Here’s a good news article to come out of the Victorian bushfires;
By Cheryl Critchley
Source: The Daily Telegraph (article & photo)
February 12, 2009
ARMED with only a garden hose, tradie Peter Thorneycroft didn’t hesitate before climbing on to the roof of Kinglake’s National Park Hotel.
With dozens of children sheltered in the hotel’s cool room, he knew it was the only way to put out embers threatening to ignite the building.
Despite struggling with an arm injury, the 43-year-old also fought the embers with buckets of water handed up by brave locals.
The tiler and paver spent an hour dousing smouldering ash and wetting vents and drains with water from a parked semi-trailer.
More than 400 locals who had piled into 200 cars around the hotel were also at risk if the pub had gone up.
“It was like a cyclone, like a tornado,” Mr Thorneycroft said yesterday.
“The ground was constantly shaking. It was absolutely deafening. It was just complete darkness. I never panic . . . (but) I was s……g myself.”
The drama began when locals flocked to the pub after realising the intensity of the inferno. They bashed the locked door down and ushered about 20 women and children into the cool room.
Tanya Cadman, 41, was in her vehicle with son Kyle, 11, daughter Montana, 8, and Scottish terrier Pippi.
Ms Cadman, who photographed Mr Thorneycroft on the roof, said if he hadn’t acted the pub would have burnt and taken the cars with it. “The houses opposite the pub, they had all exploded,” she said.
“A couple of cars in the car park exploded. I thought we were all gone.”
Eleven years after losing his Kinglake home in a fire, Mr Thorneycroft left his new home to defend the pub. Miraculously the house survived.
Wife Jodie, 41, had left the area but kept in constant phone contact during the drama.
“Everyone was just in hysterics,” she said.
Mr Thorneycroft was modest about his bravery, insisting others were just as selfless.
“There’s no one who’s heroic, you just do it,” he said. “No one went out of their way because they wanted to be a hero. Everyone’s forgotten about their own lives. They just did what they did.”
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