The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 16

even stay put to save lioii 7 is- 1 1 3 4 Bombers fail to impress STATE bushfire fighting authorities have countered criticism that tbey ignored offers of giant firebombing aircraft from overseas including the L'S, Canada and Russia. Sydney businessman George Zieba, a pilot, said he acted for a Polish aviation company which offered to send six Russian-made aircraft and three helicopters to NSW to help fight the fires. He said the planes could have been in Australia within 24 hours. He said officials at the Bush Fire Services headquarters, Rose-hill, told him they had decided not to use that type of equipment. "Apparently, they had been approached by a Canadian company but they rejected the offer," he said.

"They said, 'Based on our experience, we think this type of equipment is not appropriate for Australian conditions, they're not appropriate for the way we do firefighting in Australia'." NSW Bush Fire Services Air operations manager John Travers said the offer was appreciated but the big Russian planes and their pilots were not registered in Australia. The language barrier and logistics of bringing them here would have been prohibitive, along with the fact they had limited use in local conditions. "Those big things in Russia are used to put out pine forests," he said. "There is a vast difference between that and Australia. Plus, I think it would've taken two days to deploy them, not 24 hours." He said the big' planes were inappropriate because their large loads could actually damage houses.

The dense smoke would have severely restricted flying. BRETT THOMAS By VIC LEVI UP on Somersby Plateau, in the blackened hills above Gosford on the fire-ravaged Central Coast, locals are calling them The Magnificent Seven. They're seven men who defied official evacuation orders to save their own homes and protect neighbours houses as fireballs swept through bushland at Kowara and Debenham roads. The Somersby stay-puts evacuated their wives and other relatives before facing a wall of fire after firefighters had been pulled out on Saturday last week. One of the seven, Roger Keane, who owns a clay and ceramics equipment supply business in Debenham Road, fought the inferno with a garden hose as it came within a metre of his home.

The fire storm, driven by 70kmh winds, destroyed three houses at the top of Debenham Road before it swept down the hill towards Mr Keane's home. As soon as his own house appeared to be out of danger, Mr Keane raced to put out the burning pergola on his neighbour's house. "It was all over in about half an hour," he said yesterday. "It was then a matter of staying put and hoping it didn't return." that their home had been destroyed in the blaze. "But when we got back in on Sunday it was still standing," Mr Harris said.

"It was a miracle all five homes in the street didn't go. The fire swept right over the top of our place but it survived without any serious damage." The family lost a corrugated iron tool shed, a duck pen and two ducks in the blaze. Amazingly, their three hens in a pen alongside the burnt-out shed survived and have been laying three eggs a day since the blaze. "The seven blokes who were able to stay put did a fantastic job," Mr Harris said. "They are the magnificent seven as far as we are concerned." Gilbert Dal Busco, who owns a restaurant and small motel next to the Harris property, said he had wanted to stay and face the fire on the Saturday afternoon after his guests had all been evacuated.

"About 3pm they got me off," he said. "They told me I would be an idiot if I stayed. "I thought I had lost everything but I was able to sneak back in at 8 o'clock on Saturday night Brothers Michael and Stephen Holton, who run Kariong Landscape Supplies a kilometre away in Debenham Road were not so lucky. The 100-year-old home which they rented on the property was destroyed. FULL OF PRAISE: Mr Harris examines his scorched property.

Edwards also have a smaller Picture: STEFFA MOORE close but they were winning." The three men used a bucket brigade from the family swimming pool about IS metres away to save the weatherboard cottage. "If the cottage had gone we probably would have lost the house, too," Mrs Edwards said. "We are counting our blessings." Next door, retired school teachers Eric and Pam Harris obeyed the police evacuation order on the Friday night They spent the weekend with Gosford Mayor Dirk O'Connor, who lives a few kilometres away. The Harrises actually received a telephone report Mr Keane's wife Margaret, said she left the house about lpm on the Saturday. Their daughter Babette left the previous night.

