[Montrose fire a wake up call]
[Bree Kuffler - resident]
I remember it feeling quite surreal to begin with, and not really understanding how big a deal it was.
The fear escalated amongst the community, and the severity of it took a while for us to really understand.
We could see the smoke, it obviously was very, very visible, and the smell, and we could hear the sirens. And so, you were acutely aware that it was in your township. We were kind of quite away from where it was ourselves, but we really didn't know which direction it was going to go, and so everybody was on high alert around what to do next.
I think it was really surprising where in Montrose it was, the amount of sort of suburban homes that were at risk I think was a wakeup call for many of us.
We have a very clear plan to go as a family, so we were very much keeping an eye on the VicEmergency notifications in the app. We were also watching the CFA on Facebook and things like that.
What we've done differently since the fires last year is put more of a concerted effort over winter into upkeep, and now as we are starting to really turn our attention to the next season, you know, what are we doing in terms of clearing our gutters, let's look at our plan again.
Sometimes when you think about fire and fire risk to your property, you might envisage that your house is the only one on fire, and therefore the local trucks and our amazing volunteers will come and rescue you and your property from the fire, and one of the lessons out of Montrose’s fire was that when it is widespread and there's multiple homes at risk and forest and commercial sites, there's a lot for our volunteers to consider, and they are very considered in where they place those resources, and therefore it's probably not realistic to expect in a in an event like that, that the fire truck will come to your house and make everything okay, and that was quite confronting for us as residents to think about “wow, it's really my decision around what I do here and whether I stay or whether I go”.
The reinforced part for me is that the decision to leave is mine, and the decision to leave is my husband's and our family’s. And, you know, fire is so unpredictable and can move so quickly that you can't wait to be told.
And so I think that that was a big lesson for everybody is to really think about what their role is in making decisions that are best for them.