Casey’s three fire brigade captains David Beards, Shaun Trotter and Alan Boyd reflect on Black Saturday.41942
By Kelly Yates
“I KNOW that such a firestorm can happen again, and some time in the future I have no doubt at all that it will.”
That’s how Berwick Fire Brigade captain, Alan Boyd, views Black Saturday one year on.
Captain Boyd was one of three Casey fire captains who revealed their stories from the fire frontline, for the first anniversary of Black Saturday.
He joined Narre Warren and Narre Warren North fire brigade captains David Beards and Shaun Trotter in describing the horror of Saturday 7 February 2009 in the City of Casey.
The Narre Warren North fire, destroying two-and-a-half houses, numerous sheds, outbuildings, cars and kilometres of fences, was the biggest fire in Casey’s history.
Captain Trotter said he began to “bite his nails” when he heard the grass fire had started.
Arriving at the scene of the fire, it was out, Captain Trotter said.
But his worst fears became reality later that day when they were notified of a blaze in the same area.
“The fire was starting to spread. The wind was picking up and it was bloody hot,” he said.
“The temperature gauge at the station said 47.1 degrees.”
The fire spread along grassland between Robinson Road and Crawley Road before jumping Robinson and Harkaway roads.
Captain Trotter was “gutted” when the fire jumped Robinson Road.
“We tried desperately to prevent the spread of the fire. The flame height was about 45 metres,” he said.
Captain Trotter asked for air support, as he had grave concerns they could lose Harkaway.
“When Elvis appeared, it was like a weight had been lifted,” he said.
While battling the fire, Captain Trotter said he was having memories and flashbacks to Ash Wednesday, which he fought as a 14-year-old.
Late Saturday night the fire was declared under control, but it took firefighters four weeks to totally extinguish it.
“We saved more than 105 houses,” he said.
“We lost one deer from shock, we drank approximately 2000 litres of water and about 200 litres of Gatorade. Three firefighters and numerous locals received care.”
Another fire tore through Narre Warren South that day, destroying seven homes and severely damaging others.
More than 25 firefighters fought the blaze, with the main priority being protecting the properties along Langbourne Drive.
Sights of the residents forming human chains with buckets filled with water still flood back to Captain Beards.
“Looking back, the fire seems so surreal. There was so much happening at one time.”
Travelling down Langbourne Drive a year later, Captain Beards said there were still signs of the damage caused, with two houses being rebuilt and one of the blocks for sale.
Captain Boyd said in all his 33 years in the fire service, he had never seen all the indicators point so clearly to disaster as they did on Black Saturday.
“I am staggered to this day that so many members of the public claim they did not know it was going to be bad,” he said.
Captain Boyd said it was during times like Black Saturday that firefighters witnessed the best and worst in people.
“There was a nasty scene where a fellow crew was resting after re-filling their truck, waiting for us to fill ours before going back together to where we were working, and they were abused by a member of the public for taking a few minutes to try to get their energy back up,” he said.
“I had to call a police officer from a nearby roadblock to deal with the ignorant sod.”
