December 11, 2023 • 35 mins
When an unstable tree strikes a NSW RFS fire truck with five volunteers, only three escape.
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Speaker 1 (00:16):
You are listening to seven New Spectrum with Me Marlon
Heglund and this is Heroes and Heartbreak Australia's deadly Greenbottle
Creek bushfire. This episode contains conversation about self form and
suicidal thoughts that may be distressing to listeners.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Good morning. The New South Wales bushfire crisis has taken
a deadly turn, with two volunteer firefighters killed on the firefront.
Three others were injured as they made their way through Buxton,
southwest of Sydney to save homes from the inferno.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Just leading up to it. Basically it was just cut
off from there fight.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
It was just.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
On the nineteenth of December in twenty nineteen, the death
of two volunteer firefighters put the state of New South
Wales in mourning. Volunteers Andrew O'Dwyer and Jeffrey Keaton have
died in an accident southwest of Sydney while fighting a
fire in the size of fifty five thousand Australian football fields.
(01:19):
It's one fire among the one hundred active burning across
the state that will ultimately cause the twenty nineteen A
twenty season to go down in history as the state's
most deadliest.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
These fires were extremely intense that were spreading.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Very quickly across the landscape, faster than conventional, known predictive
tools and services often expected it to do so, and
of course the loss of life was something that we
hadn't seen before and it took a huge toll on families,
on loved ones, on the fire service, on the volunteers
(02:00):
and the community more broadly.
Speaker 6 (02:02):
Next thing it was, I was getting woken up by
my mom because the police were there because they wanted
to speak to me, and then they obviously told me.
Speaker 7 (02:10):
What had happened.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's almost a week before Christmas and Melissa Dwyer is
going to her works Christmas party. She and her daughter
Charlotte are staying the night at her mom's house after
her husband Andrew, who volunteers for the New South Wales
Rural Fire Service at the Horsley Park Brigade, makes a
last minute decision to help out with an evening shift.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
He'd gone out, or he told me that he was
going out, that he'd be home in the morning. He
was doing property to protection. He should be finished by seven.
He'd be leaving then and be home. So went to
my party, came home we spoke on the phone for
a little bit. He was basically just saying, yep, I'm
(02:59):
safe on board. I love you, I'll see you tomorrow
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Andrew is going to the Green Wattle Creek bushfire southwest
of Sydney. It's a fire that's been burning for twenty
days after lightning struck in the Blue Mountains. Due to
extreme fire danger, it's been upgraded to our fast highest
level of bushfire alerts, which means for some towns nearby
that it's too late to leave. But Melissa, who also
(03:26):
used to be part of the volunteer organization before welcoming
their daughter, is not worried about Andrew fighting the fires.
She knows how good he is at what he does
and that there's nothing that can stop him from helping
when needed.
Speaker 7 (03:40):
He pretty much give you the shirt off his back
if he needed to.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
They met in twenty ten at a birthday party. Melissa
says they hit it off instantly and would go on
to enjoy spending a lot of their time outdoors, as
Andrew loved taking pictures of nature.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
What a real eye for it. Yeah, Like, every time
you went out with him it was an adventure. You'd
learned something new.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Andrew joined the RFS back in January two thousand and two,
the same month as the Black Christmas bushfires officially ended
across New South Wales. It was a bushfire that lasted
for over three weeks, something that marked for its time
the longest bushfire emergency in New South Wales history. He
was just a teenager back then, but quickly found a
(04:27):
passion worth dedicating his life to. The same day he joined,
he even offered his pool's water to the firefighters.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
He went down to the station and basically said, look,
we've got a pool, you know you need to fill
up to your tracks like you can come to our
house and then yeah, it's sort of the history went
from there. He joined there and went on from there
and loved it and never left.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Another volunteer also heading to Greenwattle Creek that evening is
Tim Penning. He joined the Horseley Park Brigade in April
this year and has since completed his basic training. This
will be his first evening shift.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
That was looking for volunteers to go up to the
time that Gord emergency warnings obviously, yeah, that was sending
as many rasources as I could and yeah, I'll sort
of put my end up to go, not that they
really like sending the new paper way out, but because
(05:23):
I had sort of limited draining, but that I think
the oldest limited the numbers.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
At the times.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
The New South Wales RFS is the largest volunteer firefighting
organization in the world, with over seventy thousand volunteers stationed
across the state. Due to the twenty nineteen twenty fire
season severe conditions, the organization will see a record number
of volunteers adjoining and firefighters and emergency service personnel being
(05:51):
brought into the state to help local crews. It was
a record number that former New South Wales RFS Commissioner
Shane fitz Simmons says was fundamental to protect and save communities.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
History will show after big fires there's a spike in
member interest and new applications, but the process after nineteen twenty,
the figures after nineteen twenty were luck we've never seen before.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So how important were they were fundamental? They were critical.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Without them, as awful and as destructive and as damage
as the season was, I would hate to think about
what the consequences would have been had we not had
such remarkable men and women giving so relentlessly, so persistently,
so courageously over an unparalleled period of time.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Shane, who followed in his father's footsteps into the organization
as a team, became commissioner in two thousand and seven.
He says what made him stay in the organization was
the real sense of purpose he found, as well as
the ability to really make a difference.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
I can see all these normal, everyday people doing extraordinary things,
and I think it was that motivation, that was that
inspiration that really brought about that record number of new members.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's a reason why Tim also joined the organization.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I wanted to get into a volunteer organization just to
help the community, not knowing that we were going to
suffer a bad start with black summer and everything that year.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
So Tim has a long day ahead of him. He's
only gotten home from work when he has to make
his way down to the fire control center in Penrith
to prepare for his evening shift. Earlier, on the nineteenth
of December, Premier Gladys Vergilian declared a state of emergency
due to soaring temperatures, extreme fire warnings and bushfires burning
(07:53):
out of control.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
The day that began with the premier declaring a state
of emergency has descended into chaos on multiple bush fire front.
