By Mikayla van Loon
The memory of Black Saturday still remains etched in the minds of those who lived through it and fought to save people from the destruction.
Last week, CFA crews all across the Yarra Ranges and Dandenong Ranges commemorated the thirteenth anniversary of the events that changed the region.
Lilydale CFA captain Warren Davis was on duty during the fires, stationed in Chum Creek, Healesville and Coldstream trying to prevent the fire from heading into the township of Lilydale.
“I started off at Chum Creek and then we did fire asset protection with the houses in Chum Creek. We then moved down to Healesville and then from Healesville we ended up in Coldstream along Leonard Road.
“That was on the first night and then on the second night, we had crews all over the Yarra Valley still participating in asset protection and blacking out any risks that occurred the next day.”
Driving through Yarra Glen just last week, Mr Davis said he could still picture the burnt out paddocks and grassland between Yering and Yarra Glen.
“Those paddocks as you’re going into Yarra Glen on your left and right hand side, it came right out into that area there and burned the bridges out along the Yarra Glen railway line between Yarra Glen, Tarrawarra and Healesville.”
At the time, CFA crews were on high alert having been notified the night before 7 February that fire danger was imminent.
“What I remember on the day is the conditions of the day in the morning. You could feel that it was a hot northerly wind. You could feel it in the air that it was going to be a bad day, given the humidity and the temperatures,” Mr Davis said.
“In the early afternoon, the first fires started merging and then spot fires started dropping around the Yarra Valley.
“It’s believed that some of those spot fires had come across from Kilmore. Once it got to Strath Creek, it virtually turned around and went straight up towards Kinglake and then went through Kinglake township, where it was catastrophic.”
Mr Davis said the majority of the Lilydale crew were not only out in those initial days trying to prevent the fire from spreading but they would rest for eight hours and then head out again to black out small fires.
Because the fire tankers and pumpers were all out at sites across the Yarra Valley, Mr Davis said there was only one vehicle left at the station to protect Lilydale and put out grass fires.
Tragically, 173 people died during the Black Saturday bushfires, something Mr Davis said CFA crews were not made aware of until days later.
“I was talking to a member of the police force, who’s also a member of the CFA and in conversation he told me about the loss of life up in the Kinglake and surrounding areas.
“When he told me about the amount of loss of life, I was totally blown over.”
Mr Davis said the direction of the fire and the way it moved challenged everything anyone had ever been told about where fire would come from, bringing with it the total element of surprise.
“2009 caught everybody by surprise because a lot of people had become complacent. A lot of people had moved out into the Yarra Valley thinking that they’re in an area which wasn’t very fire prone,” he said.
“But nature rewrote the book on firefighting back then and weather conditions, especially around Kinglake because a lot of the old time firefighters never ever thought that a fire would come in from the south.
“They were always predicted to come from the north or the northwest. But this fire raged up the mountain from the south, which caught everyone by surprise.”
People fled houses with nothing but the clothes on their back to refuges like the ones in Lilydale and Kinglake, where donations would soon overwhelm volunteers.
“They’d already abandoned their houses and they all went to the fire station for help and for guidance.
“The public donated clothes and food and the amount of food that was donated to Lilydale fire station, we ended up having to tell people ‘please don’t bring the food here because we’ve got more than what we can handle’.”
And while the community spirit always shines through after life-changing natural disasters, Mr Davis said the emotion among the community and with the CFA is still raw.
“We all reflect on what we saw and what we witnessed and it’s a pretty sombre time. We often talk about it.
“It was pretty traumatic for the members as well to witness what fellow people in the Yarra Valley were going through and it really hit home with a lot of our members.”
Several CFA brigades throughout the Dandenong Ranges paused to remember the lives lost.
“Today we pause to remember the 173 lives lost on 7th February 2009. A day forever etched in our memories,” Monbulk CFA said.
“Monbulk had a crew in Gippsland on the day and night, followed by rotating crews working in the Yarra Valley for the following week,
“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of those lost. As well as all emergency services who assisted across that period.
We will never forget.”
On Monday 7 February 2022, Lilydale CFA alongside Mount Evelyn, Coldstream, Montrose, Chirnside Park, Mooroolbark and countless others remembered 13 years since Black Saturday changed the landscape of the Yarra Valley.
