Chapter 01

Flames of Desire

by

Major Mount

First Flame

Ten year old Ernie Wells sits staring into the flames of the camp-fire. He’s been bush-walking and camping-out all of his young life because his parents are avid campers and bush-walkers, but this is the first time he’s sat at a wood camp-fire or seen burning wood in real life and not on television. His parents and their friends who take him camping and teach him how to survive in the wild always have a gas stove they use to cook on as well as gas or battery operated electric lanterns for light. This time he’s with the scout troop of some friends from his school and they’ve got a wood fire going. Ernie is entranced by the play of the flames and their beautiful dance.

One of the other boys grins as he asks, “What’s up, Ernie? Never seen a camp-fire before?” As he thinks it’s good fun to stir the new kid.

Ernie knows he’s being stirred up to be made fun of, but he shrugs it off and says, “Actually, no. This is the first time I’ve seen a fire or a flame that wasn’t a little gas burner to cook with.” The news surprises them all because they all know how much of a bush-walker and a camper he is.

Another asks, “What about bushfires? Ever seen one?”

“Only on television, and this is different to what you see on TV.”

They talk about this oddity of life for some time. Then they crawl into their sleeping bags to go to sleep for the night.

Another First

About four weeks after the camping trip Ernie is walking home from school when he sees a big cloud of smoke in the sky nearby. He detours that way and he finds the local fire-fighters are busy trying to put out a fire in the old sawmill a couple of streets over from where he lives.

He stands a bit down the street to watch the fire as he’s mesmerised by the rhythm and dance of the flames. He’s entranced by the beauty of what he sees. After a few minutes he notices there’s a pattern to the flames and the fire. He thought he saw one in each of the camp-fires they had on the weekend camping trip. However, they were small and very contained while this fire is large and unconstrained, which makes the patterns more complex and much easier for him to see them.

After a few minutes he notices something odd but he can’t identify it or why he feels the fire is about to get a lot worse at one of the stacks of timber. He moves a few metres to where a fire-fighter is standing and watching the fire while he directs others. Ernie touches the man’s arm and points at the stack of timber while saying, “That’s about to get much worse. Best pull your people back a bit.”

The man looks at the boy, half smiles, and says, “I think we’ve got it under control now.”

Shaking his head no Ernie says, “That stack is about to explode.”

The man looks at him for a moment, then he turns his head to look at the stack, but he can’t see anything wrong, yet something in his gut tells him to listen to the boy. He activates his radio and orders the fire-fighters near that stack to back up four or five metres. They all turn to stare at him because they’re only just getting this part of the fire under control, but he’s in charge so they do what they’re told to do by him.

They’re back four metres when the stack concerned blooms out in a huge fireball that expands to about three metres out from where it had been to more than cover the area where the fire-fighters had just left. They all turn to stare at their boss who’d just pulled them out of the danger zone, and he’s looking down at the boy standing beside him.

The fire commander says, “I don’t know how you knew that’d go, but thanks for the warning, lad.” He turns back to organising the fight against this fire before it can spread to the adjacent properties.

Ernie stands and watches the fire, after a few more minutes he can see they’ve got it beaten so he turns to head on his way home again. The fire commander sees him starting to leave and asks, “Aren’t you going to wait to see if we beat it?”

Ernie gives a half smile as he says, “You’ve beaten it. It has no will or energy left. Now all you have to do is to dowse it and clean it up.”

The man looks at Ernie with wide eyes, turns to look at the fire, and back to Ernie. It seems to him the fire is just as big as before, but he accepts the kid is seeing something he isn’t, because he had before. He watches while the boy walks off down the street.

Five minutes after the kid leaves the fire-fighters are advancing on all fronts while they put the fire out. No issues, no troubles, just hose down what’s left and watch the ashes. Fifteen minutes later they’re all busy packing up their gear.

Back at the fire station they sit down to talk about the fire and the way their commander got them to back out just before the explosion. They’re all stunned to hear he ordered them back on the advice of the boy, and they all wonder how the boy knew it was going to happen.

After this incident Ernie goes to every fire he hears about and can reach. He loves watching the beauty of the fire and the dancing flames.

Note: The post fire investigation found the cause of the wood stack explosion to be some drums of petrol stored on the other side of the stack. It took a while for them to heat up and expand enough for the fumes to burst the drums, then they went up in a huge ball of fire.

Interlude

Soon after the fire in the sawmill Ernie’s family moves their residence again. They live in, or around, the Sydney Metropolitan Area, but only on the outskirts of it and never deep inside the urban sprawl. His parents don’t like living in an urban environment despite having to work in one. They frequently move work and living locations to see if they can shorten the trip to work. Thus they live in most of the outer suburbs that border on parkland and forest areas. Places like Lucas Heights, Engadine, Heathcote, Sutherland, Asquith, Glenbrook, and Richmond; any place where they can get to work in less than two hours by public transport or ninety minutes by car. Luckily the work they do is in high demand and they always have offers from companies, thus their place of work varies from the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) to Parramatta, North Sydney, Pymble, and Liverpool. However, none of the people they work for operate outside of the state capital cities and they aren’t interested in leaving New South Wales. They always choose houses with bush or forest on one side and never three other houses. Sometimes the nearest neighbours are over half a kilometre away.

