Cheers for a true blue Aussie hero

Chances are Australia could be facing another disastrous bushfire season like the one we experienced five years ago, which from a personal perspective came too close to home.

I wrote about the night, November 8, 2019, when we could see the glow of flames in the distance racing towards our coastal enclave near Noosa. My wife and I received texts from the authorities telling us to be prepared to evacuate. Some of our near neighbours did just that and we spent a restless night after hearing a news report that a service station just a few kilometers away had exploded in flames.

Fortunately that was another example of media hyperbole but it was scary stuff, as I described:

In a scene straight out of Dante's Inferno, flames and embers fanned by winds gusting to 50 knots suddenly threatened thousands of homes at Peregian Beach and other coastal centres to the north towards Noosa, during the week.

While the firies put their lives on the line to save homes, a couple of motorcycle cops and others in a car braved the flames sweeping across access roads to rouse residents from their beds in some cases, and direct them to safety. Their bodycam footage dramatically showed just how horrendous the situation was, as the load hailer message "evacuate now" filled the night air.

It was starkly brought to mind by an article in the latest edition of our local newspaper, Noosa Today, which reported on a bravery award to an absolute hero who helped save many lives that night.

He wasn't a firie who played a big role, as doubtless many did. He was a cop. Now retired, the former Senior Constable Stephen Fitzpatrick put his life on the line way beyond the normal call of duty and was recently awarded a Queensland Police Bravery Medal.

I would say he was obviously not the sort of policeman who would enjoy pushing a desk or sitting in an SUV off the side of the road on a downhill slope catching unwary motorists straying a few km/hr over the legal limit.

But judge for yourselves, as reported when he went to investigate a bushfire at Cooroibah just north of the international tourism hotspot of Noosa:

He was met by a dynamic fire that was rapidly changing course and firefighters who told him there was nothing they could do. "You'd better leave because we're not hanging around."

(He didn't heed that advice.)

Working alone, Snr Const Fitzpatrick criss-crossed the road, going from house to house to evacuate people and pets, putting them into the police Landcruiser.

"…. I went from one house where there might be no one, then another house and there were two pensioners watching 'General Hospital, oblivious to the fact their garden was on fire and there was smoke everywhere. So we got their medication, got them in the car.

"I went to another place. The guy had headphones on. I had to kick his door in, drag him out, put him in the car. I picked up a couple of dogs that were in a house by themselves…

"I had seven adults, two kids and a baby (in the Landcruiser) at one stage.

"My Landcruiser had four flat tyres … I was driving on rims. Fire was on each side of the road … as your driving out there's fire everywhere and embers - you've never seen anything like it.

"I drove into one place, next minute the gas bottle in the shed blew up, then it came crashing down.

"I ended up driving through flames. The windscreen wipers were on fire. I had to get the fire extinguisher out. But we didn't lose any people, that was the main thing."

As quickly as the fire had come, it left with a wind change and firefighters were able to return.

But that wasn't the end of the drama for Senr Const Fitzpatrick. When bushfires impacted the Peregian area (the ones we could see from our home that night) he again rushed to help.

Off duty at the time, he travelled to the police station but with no vehicle available he jumped on a quad bike and drove down David Low way, working with other police to evacuate everyone while extinguishing spot fires in back yards with garden hoses as they went.

About 9000 people were evacuated overall during the bushfire events.

Now retired after 22 years in the police service, this true blue hero was presented with the bravery medal "for his exceptional courage and determination to protect the Queensland community during unprecedented and hazardous circumstances".

Bravo and well done! It's an exceptional story, but going back to the day of the fires, it's worth remembering their true cause.