Guest Editorial
The January bushfires: Gone but not forgotten
Jane O'Connell
Clinical Nurse Specialist, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney NSW
PP: 047 - 049
Article Text
The recent bushfires in New South Wales captured the attention of all Australians and countless people around the world. The international reports that Sydney was ablaze and mass evacuations were necessary were exaggerated but by no means untrue. For those of us in Sydney who were personally involved, it certainly felt the whole of Sydney was ablaze when successive media reports told of yet another new outbreak that affected areas known to us around the metropolitan area. The north, including the areas on the Central Coast; the south, including almost all of the Royal National Park and the mountains to the west were all infernos that wreaked havoc across large areas of bushland involving suburbia and much parkland. Tragically, one death occurred and many houses were destroyed or damaged leaving a great number of people with profound heartache and personal loss. Many folk did not suffer material losses but, for them, the emotional trauma of 'being there' will take a long time to overcome.
My family and I were affected and still are by this disaster. I saw the first wisps of smoke coming from the northern part of the Lane Cove Valley on Thursday, 6 January. It was an extremely hot and windy day as I watched the thin wisps grow into dense smoke and visible flames in the valley in front of my house. I rang my husband at work and suggested he come home early. It took him much longer than normal because the police had closed our road to all but emergency vehicles, which necessitated him parking some distance from home and walking the remainder of the way. My three children (9, 6 and 5 years of age) had been aware of the surrounding activity and were quite excited by the presence of a multitude of emergency vehicles. We watched continuously from our front patio which gave us an elevated panoramic view of the fire and the associated bustle. By nightfall the area of bushfire most threatening to us had been contained. My neighbours directly opposite had their back garden burnt out but the fire fighters had worked feverishly to preserve the houses. The emergency services had all performed marvellously and were friendly and informative to the endless enquires from anxious local residents.
I went to bed somewhat relieved but unable to settle due to the humidity and the pervasive smell of smoke. Friday morning I thought would be spent counting our blessings and overcoming our anxiety from the previous day. How wrong can one be? By 10.00 am the valley had flared up again in a few small outbreaks, all of which were closer to us. By the afternoon the small fires had grown and spread, aided by the heat and the fierce wind. From our roof (which had become our new vantage point, and allowed us to keep a watch on our children who passed the time by frolicking in our swimming pool) we could see 30 foot flames leaping about 500 metres away.
At this point I calmly took my already packed boxes of photos and important belongings down to the car in the garage. I found three empty cardboard boxes and called the children to each come and pack their precious things into a box because we may need to evacuate. We had discussed evacuation the previous day as a remote possibility; I never believed it would become a reality. Two of my children became hysterical at the idea of evacuation and not being able to decide what belongings to take with them. At one stage my second son staggered to the car encumbered with eight large soft toys saying that they were all precious so they should all be allowed to come with us. With the children sitting in the car somewhat calmer, I went back up to where my husband was on the roof to find that the fire had jumped the road about six houses up and was burning around behind us through the perimeter of the golf course. The flames and smoke were dense and when the wind eased spasmodically the crackling of the fire was audible. I spent the next 10 or so minutes (it seemed an interminably long time) running between the garage and the children, trying to comfort them without showing them my distress, and my husband on the roof. It was an anxious period of indecision but we watched the fire, fanned by a strong wind, pass us by. The children came out of the car and appeared to settle quite quickly, happy to have a swim and forget about the boxes of prized possessions still in the car. The immediate danger had passed us again but I remained a little tense. By sundown all had settled around us, the wind dropped once more and the fire officers came out of the bush for a well deserved break.
We were never told to evacuate by the emergency services, but I felt that probably they were too busy to run up our drive and tell us something that appeared obvious. I did feel at one stage that the services had forgotten us. In retrospect, it would have been difficult for us to evacuate as our road had been blocked in both directions by the fire.
