We could not get around collapsed trees. It had not rained in months.

Why was there no information passed onto residents?

What happened to our situation reports and our calls for assistance?

I have a record of a draft Awareness Message with a time of 2.30pm this was not released.

Another draft for an Urgent Threat Message with a time of 3pm, this was not released.

We asked if we could release an Awareness Message at approx 13:30 hrs, which was denied

by the incident controller.

At 16:25 we were once again not able to release any messages.

We had no warning that there was a fire nearby. I still hear it roaring.

We had invested in a scanner. We heard the mayday call from the CFA screaming for help.

The emergency personnel could do nothing but watch.

I was surprised it was only 45 minutes,

the front.

Gas bottles were going off and LPG tanks like huge Bunsen burners

The fire roared and

I could not be heard.

The fire sped past breaks. We could not be evacuated.

People who wanted to evacuate had

nowhere to go, the Dederang evacuation point was not open. There was no one available to open it.

Unable to get through, phones or roads, blocked. The whole area had been made a crime scene!

Someone must know if the houses are standing or not.

Wearing a red bracelet so I could go up the mountain, I was able to join one of the Marysville Valentine’s Day buses. We were not allowed to get off the bus.

My husband was inside a double body bag. There were two plastic containers – one labelled “Dental” –

there was a bag full of bones in no particular order. Throughout the bones were many fully grown maggots.

The bones were covered in soot, ash and dirt.

A year has passed, so what has changed? We were visited by looters.

Filled in more forms. Centrelink. If you earn less than this you are eligible for a grant.

I cannot forget.

I am the aunt of my niece who burned alive in her home along with her husband and their children.

I attempted to call 000, several times, without success.

I was unaware of the change in wind.

Overhead a raging wind was battering a sulphur-crested cockatoo, ruffling its feathers as it flew east.

The fire roared and

I could not be heard.

Shirley Laskin, 2012

Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS