By Ruza Zivkusic
FIGHTING the bushfires is the perfect way to spend New Year’s Eve, according to two local State Emergency Service members.
Joe Ewer of Caroline Springs and Roy Worner of Hillside have spent two days of blacking out the fires at Mt Buffalo in Victoria’s north-east.
After leaving their families behind, they joined their “other” family of hundreds of firefighters who helped control the fires that lasted for more than 25 days and had burnt over 875 hectares of land, Mr Worner said.
The couple had welcomed the New Year at a lodge with 40 other firefighters without a radio, a phone connection or a watch.
“We didn’t exactly know what the exact time for midnight was,” Mr Worner said.
But it was a jolly night because the heavens opened and about 22 millimetres of rain fell.
“I did actually go to sleep that night with the sound of rain on the roof, which I thought was pretty good and ironic,” Mr Ewer said.
Mr Ewer warned that the fire season was still not over.
“Something very significant with this year is that it’s only the beginning of January and we have had a very large fire activity already,” he added.
