Volunteers Stand The Heat Of Nightmare
Newcastle Herald
Tuesday January 3, 2006
EIGHT firefighters with just two hoses, no tanker, and their worldly goods packed in their cars stood ready to defend Kariong fire station on Sunday night as a fire front bore down on the Central Coast commuter suburb.
"I heard the words, 'Prepare for impact' come over the command centre radio and I thought, oh my God," said Kariong rural fire service volunteer Roanne Mossman of the firestorm that reduced her to tears."I think every firefighter has their own story from yesterday because it was one of those fires you won't ever forget."Kariong fire crew had been off duty for just half an hour after a day of battling fires that claimed three houses and threatened hundreds more in suffocating 45 degree heat."I literally had my toe in the bath when I heard a red message (the second highest priority radio code) from fire control and my ears pricked."It came across 'We have a firestorm, I repeat, a firestorm heading towards Kariong' and I thought, what the hell do we do?"Ms Mossman and colleagues Brad West and Amanda Sterling, who live at Kariong, threw possessions including passports, insurance policies and photo albums into their cars and headed for the small Kariong brigade building about a kilometre from the main Gosford fire control headquarters along Woy Woy Road.Another five brigade members arrived a short time later.The brigade's tankers were among 160 others fighting fire fronts that were out of control after a roaring southerly hit the Central Coast about 10pm."We had a standpipe (giving access to water mains) and two 38 millimetre hoses and nozzles," Mr West said."We made sure everything was ready and then we just waited and hoped for the best."The fire came within 100 metres of the station after a hazard reduction burn in early 2005 provided the break that firefighters needed.
© 2006 Newcastle Herald