kilometer back to safety would be a quicker safer option than sitting tight in our burning truck waiting for assistance to come to us so we got out we put our breathing equipment on all four of us were safe at this point and uninjured and were able to make the walk out [Music] if you are anywhere to the direct aced of the emergency area you need to take action now as this bushfire may threaten your safety if you're not prepared then leave now and if the path is clear go to a safer place it was a horrible day it was an absolute horrible day it was around 43 44 degrees I was at pond island near incident control and we could see what was unfolding out west there was this huge plume of smoke coming out of Linda's Chase and the anticipated Southwest change came in and that's when the fire went completely feral and started coming in from the southwest towards the Northeast and of course that was chaotic that night and they just took off all of a sudden it was right upon us like within seconds and we had time to say get in the house we got in the house and it just exploded all around us look at that band thank God we got a letter way yeah she's still gonna go here has we massively hot here and sick piss off will you now you don't go into a room you can't get out of yeah well we tried we save to you as we were driving away we drove slowly because there was still lots of dust and smoke and and so we had to go slow but we could see four vast distances where before you couldn't see further than the side of the road because there was no leaves on trees there was just burnt sticks there was dead animals everywhere kangaroos possums koalas two more people have lost their lives this bushfire season this time on South Australia's Kangaroo Island they've been identified as dick Laing and acclaimed Polish and his son collation they were found in a burned-out vehicle on the islands western part it was devastating it was just devastating and to guaran those circumstances the pyramids just so incredibly sad [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this far I'll never forget I don't think my kids will ever forget it it's sort of something that's gonna be sighs God into me Brian I don't ever want to see it again I think it's a turning point that's how I'm gonna remember it's gonna be a turning point you know for everyone in Australia a lot of people worldwide as well I think just seeing the devastation of these fires [Music] you you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 779,100

Keywords: news, abc, abc news, australia, fire, bushfire, firestorm, emergency, flames, survivor, survival, fires, flame, wind, heat, risk, trauma, destruction, video, water, alight, home, lost, utes, Australian, dry, family, son, firefront, teenager, girl, teenage, Victoria, danger, beach, climate change, hotter, death toll, koalas, animals, wildfires, natural disaster, drought, fire truck, escape, evacuate, Rural Fire Service, South Australia

Id: AdGqTQkRVwE

Length: 48min 34sec (2914 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 03 2020