Bushfire 'like a tidal wave'

15 May 2009, 2:03 pm   -   Source: AAP
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A Victorian man surveys the damage done to his car yard by massive bushfires in the state (Getty Images)

A Victorian man surveys the damage done to his car yard by massive bushfires in the state (Getty Images)

A Strathewen man who lost his wife and son in the Black Saturday bushfires says it appeared his home "exploded" as it was hit by a tidal wave of fire.

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A Strathewen man who lost his wife and son in the Black Saturday bushfires says it appeared his home "exploded" as it was hit by a tidal wave of fire.

Denis Spooner told the Victorian bushfires royal commission he fled his home late in the afternoon on February 7 in a convoy of cars as the sound of the fire reverberated like "10 or 12 jumbo jets at Tullamarine".

But as he, his wife Marilyn and son Damien, and daughter-in-law climbed into three separate cars, there was no sign of the fire, he said, just the noise.

'Horrific experience'

"It was horrific," he told the commission on Friday.

As the family fled in their cars, Mr Spooner's daughter-in-law drove ahead.

But a fallen tree blocked the path of Mr Spooner, who was in one car, and his wife and son, who were in another vehicle.

Mr Spooner took the lead and tried to escape via a different route, but noticed his wife was no longer following him.

He later discovered Marilyn and Damien had died in the family's home.

Shelter sought at school

Mr Spooner, who made it to nearby Kinglake and survived by sheltering in a primary school, later returned to his house.

He said it appeared to have exploded from the fire, which raced up from the south west at 120km/h.

"The house exploded. All the walls blew out," he told the commission.

"It was like a tidal wave literally that fell on that house."

The town of Strathewen lost 27 of its 200 residents.

Warnings 'came too late'

"The noise was such that I had never heard before," Mr Spooner told the inquiry.

"They're loud, bushfires are loud, but not like this. It was massive."

Mr Spooner, who was a Country Fire Authority volunteer for 14 years until 1995, said his family's plan if threatened by a bushfire was to leave.

But he said the first mention made of Strathewen was on ABC Radio as he sheltered on a Kinglake oval, having already been forced from his home.

'No controlled burns'

"No mention was made of Strathewen, St Andrews, until an hour after the places had been burnt out," he told the inquiry.

He said there were areas of Strathewen that had not been subject to controlled burns for 30 years.

The path the fire followed up a creek was "impenetrable" and littered with manna gums, he said.

An interim report from the royal commission is due to be handed down by August 17.
 

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