Steve and Sally Pierrehumbert lost their Chum Creek home but escaped the blaze by hiding in their cellar.
By Melissa Meehan
TWO wine lovers are toasting their survival after taking refuge in their wine cellar as a fireball of destruction destroyed their house above.
Steve and Sally Pierrehumbert sought refuge in their cellar as Saturday night’s blaze razed their Chum Creek home.
“We decided to fight the fire but soon it was coming on all fronts,” Steve said.
“We had always planned to use the cellar if we needed it but I guess we didn’t expect to.
“There was complete silence and then the roar of the fire and it was here within five minutes.”
Their house was gutted while they waited underground for the situation to become safe.
“Honestly, I can’t tell you how long we were in there for,” Steve said.
“It could have been five minutes or five days. I just don’t know.”
Expecting a long wait in the cellar, they did what the two wine lovers would be expected to do, “break open a bottle of wine and wait for it to pass over”.
Both were positive when they spoke to The Mail.
“We are alive,” Sally said. “We are much better off than some.”
And, defiantly – “this is our home we will definitely rebuild.”
Another tale of survival comes from Yarra Glen.
The story there is that of an elderly woman and her husband who were forced to flee the blaze as it reached their home.
Too late to leave Yarra Glen, the woman and her husband sought refuge in old horse stables on their property where they covered themselves with old horse blankets.
With the stables falling around them and the unbearable radiant heat surrounding them, the woman and her husband were able to escape the full brunt of the fire without harm.
