Bushfire plan for people with additional needs

[Delwyn’s story – Lakes Entrance, January 2020 short clip]

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This video features real bushfire experiences that may be confronting for some viewers. Lakes Entrance, East Gippsland, Victoria January 2020

[Delwyn - Lakes Entrance Resident] 
I'm live alone and I'm disabled. 

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Delwyn evacuated her home in Lakes Entrance twice in two weeks.

When my nephew said that it was a good idea to go to the evacuation centre, I just hopped on my scooter and drove down there.

They were unable to accommodate me because I can't walk. They had mattresses on the floor. I obviously couldn't get down to that or if someone helped me down, I couldn't get up. 

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The second time, Delwyn evacuated to the Bairnsdale Relief Centre by maxi taxi, where she met Disability Advocate Denise Lamble.

[Denise - Gippsland Disability Advocate] 
And so I came across Del, who, she was right here. She was unloaded from a maxi taxi in her electric wheelchair, and was just sitting there in her chair and not knowing what to do and where to go. There were no motel rooms, there was nothing available. And so I thought I'll just try a bit further afield and rang an information line in Sale and got onto the Freemasons Homes in Sale, and the woman there that said that she had a bed.

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After a week, the threat subsided and Delwyn was able to return home.

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[Property Preparation]

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This video features real bushfire experiences that may be confronting for some viewers. 

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During the 2019-2020 summer, the east coast of Australia was impacted by bushfires. Hundreds of communities were threatened by fires across NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

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The Black Summer fires had started in late winter 2019 and continued to burn into Autumn 2020. Thousands of people had to evacuate, including tourists on their summer beach holiday. Over 17 million hectares (ha) of land was burnt, 3094 homes were destroyed and tragically 33 lives were lost.

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[Anne Brewer - Buchan Resident]
I am Anne Brewer, I live in Buchan in East Gippsland and work here at the Bush Nursing Center. 

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What was your level of fire planning and preparedness?

[Anne Brewer]
Personally at home I'd say good, certainly at work it's more than good, we've actually had a fair bit of practice. And I certainly sit on the committee that works with our local Incident Management Plan.

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What were the conditions like in the days before the fire?

[Anne Brewer]
So our fire actually started in November, so it was going for sort of six weeks before it actually got into Buchan itself. So, it actually struck Buchan on Monday the 30th of December. The days leading into that were hot, people were tired, we'd had six weeks of the fires coming, people were a bit over it. 

As far as Community I think a lot of us were well prepared. There was certainly never an expectation that a fire would actually hit the township, certainly people expected it would hit around the town but not in the town. And it was a lot, a lot of it was in the town, it was sort of, they called it a catastrophic event and it certainly was from our perspective.

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What communication and information sources did you reply on?

[Anne Brewer] 
Most of my information was coming off the emergency app and, before I evacuated it was certainly coming from the Incident Control Centers and blah blah blah, so I had access to all of that. But after I left, yes I still could get some of that from the Incident Reporting Center but they didn't have a lot of information then either, so they didn't have the answers to the questions that I had. 

It was difficult I mean my husband told me that our house had burnt so I believed that had happened, but you know, like I said the next bit of information was the town itself is gone and it was like, okay, and we'd lost communication at that stage so we didn't know whether that was a fact or it wasn't. So that was a few hours of absolute hell, and it was probably the hardest thing out of the whole fires because, like the people in the town knew that the ones outside were safe, but the ones outside that were safe, had no knowledge of what had or had not occurred. 

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Did these fire feel different?

[Anne Brewer] 
Probably leading into it, it felt very similar to the 2003 fires, in that there was a huge lead-in time. The difference between the 03 fires and these fires was that, we had, oh, I forget how many months of lead-in fires in 03 fires. But the fires never came into the town, and even I think 10 kilometers out of town was the closest they came. Where this one the fires were certainly in different areas, there were smaller pockets of fire, we knew a lot of the fire were in inaccessible terrain. The potential with the fuel loads in the bush was extremely high, it was dry they hadn't been able to do the burn offs for a few years leading into it, we were in drought, you know there was a lot of things that were quite different environmentally.

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As the fires began to threaten the town, Anne evacuated out to Bairnsdale.