Saturday and Sunday were rostered days on for me. The fire had definitely passed us but we did not unpack our belongings from the car. I drove to work by a very different route with many local roads closed, feeling apprehensive about leaving my family and house. On arrival at work, a large emergency department, it was obvious that everyone was involved in this catastrophe at some level. There were some like myself who were threatened, some evacuated, one colleague had her garden burnt out and a few staff members lived in suburbs still under threat. The department was not unduly busy but nearly every patient I came in contact with was bushfire related. We appeared to have no 'inappropriate attendees', unusual particularly for a weekend. Many of the patients had injuries from such mechanisms as falls from ladders, tripping on hosepipes, and one lady had fractured her wrist when she tripped over while running to her car with a box of photographs. We treated some emergency service workers with smoke inhalation, minor burns, foreign bodies in the eyes, and injuries received while fire fighting. The most interesting aspect was the feeling of connectedness between everyone, including nursing, medical, clerical and ancillary personnel, patients, ambulance officers and police officers, all of whom had a story to tell and everyone was interested because of personal involvement. The radio was on at the clerk's desk and this quickly became the 'nerve centre' of the department with staff popping out at regular intervals for updates on the situation. The shift was a progression of incidents and updates with everyone in the department involved and supportive of one another. There was no conflict between professional roles and personal concerns as these fused to produce caring professionals with insight, truly able to 'get inside patients' skin' and understand their deepest anxieties. This was the epitome of the shared lived experience.
Our hospital was on disaster alert on Saturday and Sunday, eventually receiving nursing home and retirement village evacuees (approximately 60 each day), who needed ongoing care or assessment for mild smoke inhalation. The many elderly people who were aware of the bushfires and coherent enough to understand the implications of evacuation were apprehensive and bewildered. They arrived with no bags of belongings or prized possessions or medications. Some nurses from the nursing homes accompanied the patients, many off duty who had volunteered to help with the mammoth task of moving a large number of elderly people. I secretly applauded these unselfish people who chose to help their patients and clients. The patients were comfortable with the familiar faces of their regular staff and, in such a stressful period, this contributed to the emotional well being of these patients. The nursing home staff were also an enormous help to us, because they knew what was normal or abnormal for their patients and could generally remember the medications and correct dosage for them. This task would have been impossible without them. Can you imagine 60 bewildered elderly people trying to describe their pills by shape, colour and time of day taken?
In review, what occurred at work over the weekend of this shared lived disaster was a large mutual debriefing session. The opportunity to talk about our greatest personal concerns became part of our professional role as we emotionally supported the patients who in turn supported us consciously and subconsciously. I felt privileged to be involved at work; it helped me to cope personally.
It has been two months since the bushfires; the scars on the bush are healing with large areas of new growth. In parallel the personal emotional scars of all involved are also slowly healing. For me, the aftermath of the bushfires has been more prolonged than I had anticipated, with my 5-year-old daughter still suffering from nightmares. Her behaviour has always been a little unpredictable, so it took my husband and I some days to realize that she was suffering from post traumatic stress. For many weeks bedtime was distressing with her needing continual reassurance that the bushfires had gone. Bedtime stories were unwanted and any spare time was quickly turned into a debriefing session by her with the request 'let's talk about the bushfires'. My husband and I are amazed at the depth of her fear and have spent much time looking for positive aspects of the fires. We take frequent short walks into the burnt areas of bush near our house and observe and discuss the new growth. She still needs support but is slowly relaxing. My local council is still offering counselling to anyone who feels they need it. There were community meetings organized by the local councils to discuss the bushfires, these in turn became community debriefing and public education sessions. The local schools also offer counselling and counsellors have been involved with the children. All of these initiatives signify recognition of the magnitude of this disaster on the psyche of the individual within the community.
My gratitude is extended to all the emergency services but in particular the fire brigade and volunteer bush fire fighters. Having come in contact with them personally and professionally I am in awe of their selfless, tireless work in the most dangerous and harrowing conditions.
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