Thus Ernie grows up wandering around in what amounts to a giant yard because the scrub and forest is part of his daily playing area. His parents teach him to be careful, independent, caring of others, and able to look after himself. They get him enrolled in a first aid course while still below the age the organisers normally accept students, and a friend of theirs gives Ernie bush survival training as well. He’s a city boy who’s very much at home in the bush, and he loves being in the bush.

Ernie has encounters with the local wildlife, while most of them aren’t a danger some could be: such as large kangaroos, poisonous snakes and spiders, feral dogs and cats. Ernie is taught how to deal with such animals and how to prepare for them. So when he’s in a confrontation with the dangerous animals he’s able to protect himself and those with him from the attacks. By the time he’s ten years old Ernie is well trained in remaining calm and to think straight in an emergency of any sort. A side result of this is he doesn’t get frightened or scared because he knows how to deal with trouble.

Fire-storm

An Acorn

Sixteen year old Ernie Wells and his family move to the town of Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney on the advice of a good friend of his mother who’s living there. They end up renting a nice house with bushland at the back fence in the street called Maple Grove, just down from their friend.

Early January, a month after they move in, the state is experiencing one of the hottest and driest summers for generations. To make matters worse they had one of the best springs in decades and everything just bloomed in its growth during the spring. However, now it’s almost all dead and it’s a major fire risk. A few bushfires have been fought in the area with a lot more all over the states of New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria.

There’s a bushfire raging in the valley to the south so Ernie is out on Overcliff Track at the top of the cliffs to watch the fire below and to the west. Already the fire has gone up some of the valley walls to the west and moved into the bush on the ridge spurs south of the Fairmont Resort. The fire-fighters from all around the area are busy trying to hold the fire back. The local fire service groups are out at the resort and some are on the spurs across the valley from where Ernie is sitting. He’s watching the fire while it moves up the valley and spreads to the side into the gullies. He’s not too concerned about his position since there’s not much for the fire to burn on the cliff wall below where he is, despite the high temperature of the air rising out of the valley.

About an hour after Ernie takes up his post, along with a large bag of cool drinks which he expects he’ll need while there, a policewoman walks up to him. He’s surprised she’s patrolling the track.

She says, “You should move back into town. The fire could come up the mountain here or just to the north and trap you out here.”

He looks up at her from the folding seat he’s on as he says, “I’m OK, here! The fire is going to go north-west. The wind and the heat from it is sending it that way. However, I’m concerned about them,” while he waves at the group of fire-fighters on the narrow ridges opposite them. “I don’t know if they can see it, but the fire in the valley has spread to the west and it’ll race up the next gulley due to the hot air of the fire pulling it up. They’ll be cut off if they don’t get off that ridge soon. The ones on the next couple of ridges are at risk as well, but they have a bit more time.”

She looks at him, then she turns to look across the valley. Ernie gets out his tablet to check Google Maps before saying, “They should pull all their people back to the edge of the resort golf course and hold it there. There’s nothing they can do to save the forest on those ridges now. The amount of brush is way too much for them to handle with safety.”

The policewoman watches the fire in the valley for a moment, then she pulls out a mobile phone. She calls a number and passes on what Ernie told her about the fire. A moment later they watch while the fire-fighters on the ridges all pack up their gear and move out. They soon lose sight of them in the bush. Within a few minutes of them leaving the area there’s a giant plume of flame when the fire rushes up the narrow gulley to burst onto the ridges on each side of the gully. The policewoman turns to look at the boy who’d told her that’d happen, but he told her a few minutes ago. She takes his name and contact details before moving on to make sure all of the people on the trail know of the risks of being out on the track today.

The local fire-fighters end up containing this fire at the fire-line they set up along the resort golf course and at the head of the valley. But it takes another day and a half of their hard work to put it out.

During the next week there are many bushfires in the area, but all are to the south of the Great Western Highway and the series of ridges it runs along, or many kilometres well to the north. So far there’s been no fires in the mountains just to the north of Wentworth Falls, but that’s about to change today.

It’s a nice Saturday morning while Ernie walks over to the northern side of Wentworth Falls to earn a little money by looking after a couple of younger kids of his father’s friend who lives in Railway Parade while the kids’ parents spend the morning out shopping. It’s only a few hundred metres by taking the pedestrian short-cut across the railway line at the unapproved crossing. But by car it’s several kilometres due to the long distances between the bridges over the railway line.

The nearest safe place to play is the open playground the developer of the new estate made. They’re still putting in the streets and services but the play area and its little artificial pond are already finished. No one knows why he built the playground before the estate, but the locals like having it there and often go there to play. Being at 850 metres elevation it has an excellent view out over the forest and bush to the north and east because most of that is at or below 750 metres. The view of the hills and valleys is excellent and pleasant. However, today there is one bad thing in sight. Well off to the north-east is the smoke of a bushfire in a hard to get at valley. The fire service is doing what it can, mostly by water-bombing the area, but they’re having some real problems with it.

