In his own words: Steve Flood

5 Feb 2010, 4:23 pm   -   Source: Bryony Jones, SBS
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Steve Flood, pictured with his son Mark, lost his home in the Bendigo fire (Photo: Steve Flood)

Steve Flood, pictured with his son Mark, lost his home in the Bendigo fire (Photo: Steve Flood)

Steve Flood's home exploded in flames as he tried to save it from the Black Saturday bushfires - but the whole family was determined to get straight back on their bikes.

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Steve Flood's home exploded in flames as he tried to save it from the Black Saturday bushfires - but the whole family was determined to get straight back on their bikes.

As the firestorm raced towards his house in Bendigo, Steve and his son Mark grabbed their mountain bikes and a handful of medals, before Steve was forced to run for his life.

Keen riders, they were all racing again within weeks - despite having to spend months moving from house to house while trying to find a new and more permanent home.

"There weren't many warnings for fires in our area on Black Saturday, so I went training on my pushbike that morning, did a few chores around the house.

"I thought it could turn out to be a bad day, so I had lots of tank water ready, and threw some hoses around the place, and then I went for a bit of a sleep.

"The next thing I knew, my son came home and said there was smoke over the hill.

"By the time I put some boots and overalls on and walked outside, it was pretty much on us.

"It came through first up like a normal fast fire, and we had it under control for about an hour, by which time it had taken out a few houses down the road from us.

Roar of the firestorm

"We saved our house, and I though we were right, so I got the young bloke to move the cars into the middle of the road.

"By the time he'd done that, he called and I said, 'We're right, we've saved the house'.

"Then about 10 minutes later, it firestormed. It just blew everything - within about 30 seconds everything blew up.

"It's like a train coming at you at 100 mile an hour.

"I heard the roar coming towards me, and I just dropped both of the hoses and started up running.

"As I ran past one of the big sheds, the fire went over the top, the grass took off burning, and the house went up at pretty much the same time.

"My young bloke was down the road helping to fight another fire at one of the other houses, because I'd thought we were alright at ours, and by the time he came back it was too late for ours.

Neighbour's home saved

"So me and my son Mark, and my brother Paul and his daughter, who are volunteer firemen, we all went to save the house next door instead. He was pretty happy.

"Mark ran through the house at once stage and grabbed my daughter's medals - she races mountain bikes overseas - and that was it.

"We saved a few bikes, and that was about all we saved.

"I'm only two-and-a-half kilometres from the centre of Bendigo. We lost about 68 houses, and it got within about one street of the main hospital.

"It was lucky the wind changed, otherwise it probably would have taken out most of the town.

"It was pure luck, I think, that a lot more lives didn't get lost in Bendigo on that day - including my own.

"The fireman said if I was a split second faster or slower at running, I would have been fried, because there was melting aluminium everywhere, but that's life, you've got to get on with it.

Certificates, photos lost

"I've moved closer in to Bendigo for the moment, but I'm going to start rebuilding on the old land in a couple of months.

"Getting back on our bikes straight afterwards helped us get back to normal, it got our minds off things.

"My daughter Shelly rode the World Titles in Canberra in the middle of last year, and she had to ride overseas before that, so she flew out three weeks after the fires to Germany and Belgium, which was a bit of a problem, because we lost her passport in the fires, and it took a bit of getting back!

"I lost all my certificates, trade certificates, for all the courses I've ever done, and to get them back it's almost impossible, and the photos too - you can't replace them.

"I haven't really thought about the anniversary that much - I'm actually riding in a bike race that morning, so I probably won't think about it.

"You just take each day as it comes, don't you, plan for the future, and hope everything goes the way you plan it, which it most of the time it doesn't, but you just roll with the punches, don't you?

 

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