Narrow escape

By Tania Martin
MEG Cummings and her family made it out of Buxton just in the nick of time on Saturday.
They were relocating to Monbulk about noon, just hours before the blaze tore their former town apart.
“We got out with just under two hours to spare,” Ms Cummings said.
The family had been planning the move for weeks but never expected it to be under such dramatic and horrifying circumstances.
“We kept changing the day we were going to move…we were planning on going Saturday afternoon,” Ms Cummings said.
“But I knew we needed to get out of there before it got too hot.”
The fire reached the back door of their family home before the wind changed. “It took out our neighbours house…I would prefer it to take my house with nothing in it,” Ms Cummings said.
The fire ripped through Buxton on Saturday and was part of the Kinglake complex fires, which burnt a path of destruction from the Kilmore area.
Ms Cummings and her partner Adam Schmidt learnt about the devastation as they arrived in Monbulk.
“We had just unloaded the truck and Adam’s pager was going ballistic,” she said.
Adam, a CFA volunteer, then had to turn around and head back into the blaze. “He got through the road blocks at Healesville but walked into a wall of flames at Narbethong and had to turn back,” Ms Cummings said.
Ms Cummings said there was no way anyone could have been prepared for this firestorm. “The CFA and the Government are not to blame for this,” she said.
“Even the worst case scenario couldn’t have predicted anything like it.”
Ms Cummings narrowly escaped Buxton but was faced with new threats in Monbulk. “The sky was black and the wind was howling and all you could hear were fire trucks screeching past,” she said.
“Adam was off fighting the fires and I had no phone, or internet and no way of knowing what was going on.”
Ms Cummings said it was frightening to imagine that just a day earlier her two-year-old daughter had been playing where fire ripped through Buxton.
“We have seen the pictures on television…there’s just nothing left,” Ms Cummings said.
“I’ve lived in the district for 10 years and it’s just unrecognisable – you can’t even tell it was a town there.”
Ms Cummings said it was hard not knowing what was happening with friends and family still in the area.
“I feel so useless…All I can do from here is organise toys and clothes for friends and family,” Ms Cummings said.
“We know they are alive and that’s it…we don’t know where they are – it’s so frustrating.”
Ms Cummings still can’t believe it has happened. “I have seen it on the news and people are telling me it’s all gone but I still can’t take it all in,” she said.
“You can’t lose an entire community and town like that, it just doesn’t happen in this day and age.”