A family narrowly escaped disaster as they huddled inside a shipping container while a raging fire consumed their home.
Firefighters outside were engaged in intense efforts to control one of the state’s most formidable blazes, known as the Longwood fire.
Amidst the chaos, Bafunno, her 59-year-old daughter, and her 92-year-old brother, Peter Palmieri, faced a tense and prolonged wait for rescue.
Relief finally came on Saturday morning when a Police Air Wing helicopter arrived to evacuate them to safety.
“They are truly incredible. Everyone involved in the rescue was just wonderful,” Bafunno remarked, praising the rescuers.
Peter had believed the house he constructed in 1976 was resistant to fire, but the sheer force of this blaze was unlike anything he had encountered before.
An ember attack overwhelmed the property.
“Suddenly, I don’t know maybe the heat it blew up the wall over the home, it blew up,” he said.
“Everywhere you look it looked like a war, sparks everywhere.”
Isabel’s daughter braved the flames to save the family cat.
“We had to run into the house and it was all smoke, and we couldn’t see a thing, you know,” she said.
Their beloved Bubba is recovering at a nearby vet.
Air Wing Tactical Flight Officer LSC Brittany Smith said they were extremely lucky.
“By no means do we encourage people to shelter in shipping containers, however on this occasion all I can say is this family is extremely lucky,” she said.
“It was good we were able to get in and get them out.”
Many Victorians are returning home for the first time.
In Yarck, residents are only just being let back in, stepping into the aftermath of what the fire spared, and what it didn’t.
The Maroondah Highway is lined with the ruins of family homes, at least 11 have been lost in a town that has only about 30.
With fire bearing down on all sides, Bob Balsdon stood his ground armed with nothing more than a mop and a bucket.
“Yeah, at one stage we had to because the fire truck had to go in the end,” he said.
“Nobody could get water so we just fought it with buckets and mops and shovels, whatever we could to save the house.”
Because it’s been so hard for crews to get into Yarck, they haven’t been able to assess the trees, so the Maroondah Highway has turned into a dangerous obstacle course.
