Toolangi CFA, back row, left to right: Maria Lissenburg, Michael Van De Ven, Robert Van De Ven, Kelley Walker*, Peter McMahon, Bruce McClements and Brian Wright; middle row, Steven Van De Ven, Bruce Deefholts*, Shannon Lissenburg, Anthony Toscano**, Angus Rose, Ben Rose, Lauren Rose, Nicola Rose, Heather Van De Ven, Jordyn Dash and Ali Rees*; front row, David Ford, Bob Pocket, Max Franchin, Mal Sissins, David Overton*, Michael Nardella*, Yvonne Sissins, Christine Dash, Riley Dash. Not in photo: Gary Dash, Peter Croney, Eric Watts, Jeff Cornell, Sandra Cornell, Chris Van De Ven, Paul Van Der Meer, Trevor Binz, John Widdows, Bill Williams, Jack Walhout, Lisa Carew, Russell Parr*, Tristan Nardella*, Dean Fox*, Aiden Fox*, Joseph Kelly, Joshua Kelly (*new recruit, **returning member).
By Kath Gannaway
TOOLANGI was surrounded by fire on Black Saturday.
From Kinglake through Castella on one front, from Dixons Creek on another, and a third front coming up from Chum Creek, the fire raced towards the top of the mountain, then stopped, less than half a kilometre from Toolangi central in some places.
To the north, fires at Glenburn and Murrindindi were also raging.
For the local brigade their role in the February fires started down around Gippsland in the week leading up to Black Saturday. And it didn’t stop for four weeks after as the constant threat of fires still burning around Healesville – and with bush smouldering all around – had brigade members involved in a 24/7 routine of back-burning and blacking out.
As Toolangi prepares for another fire season they have a mixed crew of experienced firefighters and nine new recruits trained up to do their bit for Toolangi, and other communities.
Maria Lissenburg has been with the brigade for five years.
She was part of a Toolangi crew which had spent all day blacking out near Churchill the day before Black Saturday and, along with 18-year-old son Shannon, part of the Toolangi brigade’s response in Yarra Glen, Steels Creek and Dixons Creek.
The Toolangi tanker had left early in the day to join the strike team at Healesville and, along with Toolangi’s slip-on ended up part of the force of CFA units from around the valley and beyond battling to save homes and lives from Yarra Glen through Steels Creek and Dixons Creek.
Toolangi’s third crew, including Maria, joined them in the borrowed Healesville tanker as the situation worsened. Any hope that that fire could be stopped on the valley floor was dashed and with a wind change sending the fire up the mountain Maria’s crew were sent home to protect local assets.
They made it up The Slide, but with fires burning all around the decision was made to wait it out in the relative clearing at the top before heading into Toolangi.
Maria’s husband, Peter, and 22-year-old daughter Becky were at home at Castella less than a kilometre away fighting to save the family home. Two other houses on the property were lost in the blaze.
“All I could do was wait and hope. I knew there was nothing I could do at that point and it would have been stupid to try to get through to either home, or to the station,” Maria said.
“I would have liked to go straight home but we were told to go straight back to the station.
“Bruce (captain Bruce McClements) told me later he didn’t want us going home without support … not knowing what we might find there.”
Maria said her overriding memory of Black Saturday is the huge scale of it all and that it was personal – fighting to save houses and lives in a familiar landscape.
“Seeing how a fire can just destroy so much, and destroy it so totally is something I will never forget, and, hopefully, will never see again.”
Bruce Deefholts is one of the new recruits who lived through the fire threat and sees being part of the local brigade as a positive way of both becoming more informed and prepared for the future, as well as making an active contribution to the community.
He admits to being under-prepared, both physically and mentally for the ordeal which he and his family found themselves in.
With his wife Vera just a month away from giving birth to their third child, he moved the family to a neighbour’s house and says there was reassurance in being around people who were long-time residents.
The Deefholts have had the Toolangi house for 10 years and have lived on the mountain for the past three years.
“We had gone to the fireguard meetings and thought: “OK, it sounds like it’s happened before. It sounded like we could manage if we had the right things in place, but after that Saturday, I’m not really sure,” Bruce said.
Joining the brigade has given him a better understanding of both fire and human behaviour.
“I have a better concept of what to do, but more than anything else, from what I have seen, working with other brigades and watching experienced people, it’s about having faith in that experience, being part of a crew and believing in those people.
“I feel like I’m in good hands.”
