A Victorian couple knew their newly renovated house had burnt to the ground when they saw footage on Facebook of it engulfed in flames.
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Rebecca and Barney Jones had been at a friend’s birthday when Rebecca’s dad called to tell her about the Terang fire.
“That’s when I realised we were in some danger. We never really actually thought it would get to us,” she said.
Then the pagers started to go off. The Ecklin firefighters at the party all left.
The couple, from Elingamite, kept an eye on the warnings on the emergency app, but when a friend rang to say there was a fire between their two properties they decided to race home under the glow of orange skies.
“I basically grabbed my bag, my toothbrush and some pyjamas and our dog and we left,” Mrs Jones said.
They took shelter at Rebecca’s father-in-law’s Ecklin property until it was no longer safe to stay there. They then headed to a friend’s house in Warrnambool, arriving at 11.30pm.
About half an hour later they saw a neighbour’s Facebook post of their house burning.
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“That’s when we knew it was all gone,” Mrs Jones said. “It was absolutely devastating. Nothing can prepare you for that even though you’ve left your property thinking maybe this might be the last time I step foot in this house.
“You just never think it’s going to happen to you.”
The couple had purchased the house on three-and-a-half acres more than two years ago and had just finished renovations.
“We got the carpet laid before the end of the year and we had new security door put on last Friday. The house had just been painted. The new woodshed and the wood we just put in there, all burnt,” she said.
“We really want to thank the volunteers and firefighters that went out and helped. They didn’t save our house but they saved so many people’s lives.
“For us, driving around in that ... trying to get out of there, to see how a firefighter would drive towards that is beyond belief. It’s just incredible. They are amazing.”