Note: This is part of what I am hoping will become a semi-regular feature here at the paper. Know someone from Tumbler Ridge doing remarkable things in the world, or living through news that is global in scale? Or are you a former Tumbler Ridge Resident in the thick of things? Send me a note. We’d love to hear from you.
Jael Barrios
My name is Jael Barrios. I grew up in Tumbler Ridge and Fort St. John, and feel so blessed to have so many family and friends still around the area. I am lucky to have been raised in such a community to arm me with grit and backbone and the itch to travel the world.
Eight years ago I moved with my husband and daughter to Australia. We moved to his home town in an absolutely beautiful part of the country known as The Southern Highlands. Our shire is a huge tourist destination, surrounded by National Park, Bush land for days and home to some of the only deciduous trees in Australia and also home to many celebrities and ex politicians, including Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman. But also most recently home to two of the most terrifying bush fires Australia has ever seen. To top it off we are three years deep into one of the largest droughts this country has known.
Green Wattle Creek Fire (the giant to the North of us) began the end of November. It grew in size rapidly and was burning in the national park behind us only 32 km from our home. It spread quickly and changing wind directions saw the fire knocking on our door within 2 weeks. We watched and waited as we saw the fire rip through our neighbouring village, Balmoral, claiming the lives of two young volunteer firefighters, injuring more and claiming house after house. Houses of my friends and people I know vanished and literally went up in smoke. This was only a week before Christmas. Can you imagine losing everything just before Christmas?
They didn’t even have time to evacuate, the fire came that quick. 50 people ran for the safety of the fire shed, hunkering down with much loved family pets, police men, firefighters and wildlife that people were able to grab on the way. Our “angels in the air” (sky cranes, 737 jets and helicopters, which have since become a constant in our lives) were dispatched to dump load after load of water on top of the shed, just to save their lives. In the morning, those of us who live here in Hill Top were told to get out. Evacuated four days before Christmas.
We packed our van with our already prepared bags, our four kids, four birds, bearded dragon and two horses and left the home we just built a year ago, praying we would have a place to celebrate Christmas, and Christmas presents left to give the kids. I have never been more terrified in my life, but not for us (as we were out safe) but for the numerous people who chose to stay and fight the fire and protect their property with the Rural Fire Brigade.
The fire hit our town with tremendous force and the firefighters fought to protect the properties and homes. After seven hours of terror, the wind changed and the fire dove down into the gully, and Balmoral was again attacked from the opposite side, again losing more homes and properties. Balmoral was destroyed and our town was saved for that moment.
The second fire that has moved its way up into the Highlands is coming from the South of us. The Gigantic Currowan Fire started around the same time as the Green Wattle Creek fire in the Bimberamala National Park, 130 km south of us.
This fire grew with ferocity and left homes all along the Eastern South Coast as ash in its wake, along with destroying my husband’s aunts property and home in Nerriga, and claiming the lives of a further three people. It has taken four weeks, but two days ago the Currowan fire reached the Southern Highlands and impacted on the Southern villages. Decimating some of the most beautiful homes and properties and killing numerous animals as the villages were not prepared for impact. Bundanoon, Wingello, Exeter, and Penrose will take years to recover and are still under threat today.
These fires move with the wind, which make them deadly and unpredictable. They also burn hotter than anything I have ever felt due to the Eucalyptus in the Gum trees (you can feel the radiant heat from them from km away). Unlike fires in Canada which cause flash fires, these fires burn in one area for over 10-15 minutes and smoulder for even longer causing animals who try to escape them with no reprieve. We have lost over 500 homes, 17 lives and countless wildlife. These two fires alone have burned 749,637 hectares of land (Australia has currently lost over 1.9 MILLION hectares of land and over half a million animals). Needless to say we are all exhausted, especially the amazing VOLUNTEER firefighters who are fighting these fires. And, we are still only 5 weeks into our fire season.
I am a volunteer with a wildlife rescue and we are going non-stop with phone call regarding injured or starving/dehydrated animals. Animals that are being wiped out to the brink of extinction. Animals that are not found anywhere else on earth. This has to be the greatest tragedy of them all. Koalas so badly burnt they have to be euthanized. Full grown Kangaroos that we have had to euthanize in the field as they are too large an animal to rehabilitate. Joey’s left without their mothers or left behind to burn as they are not as fast as their moms. I currently have, in my care, a juvenile ring tail possum and a Satin Bower Bird Chick. I have also been hand feeding a mob of Kangaroos who have terribly burnt feet and cannot move from their paddock where they are located.
We are all suffering from anxiety, exhaustion, smoke inhalation and Bush Fire Fatigue. The fire is relentless and taxing and the smoke is so thick sometimes it feels like you are eating it. I feel like we are in a war with Mother Nature and she is ignoring the white flag we have been waving for weeks now. She is strengthening her forces and is currently attacking us on every front. We don’t have the resources or man power to fight all the fires at once and have been sent help from New Zealand, Canada and United States and we are still struggling to control them.
Australia is burning and we are barely surviving. All we can do currently is help each other survive and try to live as normal as possible and help those who have lost everything and the animals who are perishing before our eyes.
Thank you to everyone for your continuing prayers and thoughts. We appreciate the calls and messages and hope to get over for a visit when this all calms down and our lives are semi normal again.
Want to help? Jael is raising money to help injured and stranded animals. Find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/3380977191974010/10158529290178455/
