Jack Egan

Bushfire Survivor, Rosedale NSW

Cath and my Black Summer New Year's Eve fire story is well-told by ABC journalist Dannielle Maguire only a few days after our home was razed:

Cath Bowdler and Jack Egan lost just about everything when their North Rosedale home, south of Bateman's Bay in coastal New South Wales, went up in flames. But Mr Egan said they were feeling "quite philosophical" in the wake of the fire, after a harrowing few hours of not knowing if the other was alive.

Speaking from a friend's cottage about 25 kilometres away from the rubble that was once his home, Mr Egan recalled the ferocity of the blaze that hit on New Year's Eve — and the frantic few hours that followed.

Ms Bowdler took shelter on a beach while Mr Egan stayed to defend the house. He had the right gear; he had a plan and he had been through RFS training before. But the fire came too quickly. The blaze came from two directions, he said, with flames fanned by a strong easterly breeze moving with more ferocity than he had anticipated.

Mr Egan described it as a "firestorm". "My fire pump had caught fire by that stage," he said.

"And the domestic hoses were unreachable because of the heat of the house burning next door — next door went up a like a torch."

All he could do was shelter in a neighbour's concrete basement, something he was hoping he would not have to resort to when he planned how he would go about defending the house.

"Clearly there was no point, there was nothing I could do," he said.

When the fire had settled down, he went down through the blackened bushland to the beach to look for Ms Bowdler. The couple lived about 150 metres from the shore, about a five-minute walk away. Ms Bowdler had taken the couple's dog and ran down to the beach, where she planned to take shelter in a cave. It was the first place Mr Egan checked.

"I walked down and saw she wasn't there," he said.

"So I went to the other beach and saw she was not on that beach. I couldn't work out where she could be.

"I went back, I looked down a different way … to see if there was a body there."

He left a note on the windscreen of his car saying he was safe and went searching again. Mr Egan cannot remember exactly how long he and Ms Bowdler were separated for, but he estimates it was somewhere between two and three hours. At some point, Ms Bowdler met up with a group of doctors who treated her for shock. When the danger passed, she returned home, saw the note and went back out to look for her partner. Meanwhile, Mr Egan was still searching, asking people gathered on beaches if they'd seen a woman matching Ms Bowdler's description.

"Then she came walking down the beach — that was a joyful reunion," he said.

While they are grateful they made it through the emergency alive, their home was reduced to a mass of warped iron, scorched wood and ash. A sign Mr Egan made to campaign for climate action somehow survived the blaze.

"I didn't expect the sign to make the point so strikingly as it does now," he said.

He had Ms Bowdler take a photo of him by the sign with the remains of their home in the shot to make a point. Now he wants Australia to show leadership in reducing carbon emissions to bring about global change.

"Many of us, including me, assumed the future would unfold in an orderly way, gradually getting hotter and more uncomfortable and we'd adjust," Mr Egan said.

"The future has crashed right into the present now in a chaotic way — it's not orderly in any way.

"Clearly that's not OK — it's like a warzone down here.

"Australia as a nation can now, having experienced the drought and the fires, influence and lead the rest of the world to get more active.

"I'm not trying to make points against the current government. As a nation, we need to step up."

Mr Egan said he and Ms Bowdler would bounce back as their house was fully insured. For now, they are staying at a friend's place. They plan to spend tomorrow helping out at the aged care home where Mr Egan works as a personal carer in a bid to keep busy. Mr Egan said he wanted something good to come from the situation.

"[I saw] strangers being very, very kind to other strangers," he said.

"The locals came walking around with trays of food that they'd cooked at home … that was not part of any organised support service.

"That's one great thing."