Fire-fighters on the ground are trying to work their way into the seat of the fire while the water-bombing aircraft are doing the best they can. However, the smoke from the fire is very dense so they have a hard time seeing where to go and what to hit. The lack of good fire-trails and the thick bush make it hard for the ground crews to move in on the fire.

Ernie keeps an eye on the smoke of the fire, but the fire is well north and well east of his position. Today the light wind is from the west so the fire is making its slow way east at the moment.

It’s nearing midday and everyone in the park is getting ready to go home for lunch when Ernie feels a change in the wind. He looks up toward the north-east to where the very strong wind is coming from.

Until now the smoke from the fire was all he could see over the hills between them, but now he can see a wall of fire moving down the side of a mountain and it’s moving very fast this way. He watches for a moment to judge the speed, and he doesn’t like the answer he gets. He looks about him for a place of refuge while he gets his mobile phone out.

He spots a likely place which is where the developer has a stack of a dozen large concrete pipes with one end of the pipes part buried in a pile of earth dug from a big trench nearby. The pipes are about a metre and a half in diameter and five metres long. They’re stacked in a row of seven pipes with five more pipes on top of them in a second row. Some smaller pipes are in a stack beside them and some steel fence sheeting is in a pile close to them.

While hitting the speed dial for his mother’s phone Ernie calls out for the seven other children there to come to him. His mother answers the phone just as the kids gather around and he says, “Mum, get in your car and get out of there. Go west. You need to get to the middle of a large park or Katoomba as quick as you can. The bushfire to the north has got away from the fire-fighters and it’s now a fire-storm heading this way. You’ve not got time to come get me and I’ve not got time to run to you and still get out to safety. I’m at the new development and will make a refuge here.” His mother starts to argue, “Don’t talk! Drive away as fast as you can!” He hangs up and he looks at the concerned looks of the children around him.

One of the other kids asks, “What’s the problem?”

Ernie points to the huge cloud of smoke as he says, “The bushfire up there has got away from the fire-fighters. It’s now a fire-storm heading this way at great speed. We haven’t got time to get away so we have to build a hidey-hole here. Those pipes look like our best bet,” and he points at them. “We’ll pull a sheet in front of one end and hide in them.”

One of the kids is a mid-teen boy who says, “Like hell! I’ll sit in the middle of the pond and be safe. The water will keep us safe.”

While shaking his head no Ernie says, “That’s a fire-storm, not a normal bushfire, it’s far too hot to be safe while exposed to it.”

The boy wants to argue so Ernie ignores him to start getting the other kids organised to prepare a safe place to hide. He has some plastic bags he brought with snacks and drinks in them, so he goes to the water tanker truck the developer left parked on-site and turns on one of the taps. He sets two of the kids to filling the empty drink bottles and the plastic shopping bags with water while he turns on another tap that has a hose on it. He has two of the kids aim the hose at the pipes to spray water all over them and around them. He needs to have a third help them with that because the flow is very strong when a pump starts up. Leaving them to do that he takes the last kid with him over to where the steel sheets are: the sheets are one and a half metres by a metre of Colourbond steel fence panels. They quickly move three panels over to the pipes and stand them on their ends so they cover the end of the middle pipe on the ground level. Then they roll one of the smaller pipes over to lie against the sheets. Followed by rolling a second pipe against it and then placing a third on them like a pyramid. He hopes the pipes will hold the sheets in place. While spending the few minutes doing this he keeps looking over to the fire and not liking the way it’s racing toward them because it’s very fast as it covers the ground.

When all of the drink bottles and bags are full of water Ernie turns the tap off and he ties a knot in the handles of the bags to make them like big balloons of water. He has the kids take the bags and bottles and move into the pipe while he holds one side out for them to get in. They take the water containers in with them. He sets up some rocks to hold the hose to continue spraying water over the pipes and he has those kids climb into the pipe. He follows them then he has a problem getting in due to having to hold the steel out, but not too far out. However, they’re all soon in the pipe with the sheet in place and he has them move down until they reach the other end to get as far away from the steel sheets as they can. Ernie places the bags of water beside him on the open end side and he puts the water bottles on the side the other kids are on. Now they sit and wait.

The boy who argued with Ernie moves out into the pond where he sits down in it, then he lies down with just his face out of the water. He thinks on how stupid the others are to hide in the pipe because he’s sure it won’t be as safe as being in the water of the pond is.

Wentworth Falls

Ernie’s mother doesn’t like having to leave without him. However, she accepts his word on the situation. She’s talking to several of her neighbours when he calls, so she immediately passes the word on. They all dart into their homes to grab their families and all are soon driving out of the area as fast as they can. Many are also ringing others to warn them. One calls her husband to tell him as he works at a radio station and is on the air at the moment, so he broadcasts the need for all those in the Wentworth Falls area to evacuate ahead of the bushfire. He also passes the alert on to the other radio stations and the television stations.