It was the biggest fire Victoria had seen for almost 70 years. It burnt for 60 days and destroyed 41 homes. Twenty years on, residents are still processing what they saw.
Four days later, on January 30, houses at Omeo and Cobungra were burned to the ground, as residents protected their houses with garden hoses and buckets of water.Water-bombing planes were deployed across the region.
"Otherwise we would've had fire right into the township of Swifts Creek, and probably significant losses," he said. "A lot of people didn't really want to share their emotions or feelings because everyone was going through it.Len Jeffs was a CFA volunteer and owner of the Benambra general store in 2003."We'd have people coming in absolutely shattered. They didn't know what to do, where to go," he said.
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