Glowing praise

By Kath Gannaway
ALLAN Robertson was left with just a saddle and the clothes he was wearing when a rogue ember burnt his house to the ground last week.
Grateful to have escaped with his life, and already making plans to rebuild his Wesburn home, Mr Robertson’s said his message to people in the valley was never trust a cold ember.
“The thing about bloody embers … it’s like a gun that is always loaded,” he said. “They’re never out.”
Mr Robertson, said he had checked and double checked the embers from his wood fire before putting them out in a plastic bucket on the timber deck.
“They were stone cold,” he said.
He said he was more overtired than he’s been for a long time and went to bed on Tuesday morning after working a night shift as a meat boner.
“I was lucky the smell of the burning plastic kicked in. If I hadn’t smelled it, maybe the smoke would have got to me,” he said.
CFA units from Wesburn, Warburton and Yarra Junction were called to the fire in Edward Street, Wesburn, at 1.30pm but were unable to save the house.
“It was fully involved when the first crews arrived on the scene,” CFA operations officer Chris Jacobsen told the Mail.
Mr Jacobsen said crews worked cautiously to get the fire under control because of gas bottles and underground power which were still connected.
“It appears embers, believed to be cold, have reignited next to flammable materials and started the fire,” Mr Jacobson said.
He added his own warning to Mr Robertson’s.
“People should remove embers from fire places in a steel bucket and when they dispose of them make sure it’s in a safe area completely away from anything remotely flammable,” he said.
“Hot coals can remain insulated within the ash and something like a change of weather conditions can see them reignite.”
For the third generation Queensland horseman who bought the Wesburn property a few years ago to set up his own business educating horses, the fire has reaffirmed his love for the Yarra Valley and the people.
“What blew me out more than the fire was the people,” he said.
“It’s showed me there are a lot of real fair-dinkum people around here.
“Someone brought me a mobile phone on the spot, virtually before the fire was even out.
“I was offered a place to stay, clothes … people have been fantastic and I appreciate everything that everybody has done.”
Mr Robertson was reluctant to put the generosity of the locals down to “Karma” but for many people who know the down-to-earth horseman, the saying “what goes round, comes round,” comes to mind.
During last season’s bushfires in Yarra Junction and Kinglake he worked through the night moving horses to safety and he does his bit also to look after members of the local pony club.
The loss of thousands of dollars worth of treasured horse books and a life-time of photos are the hardest things to deal with but Mr Robertson is adamant he has too much to be grateful for to let the devastation get the upper hand.
“I’ve got my hat back and my “cowdy” boots and I can tell you an atom bomb wouldn’t move me away from this place … I love it.”