[Anne Brewer] 
I always had a personal plan that if it hit Mount Elizabeth, it was on this side and it was uncontrollable I was out of here. I had some experience of a fire here when I was a kid, and I never forgot that and that since when I got up that morning, it was that same feeling of something's changed, this is not where I want to be so I chose to evacuate that morning.

So I did have quite a lot of stuff packed, but I didn't take it. I did take with me, I had a USB that, I think actually the Shire put them out as part of our community plan many years ago. So I did have some documents on that, that goes in, I've got a little pencil tin that's got a lot of odd things in it and I did take that with me but pretty much I didn't really take anything, because I was coming back later. 

Well I have to say we had already been working for as I said about six weeks, and a lot of our more vulnerable people had already been evacuated which is guess is one of the reasons I went to Sale. I had I think six people that I'd evacuated to Sale, so it meant I could check on them, and I knew that they were okay and they could ask questions and you know that works well. The first night I actually stayed in Stratford and then to sale the next day, but I only ever intended to be away one night, but that one night that I chose to be away then I couldn't get back so and it was a absolutely horrific night horrific. The news, one of the news reporters actually said on the early hours of Tuesday morning that Buchan township's gone so that for me was really hard, because I didn't know whether I had a community come back to and it was only later that day that we found out that everyone was at the rec ground which was always our safer place and where we would go, and that's where everybody was. You know so it was just misreporting that made that entire thing worse than it needed to be.

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Anne's house was destroyed in the fire.

[Anne Brewer] 
So the fire came all the way into town, so my house is on the right at the stop sign on the edge of town opposite the garage, so there was I believe it was 28 houses burnt down in our area. Most of those were farm houses but three were in town and it was a three side by side, of which mine was the closest to the town. And I'll be honest, I've always said to the guys because our house is on the side of a hill, and physically I thought you know if ever it caught fire it would slide down the hill, and I didn't want anybody hurt and I've always said to them look if it catches fire it's a house. Yes it's belongings, yes it's valuable as far as emotional ties and all that sort of thing, but, ultimately it is wood and nails but it's not worth lives.

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What was it like after the fire?

[Anne Brewer]
Coming back I couldn't fit another piece of paper in my car I can tell you that right now. I came back in with a lot of medical supplies. Certainly I had a group of friends down the line that rallied around and they sent us back, because they knew our house had gone so they sent me back with you know linen and bedding and all sorts of things, and I'd gone via the Incident Control Center so I had a lot of stuff from there as well, and via the hospital to pick up medical supplies as well. 

It was a nightmare driving back, there was still bits of burning fragments on the side of the road, and it was really you know, one track in and that's how we were getting in. So yeah no, no looking around. In fact I didn't actually get out and look around for probably I reckon close to three weeks after I got back in.

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What affect did the fire have on the community?

[Anne Brewer]
Some have moved forward. I don't think anybody's recovered, and I don't see that happening for a long time. COVID's impacted on the ability of us to recover as a community. We had just started getting some little social events together, along with you know the football, the netball, and all that sort of thing when Covid hit, and it's really pulled the rug out from under our feet. The focus certainly from the higher levels seem to shift to COVID and, and Mallacoota's recovery, and all the little towns sort of seem to get left behind. Yes we've had Bushfire Recovery Victoria in town, yes we've had the Attorney General in town, you know we've had a lot of talk but we're not seeing a lot of action.

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Since the fires, have you made any changes, and would you do anything different?

[Anne Brewer]
Me personally I don't think I'd do anything differently. I might pack some more things in the car if I chose to leave. And I'm not saying I wouldn't choose to leave if the same circumstances, I'm out of here, gone, but I would pack more things in the car. It's like I said, I just didn't expect it to ever hit the town, it never has before in living history. I might round a few more people up a bit earlier and say look I'm leaving town, because the morning I left a few people said what are you doing because I'd come down fix a few things up at work, notify all the relevant people, and get out of here and they said where what are you doing?. I said I'm evacuating, and they said no but that wasn't in our plan. I said well you didn't ask me what my plan was, I have done everything I can to tell you, it is your plan and you cannot rely on anybody but yourself.

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