Post date: Jan 09, 2013 2:11:4 PM
An Australian family escapes a fire that burned their homes by hiding underneath a jetty in the Australian state of Tasmania.
DUNALLEY, AUSTRALIA (JANUARY 5, 2013) (AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION) - Tim Holmes and his wife were taking care of their grandchildren on Friday (January 4) when the area surrounding their home in the Australian town of Dunalley caught fire.
"We saw tornadoes of fire just coming across towards us and the next thing we knew everything was on fire, everywhere, all around us", Holmes told the ABC on Saturday (January 5).Three houses owned by the family burned to the ground.
"By that time I'd send Tammy, the gran, here she comes gran, with the children to get down to the jetty because there was no other escape", Holmes added.
Meanwhile Tim Holmes' daughter, Bonnie Walker, who had left her children in the care of her parents when she left Dunalley on Friday (January 4) for a funeral that was held in the Tasmanian capital ofHobart, received a text message saying that her parents, David and Tammy Holmes, had to evacuate their house.
"A few minutes later an image arrived, which was really, it's still quite an upsetting image, it's of all of my five children underneath the jetty, huddled up to neck deep sea water, which is cold, we've swam the day before and it was cold. So, I knew that that would be a challenge to keep three non-swimmers above water and with only my mum, dad and our eldest daughter", Bonnie Walker told ABC on Sunday (January 6).
Tim Holmes had managed to take a few photos of his wife Tammy Holmes and their five grandchildren, who were, according to the ABC report, aged between almost 2 and 11.
The fire, which was surrounding Tim Holmes and his family, continued to rage.
"And then it raged for three hours, because there was a lot of, it was a wooded point. So, everything was on fire and it was just exploding all over the place."
When the inferno subsided, Tim Holmes managed to get his dingy off the foreshore, Bonnie Walkertold the ABC. Her father loaded his wife Tammy Holmes and the five grandchildren in the boat and dragged it into a headwind and got them to safety, Bonnie Walker added.
On Saturday (January 5) Bonnie Walker and her five children reunited in the small Tasmanian town of Dodges Ferry, around 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of Dunalley, the town where Bonnie Walker lives with her husband David Walker and their five children, neighbouring her parents.
Bonnie Walker is certain that this miracle was an act of God, answering her prayers.
"I spent a lot of time with good friends and prayed like I never prayed before and I think those prayers have been answered, so, yes Charlotte, the prayers have been answered."
While all this happened, David Walker was out in the bushes, hiking along the Tasmanian southern coastline, the ABC reported. After he could not been reached via phone, another family member, brother-in-law Angus Douglas, left Hobart on Saturday (January 6) in a helicopter provided by the ABC, in order to search for David Holmes and break the news.
When David Walker was informed of what had happened to his family he packed his bags and then was flown to Hobart, where his wife, children and parents-in-law were waiting for him. It was here, where the family was finally fully reunited.
"All the things that we've lost, yeah, there's some precious memories there but they can be replaced, material things, but my wife and children not so easily replaced. So, yeah, I just feel blessed that my family is all together and Bonnie's parents are alive. It's fantastic," David Walker told the ABC.
According to the ABC report the entire family is currently staying with friends in Dodges Ferry. It will surely take some time until they all will have recovered from the things that happened to them, but asDavid Walker told the ABC, "faith is on the family's side".