Speaker 7 (08:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was a bit of a surreal feeling heading into
a village when there's cars driving out evacuating and.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
We're heading in.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
You can hear firefighters on the radio calling asking for
air support to drop water on top of them and
saying that they're trapped and that sort of stuff. That was, yeah,
I guess, and you're actually heading to that, but yeah,
it sort of felt if we weren't the ones going in,
then there's no one else to do it.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
At the fire control center, team meets with the other
volunteers before boarding buses heading to a safe staging area
and picton southwest of Sydney. On the bus, Tim is
sitting opposite to Andrew.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I remember pulling up somewhere. It was like a staging
area they called it, and I'm pretty sure it was
just me in the truck and Andrew at this stage.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
And I remember saying, Andrew.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I said, because earlier that I think three to five
has got airlifted out of that same spot and Dad
burnt lines and they were they were quite bad. And
I remember saying in life, where are we heading to
that area? I said, three four faters taken it out,
and he goes, yeah, that's where we're going. Yeah, it
was a green Motel free fire.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
The fires at Greenwadel Creek had at that time it
claimed twenty houses. According to the RFS, residents of Sydney's
southwest towns are describing the bush fire as the worst
they've ever seen. To Shane, the fires in twenty nineteen
and twenty are the most damaging and destructive the state
has ever seen.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
I think it's fair to say the difficulty in containing
most fires during nineteen twenty proved far more difficult and
far more challenging than historically would have been the case,
and that was largely due to just how volatile the
the fuels were on the ground. They were so dry,
(10:02):
the conditions were so dry, and you've got when you've
got fires that are consuming many tens of thousands of
hectares or hundreds of thousands of hectares, depending on what
you're dealing with at the time, you're patrolling kilometers and
kilometers and kilometers of control lines. You've only got to
get a windy day, You've only got an ember that
blows out of anywhere on that fire ground and stirs
(10:25):
up or ignites the wind, stirs up the logs, all
the stuff.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
That's smolding or burning on the ground.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
It's just got to lift an ember to the other
side of that control line.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
And five were taking Hoole.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Very easily, and they were spreading extremely quickly twenty four
hours a day.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Affectedly.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Shane, whose principal duties as Commissioner are to lead and
manage the rural Fire Service organization as well as lead
the major firefighting operations across the States, has called season unprecedented.
Early on, he spent the day down at the staging
area and picked in to catch up with the volunteers
(11:08):
coming back from their day shift fighting the fires at
Greenwattle Creek.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
So I remember that being a busy die.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
As a matter of fact, I was only down in
the Picton area, and I'd caught up with some of
the crews and the teams that Andrew and Jeff and Carlos.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
And Tim and Ben were actually replacing on the marshift.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Andrew O'Dwyer, Jeffrey kitt and Carlos Quinteros and Ben Fraser
of the volunteers. Tim is going in the same truck
ass that evening. He knows them all well, but it's
gotten closest to Jeffrey since joining the brigade.
Speaker 7 (11:43):
He's a deputy.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Captain who's been part of the service for thirteen years.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
We did an emergency warning up at Mangrove, Melvin, which
is a central coast and we sort of we spent
I think sixteen hours also on the five ground and
then I remember him coming back and saying to other
guys in the brigades and like he really likes me,
(12:09):
and you know, he's sort of you know, go with
me anytime, and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
At the staging area, the volunteers brief each other during
the changeovers. It's here Tim is warned about the tough
conditions and also to keep an eye out for falling trees.
Tim and the volunteers are in for twelve to sixteen
hour long shift fighting the fires.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Like they do give you breaks, but it's when you're
in a position where you can't, you know, you can't
exactly go and stop and have a break and sit down,
go get some fresh air. It's just not it wasn't
anywhere like you're just you're breathing that in constantly. Yeah,
the ambers I found the goggles will issued. The smoke
(12:56):
was still getting under them, so your eyes were watery burnt.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
When the Evening volunteers are ready, there's a convoy of
fire fire trucks heading to the south of a Moral,
tasked with property and life protection. Before they head off, Jeffrey,
who's driving, is thrown the keys to the truck.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Basically we head off. I remember traveling around I think
it was about Moral or.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
The town.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Near Buxton. We sort of traveled around there.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
We're supposed to do property protection, but we remember driving
down the street and seeing every house burned, the ground,
those daycare center on fire, like it's fire everywhere, Like
you're surrounded by it's dark snogy.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Can you picture help? That's what it's like.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
They're told over the radio that there's no point try
and save those houses. So before they head off, already
outside of their truck, they take a photo in front
of a burnt bush shelter. It's Andrew who takes the photo.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, we jumped in the truck just after that. And
then I remember driving down this Wilson Road, just leading
up to it, and then basically it was just cut off.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
There who.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Tim AND's crew have been hit by a falling tree,
which has resulted in their truck rolling down an embankments.
The road they've been driving on has been described to
have been surrounded by burning trees on one side and
burnt leaning telegraph poles held up by active power lines
on the other. He has not broken any bones, but
(14:54):
is falling in and out of consciousness and is later
told that he has tried to climb out of the
truck himself. He remembers lying in the back of an
ambulance seeing the front of their truck now covered up,
before being injured and away to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Good morning, the New South Wales bush fire crisis has
taken a deadly turn, with two volunteer firefighters killed on
the firefront. Three others were injured as they made their
way through Buxton, southwest of Sydney to save homes from
the inferno.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
It's almost midnight when Shane receives a call from the
then Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers about the accidents and possible fatalities.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
We both had the sinking feeling and I said, Mark,
just keep me up to date as soon as you
get something. Obviously, you've got to be careful when lots
of information comes from the field, you've got to get
it validated. And particularly when the indications were were so serious,
and I remember I was just getting I was just
getting changed to go to bed, and I just knew
(15:57):
that it just didn't feel right. I started getting redressed,
and Rob rang me back and confirmed that the reports
were that we had two fatalities and a number of injuries,
with some entrapment in the vehicle and the need to
get survivors to hospital.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
So we spoke for a while, and then basically.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
I got into my vehicle and responded down to the
accident scene where I could catch up with crews and
get an understanding for myself for what had happened.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And Yeah, when Shane arrives at the scene, he catches
up with the local incident controller. It's here he learns
that Tim, Ben and Carlos have been taken to hospital
and that Andrew and Jeffrey have not made it. He
also knows that a lot of volunteers have heard about
the accidents over the radios they use to communicate.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
You were dealing with a lot of very traumatized grieving people,
given the significance of what had just happened. So we
spent a bit of time with those crews just openly talking,
doing some pone's incident counseling.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
We had the chaplains and our.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Critical incident teams there and getting around and talking, and
then we let everyone head home. Once that had happened,
we were able to make contact with Jeff and Andrew's family.
