Stories

Pat took over the Aireys Inlet pub seven months before Ash Wednesday. He was in Lorne when the fire came through, before being escorted back to what remained of the Aireys pub the next day.

Generations of the Hughes family have enjoyed the natural environment of the Fairhaven area. On February 16 Howard was at the beach when he saw smoke in the direction of Lorne.

On February 16, Mark and his wife and their two young children were visiting the family beach house on Lialeeta Road in Fairhaven. In the morning they visited the beach, and later that afternoon the water at their house stopped running and they noticed smoke on the horizon in the direction of Lorne.

Christine spent Ash Wednesday separated from her husband Ian, who was a member of the Aireys Inlet fire brigade.

Stephen’s family was in the latter stages of building a holiday home on Sandy Gully when the disaster struck. He stayed up all night listening to the news from his home in Melbourne.

John was a city lawyer who found his way to Aireys Inlet to help combat the approaching blaze. His memories of death and destruction have given him nightmares since.

David has been a builder in the district since the time of Ash Wednesday. On February 16 he was on the way back from Geelong to Lorne when he was stopped at a road block in Aireys Inlet, whereupon he put some CFA overalls on and waited to assist with the fire fighting response.

The Ethell family saved the hall, and the hall saved them. Bill and Fiona and their two children Bob and Jenny had to dodge flames and falling power poles to get to the Aireys Inlet Hall, where they managed to douse sections of the building that caught fire as the front came through.

Greg lived in a caravan on the hill behind Fairhaven. It wasn’t until the last moments that he chose to evacuate to the limited safety of the area near the bottom shops.