Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin
Osborne Road residents Denise and William Legge stayed put on Saturday believing their farm was ‘in a reasonably defensible position’.
This did not stop the couple from experiencing fire raging on all sides of their property that day but with the help of five heavy-duty fire brigade appliances their home and sheds were saved.
Theirs was one of 16 houses in the direct line of the fire.
“It would have been hard for us to defend without the appliances,” Denise said.
“The worst thing was the smoke.”
Bushfire ready work also paid off for the couple who lost 2km of fencing and about 8ha of pastures where they run sheep and horses.
The Legges spent Friday preparing their well-cleared buildings for the onslaught.
On Friday, William slashed along an already cleared fenceline to ensure extra safety.
The temperature had soared to 44C on Friday, the hottest day for 31 years, and conditions were similar the next day.
Denise and William put out water containers around the verandas.
They placed a ladder to access the roof in case of flying embers and got out old towels to use as head covers if they became engulfed in smoke.
Later, Denise used these to beat out a fire started from embers which had shot under the fence near the house.
One landed behind a wooden retaining wall and other little fires started along an embankment.
During the worst of the blaze flying embers spread to about 200sqm in just a minute in the pasture.
“We were very lucky our next door neighbours lent us a generator big enough to drive a water pump so we could hose down areas,” Denise said.
“On Saturday, the fire really got going and about 3pm there was an awful lot of smoke and we could see our hardwood plantation alight,” she said.
“But at that stage the wind was in our favour.”
The Legges faced the challenge of the wind changing on Sunday to the south-west with gusts of up to 40kmh.
Two neighbouring properties were saved by helicopter water drops including a property in a valley surrounded by a bluegum plantation.
On Saturday afternoon, the couple watched the 737 Fireliner drop retardant.
The hardwood plantation was burnt out.
This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 10 February 2022.
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