And the first thing I did after leaving the accident
scene and the fire station was headed back to Jeff's
(17:44):
mum and dad's place. And as it turned out, I
knew Jeff's dad because he was an active volunteer himself.
So catching up with Jeff's dad and his mum and
his brother and his brother is brother's partner, and then
Jess and her little boy, Jeff's little boy turned up,
(18:09):
you know, a few minutes later, So we spent an
hour or so together there, and then as as you
signaled from Mel, made my way over to Mel's mom's
place and caught up with mel her mum, and of
course Andrew and mills little girl as well.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
So it's three o'clock in the morning when Melissa is
walking up by her mom and told that there are
police and rfs chaplains outside wanting to speak with her.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
I didn't think anything happened to Andrew.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
And then it wasn't until they had told me to
come inside that I saw the rfs chaplains there and
I was sort of like, oh, okay, like still wasn't sure,
but I was like, something's up. And I asked Mom,
I said, oh, do you know why they're here? And
they hadn't said anything to Mom, but she clicked on
(19:10):
then what had happened, like that something bad had happened,
and she goes, well, I didn't, but I do now.
And then it wasn't until I came inside that they
said that there'd been an accident and that Andrew and
the driver hadn't made the accident.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
I pretty much told the police officer that he was lying.
I didn't believe him. I actually was just like, nah,
why are you lying to me?
Speaker 6 (19:32):
He said it again, and I'm like, Mom, why is
lying to me? And she was like, why would he
lie to you? I'm like, because I want it to
be a lie.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I guess like, yeah, it was an awful night, but
I've said to many people.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
I will be forever indebted and grateful to the families
of Jeff and Andrew. I think there's something very significant
and very special that allows someone to be let in
in the darkest of times. And I don't have all
the answers, but I could speak as open anonymous as
(20:15):
I possibly could and share with them everything that we knew,
and most importantly be there to support them and value
and respect their loved ones. And I think there's something
very sacred and very special about that. And I'll be
forever grateful that they let me come in and spend
(20:35):
some time with them while we try to unpack the
enormity of the awful tragedy that had happened.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Team learns at the hospital what has happened to his friends.
He says he remembers trying to put pieces together in
the ambulance.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I remember asking the paramedic, like I said to him,
I said, there was two guys in the front, I said,
I said, I could see the front of the truck
in the ambulance. I said, it doesn't look good like
and I looked at his face and he just sort
of shook his head, like, you know, it's not good.
And so I still didn't know this stage and then yeah,
(21:20):
I got to Liverpool Hospital. Obviously they was starting to
put painkillers and everything into me, so yeah, a little
bit out of it, but yeah, I remember getting told
at my bedside that yeah, they said that they passed away.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
He checks himself out of the hospital the next day.
He's still suffering the side effects from pain and concussion,
but wants to reunite with his family at home and
his colleagues at the brigade.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I got my dad to take me down to the
station because I wanted to go see everyone there and
it was just the support. When I got there, it
was incredible. There's like a lineup of paper, give me
aglat After that, it was it was probably not two
of the funerals had come around that I'd really seen
(22:12):
Ben and Carlos again.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
After that, the God of all for.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
A man who died with on but tou yah protecting
his community.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Jeffrey's funeral is first only two days into the new year.
There's a big convoy of fire trucks leaving from the
station to pine Grove Memorial Park in Mentionedbury, Western Sydney,
where the service is held. Tim is blown away by
the number of people who have turned up to pay
their respects to the Deputy captain, fiancee and father.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Acumen in one of the trucks. It was the first
time I went back in the truck, and yeah, I
just felt didn't feel like, you know, I knew what
it was for, but it just, you know, didn't feel comfortable.
Obviously gone back to striding the shock, but yeah, I
wanted to do it for them.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
At Jeffrey's funeral or his fiance Jess and his young
son Harvey, who receives his dad's posthumous Bravery medal from Shane,
the casket is covered by an RFS flag and flowers.
There's also a fishing rod leaning against it and a
cup saying Daddy, I Love you to the moon and back,
placed next to a photograph of Jeffrey.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
I knew it was going to be a top guy.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Five days later, on a Tuesday, it's Andrew's funeral and
it's held at Our Lady of Victory's Catholic Church in
Horsley Park. Melissa, who went to see Andrew the day before,
has been warned to expect a heavy media presence.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
The morning of, I just was just in a trance
until I actually got to the top of the street
that the fire station and church is on because they're
both on the same street, and then we're going to
do a big lap around Halsey Park so we could
go past the station one last time with him. That
(24:19):
I was just like, wow, this is it.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
This is real.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
Like I got out of the car.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
It was like click click click click click, all these
cameras everywhere, and it's like, oh my goodness. I actually
felt like I was going to faint or pass it out.
