Lucindale CFS brigade captain Andy Cane recalls being 18 on Ash Wednesday.

He joined his father Richard on the Woolumbool CFS Bedford truck with friends and neighbours.

They headed towards Callendale, then to Legges La where there was a fire to fight.

“There was scrub everywhere, and the fire was going that fast. We didn’t even see it until it came over the top of us,” Mr Cane recalls.

“It was burning in fingers – it hit us once, and we kept driving and we got hit again by another lot of fire.

“The old Bedford (petrol) truck was running pretty rough. It kept on vaporising.

“You didn’t even see flames until it hit the scrub on the edge of the road next to you.

“The truck got that hot things were melting on it. We ended up in a quarry somewhere – I don’t even know how we got in there as the smoke was that thick.

“There were a couple of other vehicles in there too.

“It was terrible – absolutely horrendous. The fires we’ve had around here since are nothing compared with that day.

“The smoke was that thick and full of stuff, it was hard to see and to breathe – there were no masks or things like that in those days.”

Local farmer Graham Clothier was also 18, almost 19, and remembers Ash Wednesday as being “super windy” and a day he was lucky to survive.

The Woolumbool CFS fire truck survived several burn overs as well as clothing and attachments on the truck catching fire.

“I remember as we were going down (to the fire) in the old Bedford fire truck, there was a galvanised tank (being blown) in the paddock that was keeping up with us as it was rolling along, it was so extremely windy,” Mr Clothier said.

“It was after lunchtime and we were putting out little spot fires towards a house (on Legges La).”

Despite some burn overs, “unbeknown to us, the major fire front hadn’t come through yet,” he said.

“We were filling up with water from the council tanker, and I got off the truck with a knapsack and was putting out a few spot fires up towards a house.

“That is when the fire front came through.”

Mr Clothier was at least 100m from the truck and started to “high tail it towards the house”.

Trees were exploding and bursting into flames alongside him.

“It was a cavalcade of flames, smoke and heat,” he said.

But he managed to crawl in under a ute parked on a green lawn covered with ash.

“I forget whose place it was, but I remember I found a person in the shed afterwards. It was very chaotic,” Mr Clothier said.

“It was quite traumatic for the people who were involved.

“The house actually survived – so we did pretty well.

“But when the fire front came through…I learned afterwards that when they were nearly finished filling up the truck, they got burnt over – but they didn’t have any water.

“There was a bung in the back where you filled into. But it wasn’t put back in the panic.”

Mr Clothier said that despite the extreme heat of the fire, Andy Cane’s father Richard managed to get the bung back in so they had water again.

With the wind being so strong and full of embers, ash and particles, “you couldn’t see” Mr Clothier said.

“I remember my eyes being flushed out that evening, and that really felt good.”

St John Ambulance volunteers from Naracoorte had sent a caravan to Conmurra to treat fire fighters for various injuries, burns and “smoke eyes”.

They stayed and continued to help people the following day, such was the need.

Meanwhile, the Naracoorte hospital treated several other fire fighters, while others were sent to Millicent and Mount Gambier hospitals.

Struan House was set up as an unofficial “command post”, attracting more than 40 people to help assess and euthanise livestock, assess damage and help establish agistment and fodder needs.

Throughout the region the Country Women’s Association co-ordinated women to help prepare food for volunteers and those in need, including Struan.

Many still recall Naracoorte’s Morris’s Bakery as an enormous donor throughout the week of much-needed supplies of bread, pies, pasties and other goods.

Similarly Lucindale’s grocery store and Deli did likewise for the week.

Premier John Bannon toured the area and immediately offered finance for fencing at $1200 per km.

He also announced posts to be made available from the state owned woods and forests department, as well as burnt pines to be harvested and stored in Lake Bonney.

Such was the interest in the fires, and people wanting to help, the former Naracoorte Herald owned by the Peake family had to do two extra print runs with many locals buying extra copies for friends and relatives, and to keep as souvenirs.

This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.

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