By Margaret Maccoll
Ten months after fire tore through three Noosa North Shore homes residents are in the process of rebuilding with one nearing completion.
Mike Hancock said he and wife Lyn almost walked away and sold their land but the kindness of the community and the beauty of the area caused them to stay.
“It’s not a pleasant thing to have your house burn down,” Mike said. “But once you’ve lived over here you realise it’s a wonderful world. It’s a real tight little community. No one bothers you but they’re there when you need them.”
Mike who is the area’s Rural Fire Service (RFS) chief officer said there had been some positive outcomes from the event.
He said there had been a series of meetings with council to discuss disaster management on north shore though there was no getting around the time needed by emergency services to cross the river.
He said RFS managed bush fires not house fires and mitigation measures had been undertaken before the house fires took place but the management of bushland had no impact on the fire that began in a neighbour’s house then leapt from one to another.
When the fire occurred the stars had all lined up in the wrong way, Mike said. “There was a big wind, it was dry and no one was home,” he said. “It just raced through quickly. It took (firefighters) 25 minutes to get there and by that time two houses were gone and the third engulfed.”
Mike praised his wife’s stoic attitude who on seeing the house in ashes said “we’ve had worse”.
He said the couple knew real hurt when they lost their son of natural causes when he was 22 years old and a painting of him which perished in the fire remains an item most missed.On the plus side Mike said having lived in the same place for 18 years the couple were able to redesign their new house to better take advantage of the sun and wind directions. He said the builder, Hamilton Construct, had gone out of their way to make the process bearable, even transporting materials by boat to save the ferry costs.