I was just like, wow, this is too much.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Hundreds so people have turned up to pay their respects,
and there's the haka performed in his honor. Melissa is
walking alongside her and Andrew's family behind his caskets while
holding daughter Charlotte's in her arms. On both her left
and right sides, officers are lined up doing the guard
of honor. She has picked out a few songs to
(24:56):
play doing the service. A cover of Westlives Me Up
is one of them. Inside the church, after Andrew's best
friend and commissioner Shane delivers their eulogies, Charlotte has given
her dad's posthumous medal for bravery to Shane. Andrews and
Jeffrey's funerals were the toughest to attend in his career.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Firstly, can I can I say to Melissa and did
baby Charlotte.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I was wearing one of these smart watches, and suddenly
I was getting these alarms come from my watch.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
And I hadn't seen it before.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
But I was sitting in the pews in the church,
and I was getting excessive heart rates and the watch
knew that I wasn't moving, so it was actually triggering
quite a concern. And I think what that I didn't
realize at the time. I joked about it and said,
oh wow, my heart rate must be going up, but
(25:57):
I didn't realize quite how bad it was. I just
felt this real sense of obligation to try and pay
tribute to two remarkable, selfless individuals that, for the want
of nothing in return, had gone out to serve and
protect and save as many and as much as they
possibly could, not just in their local community, but communities
(26:21):
much further afield, and they paid the ultimate price in
the most awful of accidents imaginable. And not only was
I seeking to pay tribute to jeff and Andrew in
those specific examples, to those remarkable individuals in the back
seat who whilst they came away with their lives, they
(26:45):
came away with limited physical injuries, thank goodness, but you know,
an emotional toll, emotional scarring.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
That will be with them for the rest of their life.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
And I think they're amazing young men that have come
through a very difficult time. And of course paying tribute
to the families of Jeff and Andrew, to the brigade
more broadly, and in particular those little children who were
(27:19):
growing up without their dad's, you know, a most precious
significant part of their lives. They've got to do it
differently than many others. And their dads loved them enormously,
and I tried to articulate that, you know, it was
no fault of their own, it was their dads were
(27:39):
very very special people, and they should always remember that.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
The Green Bottle Creek bushfire was extinguished on the tenth
of February twenty twenty, and the fire season reported over
on the thirty first or March the same year. That
fire season ended up taking twenty six lives, twenty were
civilians and six were FIREFIGHTERSY nineteen twenty bushfire season turned
(28:03):
out to be the dead list and worst in New
South Wales history with more than six point two percent
of the state burns.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
So when you think about five and a half million
hectares of the state that burned, which is about six
or seven percent of the state, given it's an eighty
million hectares state, the reality is it was burning out
twenty to twenty five percent of the forested country, which
is a huge environmental toll. And of course we ended
(28:33):
up seeing just under two and a half thousand homes destroyed. Importantly,
we should recognize that firefighters and community in the same
burn scar area saved over fourteen thousand homes.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
So the efforts were extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
For a tim who ended up leaving the New South
Wales RFS, the accident left deep scars to deal with
what had happened to him. It will turn to our
goal to deal with this trauma. He says he declined
to help offered in the beginning, and that it was
only when he was at his lowest point sitting outside
his parents' house, after a fellow RFIs volunteer had approached him,
(29:13):
that he would eventually seek help.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I've been in the hospital the night before.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah, yeah, taken a large amount of valium, you know,
not more or less tempted to take me bone off,
and so basically ended up in hospital that night.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
In an emergency ward.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
And yeah, he saw me sitting out the front of
my parents there and I still had the kenula thing
in my arm.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
And.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
He stopped past and to say hello, and he said, look,
you guys, you're right.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
He guess you've been in hospital.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
And I said, yeah, look, you know it's a big deal,
and ID anyway, I ended up going to the pub
again that afternoon, and then I got a phone call
from signing the RFS and I said, well, we're just
rinking alta to say, very so odd and I said, no,
(30:15):
it's not.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
A lot of.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Tim was eventually diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and
went on to see a psychologist for six months. There,
he says he was given different types of therapy on
how to deal with his trauma. Something here today looks
back at as successful. Last year, for the anniversary, he
drove down to the memorial site. He looks back at
his time at the RFS with great memories and wishes
(30:41):
one day to return it to the organization.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I still have.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
One of things every now and then his sort of
mood mood swings. I guess look, everyone everyone does, but
sometimes it's probably a little bit worse than Yeah, things
have been positive.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
The year following the accident, Shane made a tough decision
to step down as the new South Wales RFS Commissioner
after serving the organization for almost thirty five years and
the role for twelve.
Speaker 8 (31:22):
Plea lead you South while through a catastrophic bushfire season.
Now the state's Rural Fire Service Commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons will
be stepping down from the top job.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
After that, he took on a new government role before
leaving for good last year. He today volunteers with a
youth trauma organization called Youth in Search.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Wouldn't it be great if we could see programs being
delivered right across our nation, targeting where young people need
that assistance and support, and that's the goal to change
the lives of young people, one heart at a time.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
It really matters.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
For Melissa, it was tough to adjust the new way
of life without Andrew in it, but she says she
had a lot of support around her, both from friends, family,
the brigade and also Shane.
Speaker 6 (32:12):
She liked.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Tim also went to see a counselor and has since
rejoined the RFS. She says she carries a piece of
Andrew with her every day. For his birthdays, she and
their daughter Charlotte, eat cake and release balloons in the
colors of his favorite NURL team, the West Tigers. When
he and Jeffrey's anniversary comes around, they sometimes drive down
(32:36):
to the crash site to have a drink and eat lunch.
There's a playground built there in honor of Andrew and
Jeffrey for both their kids to play out. She says
that Charlotte talks about him a lot.
Speaker 6 (32:48):
The little white butterflies that you always see that it's
flying around, she thinks they're her dad.
Speaker 7 (32:52):
So every time she sees a white butterfly, it's like, Mom,
that's Dad. He's here, so yeah, so that's nice.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Not long after the fire season had officially ended, there
was a Royal Commission into the National Natural Disaster Arrangements
Report published in response to the extreme season.
Speaker 8 (33:19):
The Royal Commission will examine three main issues, the coordination
of disaster management, improving preparedness and resilience, including climate change,
and powers to decleaar A national state of emergency, focusing
on responsibility not playing.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
But although the Royal Commission was born out of the
twenty nineteen twenty season, the report also focuses on how
a future Australia can best prepare for natural disasters. Besides
establishing that climate driven natural hazards are expected to become
more frequent, natural disasters like bushfires are not just predicted
(33:56):
to increase, but also be more dangerous due to intensifiedsfall
that increases fuel load. As for Australia's twenty twenty three
fire season that officially began in October, a month after
the Bureau of Meteorology declared an ALNU event, experts are
warning about the excessive fewl loads that have been built
up under the three years of la Ninia Shane, who
(34:18):
is in communication with the new South Wales RFS Commissioner
and some of the RFS team, says they're already seeing
extremely significant and aggressive fire behavior that's been destructive and
proven deadly.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
It's a in your face reminder that the fire season
is upon us and people need to be prepared. They
need to prepare their home and prepare their property, prepare
themselves and their families. What are they going to do
now before they're directly threatened by fire? And what are
they going to do in the event that they are
threatened by fire this season? As the RFS has already
(34:52):
said very clearly, these fires are also burning in areas
that were burned during nineteen twenty, So you're only talking
fire activity of four or five years ago. Don't think
because you are burnt in nineteen twenty or burnt around
you in nineteen twenty, that it won't happen again. And
everyone else who hasn't pained, everyone needs to be prepared.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
You have listened to seven You, Spectrum Heroes and Heartbreak
Australia's Deadly Greenwattle Creek Bushfire. This episode was voiced and
produced by me Marlon Haglund. If you or someone you
know is struggling with mental health, you can call Lifeline
on thirteen eleven fourteen, or call Triple zero in an
emergency
You are listening to seven New Spectrum with Me Marlon
Heglund and this is Heroes and Heartbreak Australia's deadly Greenbottle
Creek bushfire. This episode contains conversation about self form and
suicidal thoughts that may be distressing to listeners.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Good morning. The New South Wales bushfire crisis has taken
a deadly turn, with two volunteer firefighters killed on the firefront.
