A man who fought walls of fire and single-handedly saved a family’s life has been awarded one of the nation’s highest honours – a national bravery award.
Alfredton MICA paramedic and volunteer firefighter Brendan Walker drove towards Scotsburn on December 19 to lend his fellow paramedic mate Bruce Rae a small firefighting tank.
He did not realise he would be walking into a life-threatening scenario that would raze 12 properties and cause ongoing emotional and economic damage to the wider community.
“On the day I decided I would bring out a fire unit and take it out to Bruce’s house, just for security. The fire had actually gone past his house and I thought he’s safe – but I’ll leave it there for security,” Mr Walker said.
“But within four minutes of arriving the fire literally came up over the hill like a jet engine, like a freight train and impacted on the house.”
Mr Walker, who was wearing wildfire gear, was not mentally prepared to fight the fire – but quickly went into survival mode. He said a micro storm cell and a wind change had pushed the fire towards the property at extreme speed.
“It was a wall of flame it was totally consuming. There were horizontal flame lengths of about 20 metres,” Mr Walker said.
“I thought, there’s four of us here. If I stay here and fight the fire I won’t be able to put it out but I might be able to stay here and hold it back long enough until a fire truck arrives.”
Flames and embers were shooting everywhere. Homeowner Mr Rae, who was inside the house with wife Amanda and daughter Rebecca, realised it was too late to leave.
The family had lived at Scotsburn for 20 years and were suddenly confronted with losing their house and potentially their lives.
“It was 360 degrees (of flames) and embers coming from all directions - it was pretty scary,” Mr Rae said.
I did think, with the amount of flames and heats, we were goners – that the house was definitely going to burn down and probably with us in it.
- Bruce Rae
The fire, which had already taken out garden hedges and sleepers began to burn cars and an outdoor patio.
“My car caught fire first and I started to put that out, then Bruce’s car caught fire and I started to put that out,” Mr Walker said.
“I turned around and I noticed the whole back of the house was starting to catch fire.
“There was Bruce and his family in there and I thought – we’ve got to forget the cars, forget the infrastructure and went into just purely survival mode and tried to stop the house from burning down until the fire brigade arrived.”
While fighting the fire with limited water supplies Mr Walker urgently called for CFA tankers to attend and water to be dropped by aircraft.
By that stage Mr Walker had about 50 litres of water left – which was purely for his survival. The roaring heat burned his face leaving him second degree burns.
“I knew things were getting desperate when the helmet’s chin strap snapped with heat and I touched my helmet and my hands sank into it as it started to melt.”
Mr Walker’s extreme efforts meant the fire was held back until trucks arrived. The house was saved and no lives were lost. Mr Rae nominated Mr Walker for the Australian Bravery bravery medal awarded to just 24 Australians on Sunday.
“He (Mr Walker) saved everything – us and the house,” Mr Rae said. “He has gone above and beyond what normal people would do on that day – he deserves it,” Mr Rae said.
Humbled by the honour Mr Walker was initially reluctant to accept the award and sees his efforts as “another job”.
“I thought – I’m just doing my job. Paramedics and firefighters across the country do this on a daily basis. I thought why should I deserve this? But then I thought, maybe I am deserving,” Mr Walker said.
“Thank you Bruce. It’s wonderful.”
Olivia Shying
Police and emergency services reporter.
Police and emergency services reporter.
