Above: Reflecting on a lucky escape, Toolangi resident Nick Kelly assesses the damage with Toolangi CFA member Bruce McClements and his son Joshua Kelly, also a brigade member. 65347
By Kath Gannaway
Nick and Marianne Kelly awoke at around 5.20am on Wednesday, 25 May, to the smell of smoke and rushing outside discovered Mr Kelly’s Range Rover in flames.
Mr Kelly said his attempts to douse the flames with a fire extinguisher were futile due to the intensity of the fire.
Calling to his wife to phone the fire brigade, he moved her car out of the carport.
“It was a total shock; I had filled it up with petrol and it hadn’t been driven since Sunday,” he said. “You just don’t expect a car to self-immolate.”
As former Toolangi CFA captain Bruce McClements inspected the burnt-out car hours later, he described the situation as “… one of the luckiest saves I’ve seen.”
“The car was leaking petrol when the Toolangi crew arrived, and you can see the intensity of the fire, right next to the wall of the house,” he said pointing to the buckled, blackened roof. “I would say another two minutes and they would have lost the house.”
Mr McClements said the crew, many of them new recruits after the Black Saturday bushfires, had done everything right.
“I’m tremendously proud of them,” he said.
The Toolangi crew were supported by units from Seville, Kinglake, Dixons Creek and Healesville.
Mr Kelly, a former Toolangi brigade member, said while the wait for the brigade to arrive was tortuous, they were on the scene with a crew of around 13 members within about 10 minutes.
“They arrived much quicker than I expected, even though it seemed like a long time, and they were able to put the fire out and move the car away from the house,” he said.
“They did an excellent job.”