Three others were injured as they made their way through Buxton,
southwest of Sydney to save homes from the inferno.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Just leading up to it. Basically it was just cut
off from there fight.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
It was just.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
On the nineteenth of December in twenty nineteen, the death
of two volunteer firefighters put the state of New South
Wales in mourning. Volunteers Andrew O'Dwyer and Jeffrey Keaton have
died in an accident southwest of Sydney while fighting a
fire in the size of fifty five thousand Australian football fields.
(01:19):
It's one fire among the one hundred active burning across
the state that will ultimately cause the twenty nineteen A
twenty season to go down in history as the state's
most deadliest.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
These fires were extremely intense that were spreading.
Speaker 5 (01:37):
Very quickly across the landscape, faster than conventional, known predictive
tools and services often expected it to do so, and
of course the loss of life was something that we
hadn't seen before and it took a huge toll on families,
on loved ones, on the fire service, on the volunteers
(02:00):
and the community more broadly.
Speaker 6 (02:02):
Next thing it was, I was getting woken up by
my mom because the police were there because they wanted
to speak to me, and then they obviously told me.
Speaker 7 (02:10):
What had happened.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
It's almost a week before Christmas and Melissa Dwyer is
going to her works Christmas party. She and her daughter
Charlotte are staying the night at her mom's house after
her husband Andrew, who volunteers for the New South Wales
Rural Fire Service at the Horsley Park Brigade, makes a
last minute decision to help out with an evening shift.
Speaker 6 (02:37):
He'd gone out, or he told me that he was
going out, that he'd be home in the morning. He
was doing property to protection. He should be finished by seven.
He'd be leaving then and be home. So went to
my party, came home we spoke on the phone for
a little bit. He was basically just saying, yep, I'm
(02:59):
safe on board. I love you, I'll see you tomorrow
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Andrew is going to the Green Wattle Creek bushfire southwest
of Sydney. It's a fire that's been burning for twenty
days after lightning struck in the Blue Mountains. Due to
extreme fire danger, it's been upgraded to our fast highest
level of bushfire alerts, which means for some towns nearby
that it's too late to leave. But Melissa, who also
(03:26):
used to be part of the volunteer organization before welcoming
their daughter, is not worried about Andrew fighting the fires.
She knows how good he is at what he does
and that there's nothing that can stop him from helping
when needed.
Speaker 7 (03:40):
He pretty much give you the shirt off his back
if he needed to.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
They met in twenty ten at a birthday party. Melissa
says they hit it off instantly and would go on
to enjoy spending a lot of their time outdoors, as
Andrew loved taking pictures of nature.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
What a real eye for it. Yeah, Like, every time
you went out with him it was an adventure. You'd
learned something new.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Andrew joined the RFS back in January two thousand and two,
the same month as the Black Christmas bushfires officially ended
across New South Wales. It was a bushfire that lasted
for over three weeks, something that marked for its time
the longest bushfire emergency in New South Wales history. He
was just a teenager back then, but quickly found a
(04:27):
passion worth dedicating his life to. The same day he joined,
he even offered his pool's water to the firefighters.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
He went down to the station and basically said, look,
we've got a pool, you know you need to fill
up to your tracks like you can come to our
house and then yeah, it's sort of the history went
from there. He joined there and went on from there
and loved it and never left.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Another volunteer also heading to Greenwattle Creek that evening is
Tim Penning. He joined the Horseley Park Brigade in April
this year and has since completed his basic training. This
will be his first evening shift.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
That was looking for volunteers to go up to the
time that Gord emergency warnings obviously, yeah, that was sending
as many rasources as I could and yeah, I'll sort
of put my end up to go, not that they
really like sending the new paper way out, but because
(05:23):
I had sort of limited draining, but that I think
the oldest limited the numbers.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
At the times.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
The New South Wales RFS is the largest volunteer firefighting
organization in the world, with over seventy thousand volunteers stationed
across the state. Due to the twenty nineteen twenty fire
season severe conditions, the organization will see a record number
of volunteers adjoining and firefighters and emergency service personnel being
(05:51):
brought into the state to help local crews. It was
a record number that former New South Wales RFS Commissioner
Shane fitz Simmons says was fundamental to protect and save communities.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
History will show after big fires there's a spike in
member interest and new applications, but the process after nineteen twenty,
the figures after nineteen twenty were luck we've never seen before.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So how important were they were fundamental? They were critical.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Without them, as awful and as destructive and as damage
as the season was, I would hate to think about
what the consequences would have been had we not had
such remarkable men and women giving so relentlessly, so persistently,
so courageously over an unparalleled period of time.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Shane, who followed in his father's footsteps into the organization
as a team, became commissioner in two thousand and seven.
He says what made him stay in the organization was
the real sense of purpose he found, as well as
the ability to really make a difference.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
I can see all these normal, everyday people doing extraordinary things,
and I think it was that motivation, that was that
inspiration that really brought about that record number of new members.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
It's a reason why Tim also joined the organization.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I wanted to get into a volunteer organization just to
help the community, not knowing that we were going to
suffer a bad start with black summer and everything that year.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
So Tim has a long day ahead of him. He's
only gotten home from work when he has to make
his way down to the fire control center in Penrith
to prepare for his evening shift. Earlier, on the nineteenth
of December, Premier Gladys Vergilian declared a state of emergency
due to soaring temperatures, extreme fire warnings and bushfires burning
(07:53):
out of control.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
The day that began with the premier declaring a state
of emergency has descended into chaos on multiple bush fire front.
