- Author
-
Bushfire CRC
- Title
- Day the Flames Came: Dwellingup 1961.
- Coporate
- Bushfire CRC, Australia
- Keywords
-
brush fires
|
wildland fires
|
forest fires
|
survival
|
weather effects
|
lightning
|
fire fighters
|
fire storms
- Identifiers
- town of Dwellingup, south of Perth, January 24, 1961
- Abstract
- The town of Dwellingup which is about 100 kilometres south of Perth. was almost completely destroyed by bushfire in January 24 1961. This film, developed by CALM, FESA and Bushfire CRC, is the story of that day as told by members of the Dwellingup community and Forest Department staff. We see images and hear harrowing descriptions about their experiences of the fire and their survival on the day the flames came. A combination of factors led to the build up of the extreme fIre weather conditions before the fire - a long summer drought, a cyclone to the north that brought about a series of Lightning strikes igniting fires and a long period of very hot dry windy weather conditions in the Dwellingup region and other parts of the southwest of Western Australia. Despite the best efforts of the firefighters, several of the lightning-caused fires joined up and the resultant fire storm ravaged Dwellingup and nearby Holyoake and Nanga forest settlements. Frank Campbell, Bruce Beggs, Jo Holland, Joy and Ted Cracknell, a former residents of Dwellingup, tell their stories about the fire that destroyed their town. Frank, who was the initial Controller of the fire talks about his feelings as the town burns around him and his concerns for his wife and new infant who are forced to shelter with other families at the sports oval. Bruce Beggs, who took over as Controller, had to face the awful prospect of having to account for more than 90 missing persons during the height of the fire. Ted Cracknell a former Forest Officer talks about the horrendous conditions he and fellow Dwellingup residents and fire fighters faced as their homes and families were threatened by the fire storm. His wife Joy paints the horrifying picture of the roise of the fire that 'sounded like a thousand trains', and the description of the embers from the fire that were catching alight in the hair of her children as they were forced to flee in the back of a utility vehicle. Their survival as they huddle under towels on a road as the extreme fire descended upon them is nothing short of a miracle. In the aftermath, nearly the entire town was destroyed - the hospital, town hall. nearby timber villages, 161 homes, 74 cars, the mill, the church, police station, town hail and ForestS Department headquarters were all gone - but miracously not one person died.