Local CFA crews help save Taggerty

Written by JEFF ZEUSCHNER. - Wangaratta Chronicle 09 Feb 09

VETERAN firefighter Craig Allen says the shocking devastation he saw over the weekend will be etched in his memory forever.

"It was like an atomic bomb site," said the Everton CFA brigade captain of smoking debris which he once knew as the picturesque township of Marysville.

"There was just not a building left standing...it was unbelievable.

"There were fire hoses left on the main road as members fled with not enough time to pick them up."

Mr Allen, and second lieutenant Ray Glendenning, led the Region 23 strike team that spent Saturday tackling the fires at Marysville, Buxton and Taggerty.

While a delay of two hours, due to a truck overheating, kept them out of the inferno that engulfed Marysville and Buxton, strike team members had to contend with the massive firefront descending on Taggerty.

"The firecrews did a hell of a job to save the town," Mr Allen said.

"We stopped the fire about 200 metres from houses, despite strong winds, by burning the fire back onto itself."

A veteran firefighter of 30 years, Mr Allen said there was not a firefighter he’d spoken to that could recall a worse fire.

"There were times when it got really bad," he said.

"We had to activate the protective sprays on Everton two tanker twice due to the close high flames.

"Some of the homes had towering pine trees 100 years old up their driveways and the fires lept half the height again of the trees.

"A lot of older people were asking me about their homes and it was pretty hard looking into their eyes and telling them they were gone.

"Seeing dead stock on the bitumen and burned out cars on the road was just terrible."

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