By Melissa Grant
The CFA video caught strike team leader Wayne Nutting directing his crew.
Videos courtesy of CFA Public Affairs
SMOKE billows from the hills and a fierce wind blows as strike team 0846 drives down Labertouche North Road.
It is 11am on Saturday 7 February but members of the strike team, which includes tankers from Kooweerup, Nar Nar Goon and Bunyip, know what to expect.
They are told to position themselves at Labertouche and do everything they can to “protect structures” and “save assets”.
The dramatic action is captured on video shot by the CFA, and later posted to the YouTube website.
The fire “punches out” just after noon and the team receives reports of people nearby running through paddocks trying to fight the fire on foot.
Two properties on Kydd Road are surrounded by flames, with fires running along both sides of the road.
Members of the strike team rush to find the people on foot. They find a father and two sons trying to save a house. The firefighters get them out of the paddock and arm themselves with hoses.
Strike team leader Wayne Nutting asks the father if his insurance is paid up.
Speaking later, he said: “We were in a bit of a situation … it was going to be a struggle.
“There was a hay shed that was well exposed which was next to a shed that was next to the house.
“We couldn’t stop the fire – the fire was everywhere. The main goal was get it to burn in the paddock around it.”
The paddocks around the house are charcoal, but the house is saved.
This is just one of the many success stories come out from the Bunyip State Park inferno.
A 12-year CFA veteran, Mr Nutting said the conditions were horrific – but at least strike teams heading out to that inferno knew what they were in for.
“We knew exactly what was going to happen and we planned accordingly.”
Mr Nutting, a Pakenham lieutenant and Cardinia duty group officer, praised those who worked behind the scenes planning the best method of attack.
He said the work of those at the Pakenham incident control centre (ICC) – including Steve Hicks, Phil Craig and Ivan Smith – saved lives.
While the death toll from the Victorian bushfires is 189, and rising, this doesn’t include anyone from the Bunyip Park blaze.
Mr Nutting said the CFA had been busy back-burning and constructing control lines for the Bunyip fires. He said the long process of recovery across Victoria would now start and urged people to keep donating to the Red Cross to help get it underway.