Speaker 7 (08:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It was a bit of a surreal feeling heading into
a village when there's cars driving out evacuating and.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
We're heading in.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
You can hear firefighters on the radio calling asking for
air support to drop water on top of them and
saying that they're trapped and that sort of stuff. That was, yeah,
I guess, and you're actually heading to that, but yeah,
it sort of felt if we weren't the ones going in,
then there's no one else to do it.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
At the fire control center, team meets with the other
volunteers before boarding buses heading to a safe staging area
and picton southwest of Sydney. On the bus, Tim is
sitting opposite to Andrew.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I remember pulling up somewhere. It was like a staging
area they called it, and I'm pretty sure it was
just me in the truck and Andrew at this stage.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
And I remember saying, Andrew.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
I said, because earlier that I think three to five
has got airlifted out of that same spot and Dad
burnt lines and they were they were quite bad. And
I remember saying in life, where are we heading to
that area? I said, three four faters taken it out,
and he goes, yeah, that's where we're going. Yeah, it
was a green Motel free fire.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
The fires at Greenwadel Creek had at that time it
claimed twenty houses. According to the RFS, residents of Sydney's
southwest towns are describing the bush fire as the worst
they've ever seen. To Shane, the fires in twenty nineteen
and twenty are the most damaging and destructive the state
has ever seen.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
I think it's fair to say the difficulty in containing
most fires during nineteen twenty proved far more difficult and
far more challenging than historically would have been the case,
and that was largely due to just how volatile the
the fuels were on the ground. They were so dry,
(10:02):
the conditions were so dry, and you've got when you've
got fires that are consuming many tens of thousands of
hectares or hundreds of thousands of hectares, depending on what
you're dealing with at the time, you're patrolling kilometers and
kilometers and kilometers of control lines. You've only got to
get a windy day, You've only got an ember that
blows out of anywhere on that fire ground and stirs
(10:25):
up or ignites the wind, stirs up the logs, all
the stuff.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
That's smolding or burning on the ground.
Speaker 5 (10:34):
It's just got to lift an ember to the other
side of that control line.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
And five were taking Hoole.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Very easily, and they were spreading extremely quickly twenty four
hours a day.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Affectedly.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Shane, whose principal duties as Commissioner are to lead and
manage the rural Fire Service organization as well as lead
the major firefighting operations across the States, has called season unprecedented.
Early on, he spent the day down at the staging
area and picked in to catch up with the volunteers
(11:08):
coming back from their day shift fighting the fires at
Greenwattle Creek.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
So I remember that being a busy die.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
As a matter of fact, I was only down in
the Picton area, and I'd caught up with some of
the crews and the teams that Andrew and Jeff and Carlos.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
And Tim and Ben were actually replacing on the marshift.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Andrew O'Dwyer, Jeffrey kitt and Carlos Quinteros and Ben Fraser
of the volunteers. Tim is going in the same truck
ass that evening. He knows them all well, but it's
gotten closest to Jeffrey since joining the brigade.
Speaker 7 (11:43):
He's a deputy.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Captain who's been part of the service for thirteen years.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
We did an emergency warning up at Mangrove, Melvin, which
is a central coast and we sort of we spent
I think sixteen hours also on the five ground and
then I remember him coming back and saying to other
guys in the brigades and like he really likes me,
(12:09):
and you know, he's sort of you know, go with
me anytime, and that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
At the staging area, the volunteers brief each other during
the changeovers. It's here Tim is warned about the tough
conditions and also to keep an eye out for falling trees.
Tim and the volunteers are in for twelve to sixteen
hour long shift fighting the fires.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Like they do give you breaks, but it's when you're
in a position where you can't, you know, you can't
exactly go and stop and have a break and sit down,
go get some fresh air. It's just not it wasn't
anywhere like you're just you're breathing that in constantly. Yeah,
the ambers I found the goggles will issued. The smoke
(12:56):
was still getting under them, so your eyes were watery burnt.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
When the Evening volunteers are ready, there's a convoy of
fire fire trucks heading to the south of a Moral,
tasked with property and life protection. Before they head off, Jeffrey,
who's driving, is thrown the keys to the truck.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Basically we head off. I remember traveling around I think
it was about Moral or.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
The town.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Near Buxton. We sort of traveled around there.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
We're supposed to do property protection, but we remember driving
down the street and seeing every house burned, the ground,
those daycare center on fire, like it's fire everywhere, Like
you're surrounded by it's dark snogy.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Can you picture help? That's what it's like.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
They're told over the radio that there's no point try
and save those houses. So before they head off, already
outside of their truck, they take a photo in front
of a burnt bush shelter. It's Andrew who takes the photo.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yeah, we jumped in the truck just after that. And
then I remember driving down this Wilson Road, just leading
up to it, and then basically it was just cut off.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
There who.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Tim AND's crew have been hit by a falling tree,
which has resulted in their truck rolling down an embankments.
The road they've been driving on has been described to
have been surrounded by burning trees on one side and
burnt leaning telegraph poles held up by active power lines
on the other. He has not broken any bones, but
(14:54):
is falling in and out of consciousness and is later
told that he has tried to climb out of the
truck himself. He remembers lying in the back of an
ambulance seeing the front of their truck now covered up,
before being injured and away to the hospital.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Good morning, the New South Wales bush fire crisis has
taken a deadly turn, with two volunteer firefighters killed on
the firefront. Three others were injured as they made their
way through Buxton, southwest of Sydney to save homes from
the inferno.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
It's almost midnight when Shane receives a call from the
then Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers about the accidents and possible fatalities.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
We both had the sinking feeling and I said, Mark,
just keep me up to date as soon as you
get something. Obviously, you've got to be careful when lots
of information comes from the field, you've got to get
it validated. And particularly when the indications were were so serious,
and I remember I was just getting I was just
getting changed to go to bed, and I just knew
(15:57):
that it just didn't feel right. I started getting redressed,
and Rob rang me back and confirmed that the reports
were that we had two fatalities and a number of injuries,
with some entrapment in the vehicle and the need to
get survivors to hospital.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
So we spoke for a while, and then basically.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
I got into my vehicle and responded down to the
accident scene where I could catch up with crews and
get an understanding for myself for what had happened.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And Yeah, when Shane arrives at the scene, he catches
up with the local incident controller. It's here he learns
that Tim, Ben and Carlos have been taken to hospital
and that Andrew and Jeffrey have not made it. He
also knows that a lot of volunteers have heard about
the accidents over the radios they use to communicate.
Speaker 5 (16:57):
You were dealing with a lot of very traumatized grieving people,
given the significance of what had just happened. So we
spent a bit of time with those crews just openly talking,
doing some pone's incident counseling.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
We had the chaplains and our.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
Critical incident teams there and getting around and talking, and
then we let everyone head home. Once that had happened,
we were able to make contact with Jeff and Andrew's family.
And the first thing I did after leaving the accident
scene and the fire station was headed back to Jeff's
(17:44):
mum and dad's place. And as it turned out, I
knew Jeff's dad because he was an active volunteer himself.
