How one man went to mow
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday November 23, 2009
IT WAS just lucky that Joe Perkins had mowed the grass around his house last weekend.Almost all of his 32-hectare property at Gunnedah was incinerated yesterday. All that was spared was his house and the four-metre strip of land around it."There's nothing left but the house," he said.Mr Perkins, 41, had been at Little Athletics with his three daughters in the morning when he got the call. "I whizzed up there and I could hardly see [because of] the smoke," he said.The fire had started when a power pole toppled in the wind. The power cut meant no water could be pumped to defend the houses on the edge of town."Eventually the bloke I was with said, 'I think we should get out of here', we couldn't see and could hardly breathe," he said.Mr Perkins phoned his friend and fellow Gunnedah resident of 30 years, Andrew Kennedy, who owns Kennedy Air Ag with his brother, Mick.Andrew Kennedy, 39, dropped about 100,000 litres of water over Gunnedah yesterday, doing 3000 litre loads every 20 minutes. Mick Kennedy helped with the flames over the Hunter Valley."It could affect you socially if you don't do a good job, couldn't it?" joked Andrew Kennedy yesterday between runs."It doesn't make any difference to how you do the job, but it's a bit more personal ... when it's at home," he said. Their late father had fought fires in the same spot in 2002.The neighbours were thankful."Without them, I tell you what, a couple of houses would have gone," said a photographer, Paul Mathews.Mr Mathews was part of a group that went to all the neighbours when the fire began to check they were aware."When this happens we all just get together and help each other."
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald