Vic: Family moves in, six months after Black Saturday

AAP General News (Australia)
08-07-2009
Vic: Family moves in, six months after Black Saturday

By Mariza O'Keefe

MELBOURNE, Aug 7 AAP - Exactly six months after the Black Saturday bushfires left Bendigo
couple Aaron and Jenna Lightburn and their two young children homeless, the family has
collected the keys to their new home.

The young family are the first in Bendigo to reach this milestone after the February
7 bushfires destroyed 61 homes and left 109 people homeless in the central Victorian city.

One person from Bendigo was killed in the fires.

The Lightburns did not hesitate to rebuild their home in Albert Street, Long Gully,
where at least a dozen of their neighbours also lost everything.

"Some people in the area are not building in the same spot, but it's not a concern
of ours. We were just wanting to move on quickly," Mr Lightburn said.

"We are excited to get into our new house. To start living our life again, just moving on."

For the past six months the family have been living at the nearby home of Mr Lightburn's
sister along with his parents, who also lost their home in the bushfires.

On Black Saturday, Mr Lightburn was swimming at a friend's pool with his children -
aged three and one - when he was alerted about the fire approaching his street.

His wife, who was nearby, rushed to the house to pick up some valuables and was shocked
to see how close the flames were.

She only managed to rescue the family's three dogs before she had to flee.

"She could see the flames behind our fence, so she left," Mr Lightburn said.

"The guy across the road stayed and defended his house and he said that 10 minutes
after my wife left the house was on the ground."

He said Bendigo victims of the fire have set up a group that was meeting on Friday
night at the local RSL to mark the six-month milestone.

"I think everybody's pretty positive and we're pretty positive about the whole thing,
it's just good to be moving on," he said.

City of Greater Bendigo Fire Recovery Coordinator, Mark Cattell, said the six-month
anniversary represented a time of remembering the 173 people who perished in the fires
and for looking toward the future for many Bendigo survivors.

He said he generally found people were positive about the future and wanted to move on.

"We have certainly got a very positive element about moving on and since Aaron and
Jenna's property has been built all of a sudden there is some sort of pandemic, with another
10 to 11 properties popping up," he said.

In Bendigo there are 38 plans before the council for rebuilding and Mr Cattell said
he was only aware of about four cases where people did not plan to rebuild on their properties.

A spokeswoman for the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction & Recovery Authority said it
was aware of at least one other property that had been rebuilt in the Gippsland region
since Black Saturday.

She said there were no official data as people are not required to officially inform
the authority when they rebuild.

AAP mok/pmu/jfm

KEYWORD: BUSHFIRES VIC HOUSE

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