Narrogin farming family reflect on ‘eight hours of hell’ six months after bushfire disaster

A Narrogin farming family have reflected on the “once-in-a-lifetime” bushfire that ravaged more than 18,000ha across the district and killed thousands of animals as recovery efforts continue six months after the flames. The Wickepin-Narrogin bushfire was one of two that destroyed a combined 60,000ha across five Wheatbelt shires in February, killing livestock and destroying houses, sheds, machinery and fencing. The blaze started near the intersection of the Williams-Kondinin and Armstrong roads and was caused by overhead power lines making contact in windy conditions. The February 6 fire threatened the town of Wickepin and ripped through 18,000ha. Insurance company WFI have released a short film, titled Eight Hours of Hell, which tells the story of that day from the perspective of Narrogin wheat and sheep farmers Linda and Daryl Kilpatrick. The Kilpatricks have shared how they survived and started to rebuild with the help and support of their local community. “On the day of the fire, Daryl was off with the two boys ordinarily fighting the fire when it first started over on the Wickepin road. My two daughters and I were at home,” Ms Kilpatrick said in the film. “At one point Daryl called and asked Isabelle and I to go and move a mob of sheep, so I left my youngest daughter to prepare the house. “Then, when the house became really under threat it was quite frightening because Daryl didn’t have his phone and I didn’t know where he was and my other son was out on the motorbike with sheep and I couldn’t get hold of him. “There was that panic — you want your family close and you want everyone there but we were all in separate parts of the farm off doing different jobs. “It was quite terrifying.” The narrow fire front was moving in a northerly direction when it got within about 400m of the Kilpatricks’ family home. At that point, the wind swung around to the west, taking the blaze away from their home. But the wind change also meant that the side of the fire became a massive fire front. Ms Kilpatrick said her family had planned to stay and defend their 120-year-old family farm, even when it was in the line of fire. “We have always had a fire plan in place and when the kids were little we used to run it through with them,” she told the Observer. “It was always the plan to stay. “We used to say we would always be fine here unless a fire came from the north, which is where the fire was coming from because we have bushland across the road. “It was scary.” The blaze ripped through 930ha of the Kilpatrick’s agricultural land, destroyed bushland, shearing sheds and about 20km of fence lines. They lost 440 sheep to the fire, mostly pregnant ewes. They were just weeks away from shearing which meant they lost their ewes, their lambs and 12 months worth of wool. Ms Kilpatrick said losing their sheep took the greatest toll. “We just adore our sheep and seeing the trauma that they went through was heart-breaking,” she said. After the fires, volunteer veterinarians from across WA descended on the impacted farms to help with the task of euthanising thousands of burnt sheep and managing surviving livestock. Mr Kilpatrick said they were blown away by the offers of help. “We had phone calls from all over the State when people heard about the fire, from people who were wanting to help,” he said. “When we had to put the sheep down on the Monday, we had quite a few vets come help who told us to go away and they did it all for us. “They were complete strangers who were prepared to give up their time to come and euthanise our sheep and clean up.” As the smoke started to clear, the family found notes at their property and heard that neighbours, residents and volunteer firefighters had been there, fighting the fire. “For weeks after we were hearing of people who were all over our property,” Ms Kilpatrick said. “People had been on our farm, people that we didn’t know, they were all volunteers.” BlazeAid volunteers, who have been working across the Wheatbelt for months, have helped to repair fences on the Kilpatricks’ property. More than six months on from the terrifying day, the family are still receiving offers of help. “People are always checking in on us,” Ms Kilpatrick said. “Our neighbours and community around here are just gorgeous and they are always seeing what they can do and just checking in to see how we’re doing, which is lovely. “Everyone had to get back to seeding and we were feeling awful. We were under pressure and seeding was getting closer, but people were still helping us right up to seeding.” Mr Kilpatrick said the February bushfires were unlike anything he had experienced. “I’ve been to lots of fires but nothing to this scale,” he said. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime type of fire.” WFI executive general manager Andrew Beer said bushfires like the Wickepin-Narrogin blaze were not isolated incidents. “We’re seeing an increase in natural disasters, with much greater intensities, and the impact of these events goes far beyond just damage to infrastructure,” he said. “There’s a huge emotional and social impact on people and communities.” Mr Beer said they produced the film Eight Hour of Hell to capture both the insurance teams and communities spirit. “We produced this film initially just for our internal teams and to show the importance of what we do, the personal approach we take, and that we’re there when we’re needed, just as Mark was,” he said. “It really is an incredible story of community spirit.”