A letter from the Marysville mob to those who have been concerned. It's a little on the long side but it speaks volumes.

Hi all,
Lynne has kindly sent through the content of the letter.
It's worth the read!!
Brian

Thursday, February 19, 2009 3:27 PM
Subject: Here's the content of the letter from the Alleways

Dear Family & Friends,

We have been inundated with e-mails, text messages and phone messages
expressing your love and concern for our family and our friends in
Marysville, Buxton & Narbethong. We are deeply moved and humbled by the
outpouring of your love, concern and offers of help and thank you all
for your support. It will take us a long time to catch up personally
with all of you but I hope this letter will answer a lot of your questions.

To begin at the beginning, on Saturday 7^th February Claire was
bushwalking in the Otways which was cooler and pleasant, Murray was
staying with a friend in Narbethong and Diane & David were at home. The
weather forecast was for 46^o C & strong north easterly winds and later
in the afternoon a southerly change and cool change. In preparation for
the conditions Diane cleared our gutters and raked around the house and
David filled and checked our standby generator.

After that we closed the house and took it easy on what was going to be
a very hot day. Just after 3:00pm Diane received a S.E.S. pager call to
assist in removing a tree that had fallen on the Maroondah Highway near
Buxton, caused by the very strong winds. While she was on this call they
observed a plume of smoke over the Black Range to our North East. As
they proceeded to remove the tree the plume of smoke increased and
darkened and by the completion of their work it was clear that this fire
was moving rapidly to the south along the black range (30km? away).

Meanwhile, back at our house David receive a phone call from Murray at
Narbethong asking if he knew anything about the heavy smoke in the air.
David said he would look up the CFA web site and phone back. The phone
rang again; it was Jodie Murphy phoning from Buxton asking David if he
knew anything about heavy smoke in Buxton. At this stage the skies were
still blue and clear over our house. On the CFA website there was
information about a fire at Murrindindi mill but no nearer fires.

At this stage Diane returned home from her S.E.S. call and informed
David of the fire she had seen on the Black Range and it was decided
that David should go and collect Murray immediately and Jodie and her
1.5 year old twins should be asked to join us as her partner Leon was
away with work and her father Proinnsias and Mary were in Melbourne.
While David was away Diane busied herself filling all available
containers with water and clearing the area around the house.

While travelling over Mt Gordon to Narbethong David observed a line of
flames extending km's along the Black Range and moving very quickly.
David picked up Murray and advised the people he was staying with to
leave as they are surrounded on all sides by thick forest. After
leaving, within a kilometer, David & Murray noticed that a grass fire
extending 200-300m had started on the ridge line 500m to their right
between Narbethong and Marysville. David and Murray returned to their
friends' house and advised them and their neighbours to leave
immediately. Driving along David tried to phone 000 but the line was too
busy and rang out continuously. Driving through Narbethong they tried to
alert the CFA but they had departed already (to fight the Murrindindi
fire?) on reaching Marysville they detoured by the CFA shed and informed
them and they said they would investigate.

On arriving home the family, with the help of Murray's friends from
Narbethong, busied themselves with fire preparations (e.g. blocking and
filling gutters) hosing down, starting the generator when the power
failed, etc, etc. While this was occurring Lynne Stone, Gayle Walters
and other friends from Marysville drove in saying they were evacuating
from Marysville to Alexandra. At this stage we received a call from an
S.E.S. member that an accident had happened, a tree had crushed a
vehicle in Marysville and someone was entrapped. David was on call as
the local ambulance officer and felt obliged to respond. After a short
discussion with Diane we both realized our roles in the S.E.S and
Ambulance put saving lives above higher priority than fire plan. David
left Diane & Murray to make their choice of implementing the fire plan
or to leave but both feeling comfortable with option of leaving. While
David was away Diane & Murray decided to take refuge with our people in
our valley at a neighbour's farm and return after the fire front had
passed. Murray diligently collected all of our musical instrument and
computers and put them in the van while Diane packed clothes and
important photographs.

In Marysville the sky was black with rolling clouds of smoke, high winds
and embers. The patient was suffering minor injuries but took
considerable time to be extricated from the car. Four ambulance officers
were in attendance and it was decided that the two officers resident in
the township would transport the patient to rendezvous with an Alexandra
ambulance so that the Marysville ambulance would be available for any
further calls.

When leaving Marysville David observed a wall of flame twice the height
of the trees (60-80m tall) come rapidly over Mt Strickland and descend
at very high speed into Marysville.

On returning to our house David found that Diane & Murray had departed
but a fire trailer had been deposited in the driveway. Judging he had a
little time to spare David started the fire pump and proceeded to hose
down around the house. At this time Diane returned with a neighbour to
retrieve the fire pump and explained they had retreated with other
neighbours to a farm 1km further down the valley surrounded by well
irrigated paddocks. The plan was to wait there until the fire front had
passed then if possible to return to our house and fight any ember attack.

In less than five minutes Diane's S.E.S. colleagues drove in. They had
just come down the valley from Marysville and informed us, in the
strongest terms, not to stay but to leave while it was still safe. The
sky was black and the deafening roar of the fire could be heard although
no flames were visible, Diane, David, Murray and Jodie decided to
evacuate to Alexandra. Throughout the journey we were engulfed with
smoke but saw little of the fire.

