By Tania Martin
TAIS Soubra is picking up the pieces of her shattered life.
On that fatal Saturday, Mrs Soubra had left her bridal shop in Monbulk just after noon to take her daughters swimming.
She was left with just a bikini and beach towel to her name after the Black Saturday (7 February) fires ripped her Yarra Glen home apart.
“It’s hard to put into words how I feel,” she said. “I am happy we are all alive but everything I own is gone.”
The trio spent the afternoon at the Seville Swimming Pool in a bid to cool off during the 46-degree heatwave. They left the pool soon after 5pm as smoked filled the sky.
Mrs Soubra said the girls decided to head home because the smoke was getting thicker and thicker.
“We thought we would be better off at home,” she said.
As they headed up the mountain towards Yarra Glen the trio started to get worried.
“I rang my husband, Alex, and told him to get out of the house … the fire was coming,” Mrs Soubra said.
“But he didn’t believe me because he couldn’t see the smoke.”
Mrs Soubra said that from their house in Uplands Road little could be seen of the fires.
After not taking his wife’s call too seriously, Mr Soubra went outside and found the family dogs were getting distressed.
That was when he saw the smoke and flames heading for the house.
He grabbed the dogs, pulled on a pair of boots and ran for his car.
In the meantime, Mrs Soubra was frantically trying to call her husband but was getting no answer.
“I was stressed … freaking out, I didn’t know if he was getting out or if he had stayed,” she said. “All I could see was smoke on the top of the ridge.”
Mr Soubra was racing back down the mountain towards his wife with flames running alongside the road.
But he was faced with a wall of flames and had to turn back.
In the end, he and several others found refuge from the fire at Yering Station winery.
“He waited it out with 20 other people … it was strange the fire burnt around them,” Mrs Soubra said.
“I didn’t know if he was dead or alive.”
The Soubras are now trying to pick up their lives.
“We are blessed … we are all here, we have our businesses and jobs and our lives,” Mrs Soubra said.
She said everyone in the local community and friends and family had been amazing.
In Monbulk traders have raised more than $2500 for the family and offered a further $850 worth of gift vouchers.
“Everyone has been amazing … we can’t thank everyone enough,” Mrs Soubra said.
But she said they now had everything they needed. “If people want to do something to help they should donate to the op shop or bushfire appeal,” Mrs Soubra said.
