Left with just 60

By Melissa Grant
The devastating Black Saturday fire claimed his house, car and beloved Kelpie Eiff.
The former Kooweerup Secondary College teacher drenched himself with water and hid underneath two plastic tables until the fire front had passed.
As reported in last week’s Gazette, the college, where he taught for 17 years, is rallying around Mr Sproul as he finds his feet again.
He is staying with his partner Julie Parris on the other side of Drouin following the devastating fire, and donations from members of the community have lifted his spirits.
“People have been generous, some have given me money, clothing – I feel very humbled by it,” Mr Sproul said.
“It’s a fair hike in one week from going to having all that you need to just you and no dog, no vehicle, no clothes.”
Mr Sproul, 68, said he had prepared for the onslaught, but was caught by surprise when burning plastic was flying out of his evaporative cooling vents.
“I heard splat, splat, splat,” he recalled.
“I went to the first bedroom down the hallway and looked up at the evaporative air-conditioning vent and there was burning plastic coming through it.
“I heard it again – it had started in the next bedroom down … the lounge room was ablaze.”
Mr Sproul said fumes were quickly filling the house.
“The only room I had left where there were no fumes was down the other end of the house, which was closest to the fire,” he said.
“I had a choice: stay up the back end and get gassed or see how things would go at the other end of the house.
“I didn’t have time to go back and get the dog. I closed the door, said a prayer and said goodbye.”
Mr Sproul then grabbed a cotton sheet off the bed and soaked it in water. He sat on a bed far from the door until the room got too hot.
“I smashed a window – I don’t know what with,” he said. Using his small truck and two plastic tables loaned from a friend, Mr Sproul created a hammock filled with water to protect himself from flying embers.
He moved to burnt-out ground when flames approached the truck.
Mr Sproul was relieved when his neighbour Dave Ritchie popped in to check on him.
“He knew I was there so he came back looking for me carrying a bottle of water,” he said.
“Dave gave me a hug – he thought I was dead.”
Mr Ritchie drove Mr Sproul to the Drouin Fire Station, where he was taken to the Warragul Hospital and then the Alfred.
“When I got there I couldn’t talk.
“They put a plastic tube down my throat to preserve my lungs and I couldn’t see,” Mr Sproul said.
“When I arrived at hospital all I had was 60 cents.”
Mr Sproul was still unable to speak by the time his mother Nancy Roberts came to visit.
“I wrote on a piece of paper ‘I’m not dead yet’,” he said.
Mr Sproul said the last fortnight had proved a challenge.
“The house and my dog meant a lot to me,” he said.
But he added that there were some good things to come out of the experience.
“Good friends call you up and tell you nice things and the fun times we’ve had together,” he said.