By Kath Gannaway
NARBETHONG ski-hire owner Rosemary Sisson didn’t have to look far to find a couple of heroes when fire threatened to engulf her shop just one day into the snow season.
“These guys truly are my heroes,” she said of her CFA colleagues Narbethong captain Ray Eastaugh and fire-fighter Graham Watt.
Ms Sisson is a member of the Narbethong Fire Brigade which is just over the road from the shop.
“If it hadn’t been for them, I think I would have lost the lot,” she said last week, describing how a fire which started in the boot drying room spread with a vengeance to the next room.
The fire was already well underway when Ms Sisson called the brigade, but says the men assessed the situation and in pitch black crawled in under the smoke to bring the fire under control.
Units from Buxton, Marysville, Healesville, Lilydale and Bayswater attended the fire.
Everything in the boot room was destroyed including snow chains and other stock stored nearby.
“I know I’m unlucky to have a fire at all, but I feel extremely lucky to have only the losses I did,” she said.
“Another couple of minutes, and I don’t think I would have a shop at all.”
Ms Sisson, whose shop provided a safe haven for herself and 30 others on Black Saturday, said since opening in 2005 – on the Queen’s Birthday weekend – she has survived a burglary, Black Saturday, the global financial crisis and two of the three worst ski seasons.
“I’m still here, and I’m determined to keep going,” she said last week.
With snow on Lake Mountain, Ms Sisson has continued to trade and is aiming to be back to normal by school holidays.