I heard the houses exploding up the hill on Saturday afternoon and that was enough for me," said Mrs Keane. "But Roger decided to stay." The other six stay-puts were Clive Edwards, his son Matthew and son-in-law Andrew Yelds and former policeman Len Robson, his son Len jun and son-in-law Mike Francis. The two families have large brick homes on five acre blocks in Kowara Road. The weatherboard cottage at the rear of their home, and this gave them most cause for concern as the fire swept down the hill. Mrs Laurel Edwards said her husband Clive had made sure all the women and children in the family were evacuated on Friday night "We spent the night in a real estate office in town and my daughter Katherine and I went back home on Saturday morning," she said.

"We got out again with a few clothes and other belongings about 8.30 on Saturday morning. About 1.30pm Clive telephoned to say the fire was Life's work gone in 2 fatal hours pmk. a Jf iL.ii.-.. J-s ft I -ts? houses," Mrs Gault recalled. "The fire tankers were bumper to bumper down the road." An executive-style pole house across the road from the Gaults was reduced to rubble in minutes.

All that remains of the house is an expensive, paved driveway and pieces of twisted Colourbond roofing. "The roar of the fire as it came up the gully sounded like three express trains and I remember seeing the woodpile in the backyard suddenly ignite," Mr Gault said. "Houses were burning all around us but there was nothing we could do because we were trying to save our own." Len and Glenda Miller still refer to the suburb where they have lived with their two children, Christopher, 8, and Carolene, 6, for the past five years as But last Saturday, Roberts Parade was far from a paradise. Mr Miller, who fought back the flames until the heat became too intense, huddled with his neighbours on their loungeroom floor until the firestorm passed over their houses. "The fire took about 30 minutes.

We were petrified," he said. When Len emerged into the street, he found his tri-level brick house ablaze and the fire brigades pulling out to save threatened houses in nearby Booker Road. "I used the last 1,500 gallons of water in my friend's water tanker to save my house. We worked our guts out." Despite their close encounter, the Millers are determined to stay at Hawkesbury Heights. KAREN DAVEY IT took just two hours for a bushfire to destroy the nursery which had taken Gordon Morl-ing 23 years to establish at Hawkesbury Heights, in the lower Blue Mountains.

Last week, Gordon and his wife Joyce sifted through the ruined glasshouses and igloos where 50,000 seedlings, worth $80,000, perished in the inferno. The couple's house, which adjoined the 25ha nursery, was not damaged "except for smoke and soot" but, unfortunately, it was impossible to get insurance cover for the nursery. "How do we rebuild a business which took 20 years to establish?" Mrs Morling said. Mr Morling fought back tears as he picked up pot after pot melted by the intense heat and tried to identify the shrivelled plants. "Three glasshouses, the production shed and propagation area were all destroyed only one glasshouse survived," he said.

The Morlings face a $40,000 bill to demolish the ruined buildings, although the local council has agreed to waive council tipping fees. "It's going to cost us $40,000 just to tear it all down and dump it, let alone rebuild it" Mr Morling said. "There's no way well be able to rebuild it it would cost us $1 million." The first inkling the Morlings got that the nursery, which had survived two previous bushfires, had been razed was when they returned two hours after they had been evacuated. "We hit a roadblock and they weren't going to let us pass. I said I owned a nursery and the firefighter aS.

4 Ji Picture: BARRY CHAPMAN what once was Ms Hawkesbury Heights nursery. AMON4 THE RUINS: 6ordon MoriiiyJ and looked at me and said "you did own a nursery," Mr Morling recalled. "I just wanted to turn around and never come back because after 23 years of hard work I was returning to nothing. "My wife has cried half the day for the past couple of days." When the glasshouses exploded, Karen Gault saw flames leap high into the air above her house in Booker Road. Sheltering in a house across the street Mrs Gault witnessed the fire's sudden fury.

Six houses in Booker Road, Hawkesbury Road and Roberts Parade were destroyed, including a 100-year-old sandstock cottage listed by the Heritage Council. Many ouier residents lost sun decks, sheds, fences and gardens as firefighters held the flames at bay. "I heard the glasshouses explode and immediately saw flames cover our house and two other houses. The flames were three times as high as the 16 THE. SUH-HERALD.

JanBaqr-l 19.