This video and transcript contains footage and descriptions of bushfires and its effects, and may be confronting for some people to watch and read. Discretion is advised.
Transcript
Sergeant Liam McMahon: December 30, we had a fire that was started by lighting over in New South Wales.
It’s jumped the border roughly about Mt Alfred, which is not far from Walwa.
Leading Senior Constable Simon McKenzie: We were actually sitting down on the river watching the fire coming towards us. The next thing, it has spotted over the top of us, and the flames just took off.
I’d been out all day evacuating people, telling them it was coming.
When it all happened, I ended up in Cudgewa.
Inspector Paul Hargreaves: So I happened to drive into Cudgewa as it was coming over the hill and it started to spot.
There was a fair bit of concern from local community and the message to get them out.
We didn’t have a great dela of time to do it as you would well and truly appreciate.
And by this time, there was a fires on bot sides of us. It had come over the bluff and was coming down the hill.
And Liam McMahon and Simon McKenzie came in, which was really handy. Between the three of us, we started to hopscotch up the road telling people that it was time to get out.
Local resident Chris: About 11.30pm I think it was, or quarter to 12, there was this police car flying in and my wife’s gone out and met him. And he’s just turned around and said “get out, get out now, you’ve got to get out!”
Local resident Kay: Best decision we made was to get out.
Local resident Chris: And Liam coming in when he come in and said “get out,” we got out.
Local resident Ross: It just came across so quick and so loud. It was like a freight train. By that time it would have been around midnight or 12:30am.
Liam dropped in, the police officer, and he said to us “get out now, it is not safe to stay here.”
So we jumped in the one car and headed to Tallangatta.
Sergeant Liam McMahon: The fire was right on their doorstep. And it was a beast, it was hitting the area, and you just don’t know where its going to go, you’d look at one house and its standing, and the next house is burnt to the ground.
The whole thing is to keep people safe, and that’s the number one.
Local resident Jan: It was the best thing that we did go, because we have got our life, and we didn’t know what was going to happen.
Local resident Ross: And on the same token, we don’t know how long after we left that the power would have gone out.
Local resident Jan: No, we wouldn’t have had any water, cause once the power goes out, we can’t pump any water.
Sergeant Liam McMahon: The community does expect you to step up, and that’s pretty much what we had to do. The emergency management role that I play in Victoria Police, and I think linking in with all you stakeholders, it all comes together in times like this.
And hopefully we have got it right this time.
I think we have, I think we’ve done our job.
We didn’t lose anyone, that’s probably the one thing I’m grateful about, is that we didn’t lose anyone in the community, and I was really worried that we would lose someone out of this fire.
Local resident Kay: Hats off to all of them. They did a wonderful job, yup. Can’t thank all of them enough. They’ve been amazing.
Leading Senior Constable Simon McKenzie: Its brought out the best in a lot of people, and I’m just lucky to be in a community where the locals were fantastic to deal with. I don’t think we could have had a better scenario.
Inspector Paul Hargreaves: It’ll be something that I’ll remember for a long time. And with a little bit of pride knowing that we did our bit. You know, when you look Liam and Simon who were there with me, a fantastic job to try and help the community and get them out.
And the community is probably better off for what we did do on that night. And whilst the community is a bit burnt, people are alive, people are well, and they are starting to try and return to what is normal. Or the new normal.
And the great thing for us all is that we’re keeping people safe.
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Community stories
View more recounts from Community members affected by the 2019-2020 bushfire season.
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