Alexandra was organized chaos with the high school and basketball courts
acting as emergency refuge centers. Countless volunteers tried their
best to assist with no power, high temperatures, wind, smoke and very
limited information. Little did we know a lot of Victoria was in a
similar condition and that the authorities information was way behind
the conditions on the ground.

Thankfully our lovely friends in Alexandra who were away for the weekend
offered us the use of there house (a thousand thankyous Ron & Penny).
Diane, David, Murray, Lynne, Jodie and the twins went to their house.
David also had the Marysville ambulance which had been taken to
Alexandra by other crew members and was still on call to assist. After
an hour or so David was called to attend some other incidents occurring
in Alexandra Township.

In his absence everyone else had been listening to the news that the
Alexandra was going to be under further ember attack. With the poor air
quality and fire risks it was decide this was not a safe place
(particularly for the twins) so we called other friends (lovely Kristen
& Max) at Tatong, near Benalla, a further 100kms away who said we were
most welcome at their place. Unaware of this David had made arrangements
for other Marysville ambulance officers to man the vehicle at the refuge
centers where they were staying.

At 1:30am on Sunday a very weary convoy of travelers arrived at Kristen
& Maxs'. After bedding down the twins we were fed, watered and tucked
into bed and collapsed till morning (another 1000 thanks). The morning
sun was an eerie red through the thick smoke at Tatong. Via phone calls
and the radio the enormity of the disaster and the loss of life of our
friends in Marysville was beginning to become evident.

Proinnsias and Mary were still in Melbourne and Jodie's partner was en
route by plane from QLD, when Mary's brother, offered the use of a
holiday house in Mt Martha that could accommodate us all (thank you John
& family). The Hume highway had been re-opened by then so we headed off
to Melbourne for a re-union and for Lynne to leave us and to be with her
family.

On Sunday afternoon, amidst many hugs and tears, Jodie was re-united
with her family and we were united with our daughter Claire & close
friends, Proinnsias & Mary. We had once again moved into luxurious
refugee accommodation (another 1000 thanks John & family). With many
mobile phones and a land line the thoughts of concerned family and
friends and offers of help began to inundate us. The love and concern
shown by all of you was overwhelming and humbling (everyone take a 1000
thanks).

At this stage everyone thought they had lost their houses and
possessions, as had many of our friends in Marysville. None of us felt
particularly sad about this loss, the gift of still being alive when so
many were dead or injured made such things seem paltry in comparison.

As Monday progressed more information came through from Marysville that
Diane & David's, Jodie & Leon's houses had survived more or less intact
but that Lynne, Proinnsias and Mary like many others would have no home
to go back to.

Jody, Leon and the twins and Diane, David, Claire and Murray got the all
clear to go home on Monday afternoon. Sadly by the time we reached
Healesville further fire outbreaks had closed the Maroondah Highway so
we had to turn around and head back to Mt. Martha.

Later that week our family moved down to another friend's holiday house
at Sorrento (thanks Cathy & her family) to be with other close friends
who were trapped in Marysville and spent the Saturday night on the footy
oval. The experiences they had been through made ours seem trivial in
comparison.

Over the following days contact was made with many of our Marysville
friends. We shared our stories and grieved for those injured or who had
lost their lives, those orphaned and those who lost their children.

By this stage the scale of the devastation had become known to the
world. We were unable to return home as the area was closed firstly as a
crime scene and secondly to make it safe for people to return (and the
fire is still going although many km's away).

On Sunday afternoon we finally drove home through 70-80km of
devastation. It is a bare and black vision of destroyed houses, burnt
road signs, fallen trees and dazed people standing, trying to work out
where to begin rebuilding their lives.

As we came nearer to home we saw a strange new landscape mixing the
familiar with the totally new. Houses are gone, there are new views
through once dense forest, all the surrounding hills are brown instead
of green, smoke hangs in the air and very few songbirds are singing.

As we drove up our driveway to the left the neighbour's house & sheds
(which he stayed and valiantly defended) has gone. Instead there is a
charred and collapsed mess.

Our front paddock is unburnt, but the back paddock is charred, trees are
down, fence posts burnt to below ground level. The fire has come to the
back of the sheds, the heat has curled the iron sheets off the wall.
There is ash in between the flyscreens and window glass. There are burnt
leaves lying in the bushes near the dining room. The reeds in the dam
are burnt to water level. Along the road the trees and road reserve are
burnt. And………. our house and sheds are as we left them!

We are constantly talking to the people who stayed put and to those who
are returning. Every person you meet has to be hugged and touched just
to make sure they are really still here. We are all overwhelmed by the
generosity of spirit being showered on our communities. Local halls are
filled with donated food, clothes and household supplies.

The towns may have been destroyed but the communities are still very
strong and surviving thanks to the help of you, our much larger community.

We will be in touch with you all very soon.

Much love to you all

Diane, David, Claire and Murray, Buster & Inka, (much loved dogs),
DaisyDuck, April, Missy, Cassie(3 cows) & chooks.

Cheers, Rowan