First thought for children’s safety

By Kath Gannaway
GLEN Johnston and partner Kate Richardson’s first thoughts after the bushfire roared through Narbethong was to get their little ones out of the town.
Waiting to travel back over the Black Spur on Thursday the couple spoke of their ordeal and their concerns for daughter Shannon, seven, and William, four, and other children who experienced the terror of living through the fire storm.
They were at the river on Saturday when they saw the smoke and had barely returned home when the fire came sweeping through.
“The roar of it coming over the hill was something I’ll never forget,” Glen said. “We had new tanks waiting to go in and they were just flying around, smashing into trees. The fire just roared over,” said Glen.
With Kate’s brother and a friend to help, and the benefit of having irrigation, the house was saved.
“The kids were petrified … we went to go, but stopped. We didn’t want to die on the road,” Kate says.
Shannon and William are staying with relatives and Kate said it had been hard knowing what – and how much – to say, especially to Shannon who goes to Marysville Primary School.
“We know there are people missing, but we just don’t know who,” said Kate. “Shannon was doing all right yesterday but today her eyes are all swollen and last night she had to sleep with photos of us to reassure her. She was very happy to see us this morning. You just don’t know how it will effect them.”
Glen and Kate have also seen too much.
They said they went into Marysville on Sunday morning and saw at ground level the aerial images of decimation that were shocking people around the country and the world.
“We just thought it would be a few houses, not the whole town flattened,” Glen said.
Kate described the town as eerily still, ghostly. “There was no-one walking around, just a couple of cars, slowly driving around the streets,” she said.
There were other things they didn’t want to think about, much less talk about.