WHEN The Gurdies bushfire blew up into a seriously dangerous inferno at 4.55pm on Friday, December 20, local resident Mahanama Wijayasiri was safely 30 minutes away from his home, on Gurdies-St Helier Road, at Pakenham.

But the dramatic escalation in what had previously been a relatively small blaze, following a blustery south-westerly wind change, still came as something of a shock.

“We decided to go at about 1.30pm on Friday, with the fire mainly contained to the Woodlands Close area, just to be on the safe side,” said Mahanama.

“We’d taken away most of the branches and trees that came down during the February storm, cleared the gutters and cleaned up around the place. There wasn’t much more we could do.”

He went to his daughter’s place on the Mornington Peninsula but came back to Pakenham later in the afternoon on Friday for a family medical appointment, around the time The Gurdies fire was hitting crisis point.

“We saw the smoke coming from that direction and knew it had taken a turn for the worse,” he said.

From that time onwards, until the next morning, he had no idea whether he’d still have a home to go to – he very nearly didn’t.

“We didn’t know anything until Wendy and Bruce came down from The Gurdies Winery the next day and told us the house was still there.”

They’d stayed to defend the winery, also an incredibly lucky save, again thanks to the courageous efforts of the firefighters.

“They apparently had four fire trucks in our backyard protecting the house. It used to be a greyhound-training facility so there were quite a few sheds out there with old furniture, tools and bits and pieces in them. We lost all those.

“But they saved the garage and the house which is pretty amazing when you take a look around at what else burned,” he said, pointing across the roof of the house to the forest on the other side of the road and tall trees in his own front yard.

There’s little doubt these would have been battering the crews with fiery embers as they stood in the path of intense heat and strong, shifting winds, ready to defend Mahanama’s house.

Reports were received of several fire truck burn-overs at the height of the fire but not a single home or life was lost.

“We just can’t describe how grateful we are for what the fire crews did. Incredible,” he said.

“My daughter and I came back when they finally opened the road for the residents and it was relief mostly, relief and gratitude, to see the house still standing.

“The fire chief, the guy in charge of the whole operation, came back and spent time with us after. He told us it was pretty touch and go but we came through with only relatively minor damage to the house.

“But we’d have loved to get the crews that protected our house back just to say thank you.”

While some of the outbuildings were lost, it was mainly the radiant heat which caused damage to the house.

“The air conditioner melted and the solar panels,” said Mahanama.

“The insurance will pay for that.”

A beautiful big magnolia tree beside the house, the orchard, some of the other trees, the fencing, and much of the garden has also been destroyed, burnt or singed, possibly beyond recovery, but Mahanama has already made great inroads into the clean-up.

“We’ve got the fencing being done today and we’ve cleaned up a fair bit of the mess,” he said.

Most of the burnt or fallen trees have been cut into firewood and it’s starting to look like the old place again.

“We missed having a family Christmas here like we’d planned but we’re getting back to normal now.”

In reality, The Gurdies fire, which burnt around 192 hectares of land, was mostly contained to the Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve where around 125 hectares of bush in the northern section of the reserve was burnt.

But it’s here that it broke out across Gurdies St Helier Road towards Mr Wijayasiri’s place, the Gurdies Winery and a few other properties, sending fingers of fire out as far as the Hurdy Gurdy Creek Nature Conservation Reserve.

Some homes on Woodland Close and Hendy Lane also had fire all around them, saved by the fire brigades, and are still recovering from the incident.

At one stage, the fire threatened to break out of the Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve and into open farmland further along Gurdies St Helier Road but again, a big turnout of brigades from right around the area and back into the Melbourne suburbs saved the day.

According to the CFA, The Gurdies bushfire was started by a chainsaw at approximately 3.28pm on Thursday, January 19 and spread into the 52.2ha Bass Coast Shire Council owned Gurdies Bushland Reserve and 260ha state-owned The Gurdies Nature Conservation Reserve.

The shire is yet to respond to questions about whether it complied with the requirements of its own Municipal Fire Management Plan in relation to the reserve as set out in Terra Matrix Fire Plan.

The CFA said the chainsaw incident at The Gurdies should serve as a reminder to be careful using machinery on a day with elevated fire risk.

In fact, many may be unaware that you are not allowed to use a chainsaw during the declared Fire Danger Period unless strict conditions are complied with, including having a 9lt (plus) fire extinguisher on hand and only use a chainsaw if absolutely necessary on days of Total Fire Ban.

For more information click HERE or go to the cfa.vic.gov.au website and search for Home Warnings & Restrictions Fire Bans, Ratings and Restrictions, Can I or Can't I.