So catching up with Jeff's dad and his mum and
his brother and his brother is brother's partner, and then
Jess and her little boy, Jeff's little boy turned up,
(18:09):
you know, a few minutes later, So we spent an
hour or so together there, and then as as you
signaled from Mel, made my way over to Mel's mom's
place and caught up with mel her mum, and of
course Andrew and mills little girl as well.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
So it's three o'clock in the morning when Melissa is
walking up by her mom and told that there are
police and rfs chaplains outside wanting to speak with her.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
I didn't think anything happened to Andrew.
Speaker 6 (18:48):
And then it wasn't until they had told me to
come inside that I saw the rfs chaplains there and
I was sort of like, oh, okay, like still wasn't sure,
but I was like, something's up. And I asked Mom,
I said, oh, do you know why they're here? And
they hadn't said anything to Mom, but she clicked on
(19:10):
then what had happened, like that something bad had happened,
and she goes, well, I didn't, but I do now.
And then it wasn't until I came inside that they
said that there'd been an accident and that Andrew and
the driver hadn't made the accident.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
I pretty much told the police officer that he was lying.
I didn't believe him. I actually was just like, nah,
why are you lying to me?
Speaker 6 (19:32):
He said it again, and I'm like, Mom, why is
lying to me? And she was like, why would he
lie to you? I'm like, because I want it to
be a lie.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I guess like, yeah, it was an awful night, but
I've said to many people.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
I will be forever indebted and grateful to the families
of Jeff and Andrew. I think there's something very significant
and very special that allows someone to be let in
in the darkest of times. And I don't have all
the answers, but I could speak as open anonymous as
(20:15):
I possibly could and share with them everything that we knew,
and most importantly be there to support them and value
and respect their loved ones. And I think there's something
very sacred and very special about that. And I'll be
forever grateful that they let me come in and spend
(20:35):
some time with them while we try to unpack the
enormity of the awful tragedy that had happened.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Team learns at the hospital what has happened to his friends.
He says he remembers trying to put pieces together in
the ambulance.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I remember asking the paramedic, like I said to him,
I said, there was two guys in the front, I said,
I said, I could see the front of the truck
in the ambulance. I said, it doesn't look good like
and I looked at his face and he just sort
of shook his head, like, you know, it's not good.
And so I still didn't know this stage and then yeah,
(21:20):
I got to Liverpool Hospital. Obviously they was starting to
put painkillers and everything into me, so yeah, a little
bit out of it, but yeah, I remember getting told
at my bedside that yeah, they said that they passed away.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
He checks himself out of the hospital the next day.
He's still suffering the side effects from pain and concussion,
but wants to reunite with his family at home and
his colleagues at the brigade.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I got my dad to take me down to the
station because I wanted to go see everyone there and
it was just the support. When I got there, it
was incredible. There's like a lineup of paper, give me
aglat After that, it was it was probably not two
of the funerals had come around that I'd really seen
(22:12):
Ben and Carlos again.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
After that, the God of all for.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
A man who died with on but tou yah protecting
his community.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Jeffrey's funeral is first only two days into the new year.
There's a big convoy of fire trucks leaving from the
station to pine Grove Memorial Park in Mentionedbury, Western Sydney,
where the service is held. Tim is blown away by
the number of people who have turned up to pay
their respects to the Deputy captain, fiancee and father.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Acumen in one of the trucks. It was the first
time I went back in the truck, and yeah, I
just felt didn't feel like, you know, I knew what
it was for, but it just, you know, didn't feel comfortable.
Obviously gone back to striding the shock, but yeah, I
wanted to do it for them.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
At Jeffrey's funeral or his fiance Jess and his young
son Harvey, who receives his dad's posthumous Bravery medal from Shane,
the casket is covered by an RFS flag and flowers.
There's also a fishing rod leaning against it and a
cup saying Daddy, I Love you to the moon and back,
placed next to a photograph of Jeffrey.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
I knew it was going to be a top guy.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Five days later, on a Tuesday, it's Andrew's funeral and
it's held at Our Lady of Victory's Catholic Church in
Horsley Park. Melissa, who went to see Andrew the day before,
has been warned to expect a heavy media presence.
Speaker 6 (23:57):
The morning of, I just was just in a trance
until I actually got to the top of the street
that the fire station and church is on because they're
both on the same street, and then we're going to
do a big lap around Halsey Park so we could
go past the station one last time with him. That
(24:19):
I was just like, wow, this is it.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
This is real.
Speaker 7 (24:22):
Like I got out of the car.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
It was like click click click click click, all these
cameras everywhere, and it's like, oh my goodness. I actually
felt like I was going to faint or pass it out.
