Rod Patterson sat on the road yelling for help after he was stabbed in the head.
His wife Maree was stuck in a retail store begging staff to let her out as she knew her husband was outside.
The pair have returned home to Launceston after finding themselves caught in the middle of a Melbourne terrorist attack.
Mr Patterson said the two had a perfect day planned, involving having a few beers and going to a jazz club.
On Friday afternoon, Mrs Patterson was downstairs at JB Hi-Fi looking at computers while Mr Patterson took a call while sitting on a bench outside.
It was then he heard the explosion.
“I turned around, and there was a ute on fire,” he said.
“I hung my phone up and raced over. I was a [firefighter] for 18 years a long time ago, so I was first there.
“I’m thinking, ‘Someone is in trouble’.
“The door to the cabin was open, so I’m looking for someone inside that I could pull out, and there was no one inside. I thought they might have been blown out with the explosion.
“I took a couple of steps back, and out of the corner of my left eye I could see the person coming at me with a knife.”
Mr Patterson was stabbed in the head during the incident.
He knew he was in trouble as he sat on the road yelling for help.
Despite the horror of the attack, he said he was looked after amazing people at The Alfred hospital and was overwhelmed with the support of the community after the incident.
“Through a bad incident, we’ve just met some beautiful people,” he said.
“The amount of love and support we’ve gotten from people who know us, people who think they know us, people who don’t know us. It’s just been fantastic.”
