Dramatic end to the holidays

Had my first day back at work for 2012 yesterday.  Jamie and Thomas were at Veronica's house for the day.  Just as I was about to leave work at 3:30, one of the office staff came to find me with a message to call Leanne immediately.  Well, in all the illness dramas we had last year, never has an office staff member had to come and personally find me!  Starting to freak out now.  Called Leanne, there is a bushfire on their property, a big one, the roads are blocked, their driveway is on fire, but don't panic the kids are calm (now!) and their are firemen on the property.  As you can imagine the words "don't panic" did not have any effect on me at all.  I hightailed it out of school, and as soon as I got onto the highway I could see the smoke, from about 40km away, a huge thick black tower of smoke!! Crap!!

Got to the Bunbury side of the fire to be met by a ranger, who quite sensibly was not letting anyone through, even though the firemen on Leanne's property had told her they would let me get my kids out.  Called Leanne, the land lines are down!!!  Called James in tears, called Mum in tears, finally decided to drive back out and around and come at it from the Busselton side.  This took about 20 minutes and by then the thick plume of smoke was gone, but there were around 90 firemen on the site still actively fighting the fire, cutting fire breaks, 2 fixed wing planes dumping water and 1 helicopter water bomber.  Crap!!!

Smoke and dust everywhere.

Water bomber about to dump more water.

Understandably I was a mess again, desperately worried about them all, but particularly about Jamie as fire is one of his autism triggers.  Spoke to lots of wonderful firemen and policemen (there were heaps of emergency people at this road block, unlike the other one) ... trying to decide if I should wait there or drive the 25 minutes back home again and come back later, but I just couldn't leave.  So I waited and waited and waited, over an hour.  Eventually some of the trucks started to leave and there were a bunch of firemen standing around talking, so I asked them when I could get in there.  They said in about half an hour they should be able to escort me in.  So I resorted to more waiting and waiting and waiting.  Then a firetruck came out of the fire zone and one of the men who jumped off is the hubby of one of the ladies at James's work.  I called out to him.  He was pretty stunned to see me there.  I told him the boys were in there, told him where exactly.  Everyone knew exactly where I meant whenever I said the property name because that is where they were fighting the fire!!!  Anyway, he packed up his hoses then wandered off to speak to one of the guys in charge, came back and said he would go and get the boys out in his truck!!  OMG  I could have kissed him!!

It took them a good 20 minutes to get back with the boys.  Thomas looked ridiculous climbing out of the fire truck holding his massive water pistol Andrew had given him for his birthday!!  There were a few jokes from the men that he could have come and helped them fight the fire!.  So over 2 hours since I got the initial phone call we were finally heading home, watering eyes, coughing, stinking of smoke, but alive.  And our friend's are alive and their house and stock are all fine.  We were expecting nightmares and panic attacks that night, but they talked it all out, played a few board games with Daddy and went off to bed fine.  Leanne told me they (and her girls) were all very upset and scared, and she spent a lot of time hugging one after the other.  Leanne had the car packed very early on and kept everyone together in the house.  There were firemen coming in and out of the house talking to Leanne and the kids, keeping them updated continually, talking about the water bomber etc.  They knew that Leanne was ready to go whenever they decided it was no longer safe in the house.  The fire burnt all along the front of their property, down their driveway and all through the bush the property is next to.

We took them back there this morning to "get back on the horse" so to speak.

 On their road, this is the bush reserve next to their property.

 Getting closer.

 Turning into their driveway ... it is burnt completely across the front of the property in both directions, and half way down the driveway.  The house is about 100 metres from the road.  Leanne and her hubby had ploughed the front paddocks only last weekend , the firemen said this was what stopped it getting to the house!!  So so so lucky!!

 More driveway shots.

Their entry sign is gone.

Exiting the driveway, looking on to the other side of the road.

And just to give you a better visual ... I was standing on the road where the fire zone label is, watching it all happen.  Forever grateful to Leanne for keeping a calm head (even though she was very stressed and scared) and keeping all 4 kids safe and protected.  And also grateful to my fireman friend for taking the truck into collect Jamie and Thomas!!!

Never ever want to do that again!

Enjoy.

Amanda