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Canberra Fires 2003 On 18 January 2003, bushfire stuck Canberra. This page documents the experience of me and my family on that day. You will see that it is not the definitive perspective; only my perspective. There were many Canberrans who went to hell and back that day. Fortunately, I was not one of them. Fires had been brewing to the west of Canberra for weeks. While I was aware of them and the fact that the fires were being fought, that's all I knew of them. At this time, I have to tell you some pertinent facts about myself and my situation. My family had been holidaying in Sydney and I had taken some time off work to enjoy the solitude. I had spent some of my time working on personal projects and the rest of my time just relaxing around the house. I don't like the heat, and this was hot weather. So I had spent most of my time indoors. The sky was brown with smoke from fires but the last I had heard, the fires were still to the west of Canberra and I was un-concerned. I don't really watch or listen to news and I had somewhat isolated myself from the world, in my house, locked in away from the heat and enjoying my solitude. Then came the day my family was due home. It was January 18. With the knowledge that there would soon be four people living in the house rather than just one, I started by cleaning up my "temporary bachelor's mess" and getting the place generally in order. I noticed along the way that the house was depleated of supplies so I decided to go to the supermarket. It was so hot. I decided to take a shower before going. The sky had been brown with smoke for days but when I got out of the shower, the house was virtually in darkness. It was about 2pm. Little did I know that to the west of Mount Taylor, a firestorm had stuck western Canberra suburbs such as Duffy and Kambah. The fires were driven east by ferocious winds. Hundreds of houses were destroyed. Reaching the western slope of Mount Taylor, they climbed it in seconds. Venturing outside I was amazed how black the sky was. But I was not concerned. The fires were still miles away, right? I drove down to the supermarket and the first idea I had of what was going on was as I exited the shop and looked to my right. The eastern slope of Mount Taylor was ablaze. The sky was grey, black, brown and a very eerie orange. I arrived home just after my wife had arrived with the kids. The neighbours were all in the street looking up at the mountain. But there was nothing to worry about. I'd seen this mountain burn before. One neighbour was watering his roof. I thought the poor guy was just getting a bit nervous. I was blissfully unaware of the destruction that had already taken place. There was one thing that made me a little concerned. Why were there no fire engines? It turned out that all were unavailable. They were all fighting the bigger fires to the west. As far as I could tell, no fire engines were able to attend the fires on the eastern slope of Mount Taylor. Due in part to fortune and in part to the efforts of residents, only two houses were lost in our suburb. It was not long after this that my wife went into the street and took the following picture. It was 4pm in the middle of summer but the blackness of the sky from the smoke made it look like night. The white spots you see in the photo are ash raining from the sky.
A little later we lost power and the phone started ringing. Our families and friends from out-of-town had seen the news and were concerned. I still couldn't understand what they were so worried about. Later that night we lost our phones as well and were only contactable by mobile. It was the best part of two days later that the power came back on and we were able to see on the news what had happened. It was then we saw the local paper and said, "Oh my God!" Read... View...
Photos of Canberra fires. Return to Matt's Homepage. Return to Wally's Portal. Last Updated on 31 January 2004 by Matt Walsh. |
