As the flames crept every closer, Tammy and Tim Holmes took their five grandchildren down to the jetty and hid in the water clinging on for dear life. The fires burned all around them, occasionally setting fire to the jetty itself, which Tim put out with sea water, as the oxygen drew ever shorter in the smoke-filled air.
Tammy and Tim had been looking after their grandchildren as their daughter, Bonnie Walker, attended a funeral in Hobart only for the flames to cut her off and obstruct her returning home. She knew that her grandparents had evacuated but heard no further news.
“So I braced myself to lose my children and my parents,” she told AuBC’s 7.30pm show.
After nearly two and half hours, though, Tim found a dinghy that he, his wife and the children used to make it to safety.
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