I was just like, wow, this is too much.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Hundreds so people have turned up to pay their respects,
and there's the haka performed in his honor. Melissa is
walking alongside her and Andrew's family behind his caskets while
holding daughter Charlotte's in her arms. On both her left
and right sides, officers are lined up doing the guard
of honor. She has picked out a few songs to
(24:56):
play doing the service. A cover of Westlives Me Up
is one of them. Inside the church, after Andrew's best
friend and commissioner Shane delivers their eulogies, Charlotte has given
her dad's posthumous medal for bravery to Shane. Andrews and
Jeffrey's funerals were the toughest to attend in his career.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Firstly, can I can I say to Melissa and did
baby Charlotte.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I was wearing one of these smart watches, and suddenly
I was getting these alarms come from my watch.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
And I hadn't seen it before.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
But I was sitting in the pews in the church,
and I was getting excessive heart rates and the watch
knew that I wasn't moving, so it was actually triggering
quite a concern. And I think what that I didn't
realize at the time. I joked about it and said,
oh wow, my heart rate must be going up, but
(25:57):
I didn't realize quite how bad it was. I just
felt this real sense of obligation to try and pay
tribute to two remarkable, selfless individuals that, for the want
of nothing in return, had gone out to serve and
protect and save as many and as much as they
possibly could, not just in their local community, but communities
(26:21):
much further afield, and they paid the ultimate price in
the most awful of accidents imaginable. And not only was
I seeking to pay tribute to jeff and Andrew in
those specific examples, to those remarkable individuals in the back
seat who whilst they came away with their lives, they
(26:45):
came away with limited physical injuries, thank goodness, but you know,
an emotional toll, emotional scarring.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
That will be with them for the rest of their life.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
And I think they're amazing young men that have come
through a very difficult time. And of course paying tribute
to the families of Jeff and Andrew, to the brigade
more broadly, and in particular those little children who were
(27:19):
growing up without their dad's, you know, a most precious
significant part of their lives. They've got to do it
differently than many others. And their dads loved them enormously,
and I tried to articulate that, you know, it was
no fault of their own, it was their dads were
(27:39):
very very special people, and they should always remember that.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
The Green Bottle Creek bushfire was extinguished on the tenth
of February twenty twenty, and the fire season reported over
on the thirty first or March the same year. That
fire season ended up taking twenty six lives, twenty were
civilians and six were FIREFIGHTERSY nineteen twenty bushfire season turned
(28:03):
out to be the dead list and worst in New
South Wales history with more than six point two percent
of the state burns.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
So when you think about five and a half million
hectares of the state that burned, which is about six
or seven percent of the state, given it's an eighty
million hectares state, the reality is it was burning out
twenty to twenty five percent of the forested country, which
is a huge environmental toll. And of course we ended
(28:33):
up seeing just under two and a half thousand homes destroyed. Importantly,
we should recognize that firefighters and community in the same
burn scar area saved over fourteen thousand homes.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
So the efforts were extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
For a tim who ended up leaving the New South
Wales RFS, the accident left deep scars to deal with
what had happened to him. It will turn to our
goal to deal with this trauma. He says he declined
to help offered in the beginning, and that it was
only when he was at his lowest point sitting outside
his parents' house, after a fellow RFIs volunteer had approached him,
(29:13):
that he would eventually seek help.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
I've been in the hospital the night before.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah, yeah, taken a large amount of valium, you know,
not more or less tempted to take me bone off,
and so basically ended up in hospital that night.
Speaker 4 (29:36):
In an emergency ward.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
And yeah, he saw me sitting out the front of
my parents there and I still had the kenula thing
in my arm.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
And.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
He stopped past and to say hello, and he said, look,
you guys, you're right.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
He guess you've been in hospital.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
And I said, yeah, look, you know it's a big deal,
and ID anyway, I ended up going to the pub
again that afternoon, and then I got a phone call
from signing the RFS and I said, well, we're just
rinking alta to say, very so odd and I said, no,
(30:15):
it's not.
Speaker 4 (30:15):
A lot of.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Tim was eventually diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and
went on to see a psychologist for six months. There,
he says he was given different types of therapy on
how to deal with his trauma. Something here today looks
back at as successful. Last year, for the anniversary, he
drove down to the memorial site. He looks back at
his time at the RFS with great memories and wishes
(30:41):
one day to return it to the organization.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I still have.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
One of things every now and then his sort of
mood mood swings. I guess look, everyone everyone does, but
sometimes it's probably a little bit worse than Yeah, things
have been positive.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
The year following the accident, Shane made a tough decision
to step down as the new South Wales RFS Commissioner
after serving the organization for almost thirty five years and
the role for twelve.
Speaker 8 (31:22):
Plea lead you South while through a catastrophic bushfire season.
Now the state's Rural Fire Service Commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons will
be stepping down from the top job.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
After that, he took on a new government role before
leaving for good last year. He today volunteers with a
youth trauma organization called Youth in Search.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Wouldn't it be great if we could see programs being
delivered right across our nation, targeting where young people need
that assistance and support, and that's the goal to change
the lives of young people, one heart at a time.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
It really matters.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
For Melissa, it was tough to adjust the new way
of life without Andrew in it, but she says she
had a lot of support around her, both from friends, family,
the brigade and also Shane.
Speaker 6 (32:12):
She liked.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Tim also went to see a counselor and has since
rejoined the RFS. She says she carries a piece of
Andrew with her every day. For his birthdays, she and
their daughter Charlotte, eat cake and release balloons in the
colors of his favorite NURL team, the West Tigers. When
he and Jeffrey's anniversary comes around, they sometimes drive down
(32:36):
to the crash site to have a drink and eat lunch.
There's a playground built there in honor of Andrew and
Jeffrey for both their kids to play out. She says
that Charlotte talks about him a lot.
Speaker 6 (32:48):
The little white butterflies that you always see that it's
flying around, she thinks they're her dad.
Speaker 7 (32:52):
So every time she sees a white butterfly, it's like, Mom,
that's Dad. He's here, so yeah, so that's nice.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Not long after the fire season had officially ended, there
was a Royal Commission into the National Natural Disaster Arrangements
Report published in response to the extreme season.
Speaker 8 (33:19):
The Royal Commission will examine three main issues, the coordination
of disaster management, improving preparedness and resilience, including climate change,
and powers to decleaar A national state of emergency, focusing
on responsibility not playing.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
But although the Royal Commission was born out of the
twenty nineteen twenty season, the report also focuses on how
a future Australia can best prepare for natural disasters. Besides
establishing that climate driven natural hazards are expected to become
more frequent, natural disasters like bushfires are not just predicted
(33:56):
to increase, but also be more dangerous due to intensifiedsfall
that increases fuel load. As for Australia's twenty twenty three
fire season that officially began in October, a month after
the Bureau of Meteorology declared an ALNU event, experts are
warning about the excessive fewl loads that have been built
up under the three years of la Ninia Shane, who
(34:18):
is in communication with the new South Wales RFS Commissioner
and some of the RFS team, says they're already seeing
extremely significant and aggressive fire behavior that's been destructive and
proven deadly.
Speaker 5 (34:31):
It's a in your face reminder that the fire season
is upon us and people need to be prepared. They
need to prepare their home and prepare their property, prepare
themselves and their families. What are they going to do
now before they're directly threatened by fire? And what are
they going to do in the event that they are
threatened by fire this season? As the RFS has already
(34:52):
said very clearly, these fires are also burning in areas
that were burned during nineteen twenty, So you're only talking
fire activity of four or five years ago. Don't think
because you are burnt in nineteen twenty or burnt around
you in nineteen twenty, that it won't happen again. And
everyone else who hasn't pained, everyone needs to be prepared.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
You have listened to seven You, Spectrum Heroes and Heartbreak
Australia's Deadly Greenwattle Creek Bushfire. This episode was voiced and
produced by me Marlon Haglund. If you or someone you
know is struggling with mental health, you can call Lifeline
on thirteen eleven fourteen, or call Triple zero in an
emergency
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