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Speaker 1: This is the Fitty and with her with Kate Richie podcast.

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Speaker 2: It's really really scary images with the bushfires on the

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Speaker 2: Central Coast over the weekend. Absolutely, yeah, let's have a listen.

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Speaker 3: I've broken bushfire victims have sifted through the ash and

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Speaker 3: soot where their homes once stood on the Central Coast.

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Speaker 4: Her last great coats pets for ten years when they

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Speaker 4: both can't fines must have been ten fifteen meters high.

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Speaker 4: They were huge, and it.

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Speaker 1: Was just a new a plain on on me.

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Speaker 2: I have my son literally under my arm, and Jonas had,

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Speaker 2: Betty had the dog, and we just ran. We were

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Speaker 2: sitting there in the park, literally sitting there watching our houseburner.

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Speaker 3: It's just fascinating how quickly it can just just develop

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Speaker 3: so quickly. In that one street, thirty homes have been lost.

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Speaker 3: One lady who was there in Cooler Wong on the

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Speaker 3: Central Coast is Sarah and she joins us now.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much for joining us.

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Speaker 3: Sarah.

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Speaker 4: Good morning, Good morning, Sarah.

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Speaker 2: Hey are you holding up, sair, Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Good. Trying to wrap my head around it all really.

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Speaker 3: So explain where you're at, sir, because you live right

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Speaker 3: in the middle of the fire zone.

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Speaker 1: Don't you. Yes, I do. Yeah, I'm I'm just on

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Speaker 1: the on in the red zone, probably two hundred meters

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Speaker 1: away from where all the houses were lost, and I've

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Speaker 1: just got bush all around me. It was right up

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Speaker 1: like behind us. And yeah, just I don't even know

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Speaker 1: how to explain it.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, well, wow, you're talking about wrapping your head around it.

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Speaker 4: What is it that unfolded that you must I mean,

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Speaker 4: if you've slept, wake up in the morning and think.

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Speaker 2: What the hell is happening?

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Speaker 4: Like this is this real?

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Speaker 1: That's exactly right. On Saturday it was. The air traffic

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Speaker 1: was crazy. There was planes and the helicopters and chinooks

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Speaker 1: and that were just on the rooflines, and there was

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Speaker 1: one helicopter that was doing all the traffic control right

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Speaker 1: up the top. And yeah, just the big bombers that

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Speaker 1: coming over and dropping the chemicals along the ridge to

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Speaker 1: stop the breach, which unfortunately didn't happen. And so we

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Speaker 1: were awake all Saturday night just watching it sort of

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Speaker 1: come down, sweeping closer and closer to the house. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: I had my two granddaughters here that are eight and six,

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Speaker 1: and my ninety three year old grandfather, and I managed

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Speaker 1: to I got them out both days, bought the home overnight.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, my granddaughter was like, now are we going

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Speaker 1: to lose our house? I said, no, sweetheart, and I

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Speaker 1: got so many memories here, and I said, Dylan, all

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Speaker 1: your memories are in your head. And this is like

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Speaker 1: two o'clock in the morning with me, and she just

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Speaker 1: sort of grabbed my hand and she said, thank you, Nannie,

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Speaker 1: and actually slept for a little bit. So but just

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Speaker 1: you know what the fieries have done, and they you know,

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Speaker 1: they keep you updated, and you know, climbing up in

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Speaker 1: the bush that they couldn't even get through and dropping

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Speaker 1: down to their waist through dead leaves that you know

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Speaker 1: that are going to catch on fire and flow over.

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Speaker 1: Maybe take your house up.

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Speaker 3: How freaky was it?

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Speaker 1: Sore?

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Speaker 3: Then when the storm hit and it started raining, because

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Speaker 3: we saw a local man, Michael Drake, you jumped onto

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Speaker 3: his boat and then it started. A storm came in.

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Speaker 3: You've got lightning, then you've got the threat of lightning,

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Speaker 3: and then the rain it was did it did it

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Speaker 3: bucket down?

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Speaker 1: It did for a couple of minutes, and then it

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Speaker 1: peed it out and it sort of went over over

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Speaker 1: the waterways over more like along the coastline and hit

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Speaker 1: there a lot harder than it hit out, which you know,

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Speaker 1: was devastating. It was like we need you back sort of.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So obviously a lot of the locals and yourself

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Speaker 2: were asking the question, how did it start? Do we

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Speaker 2: have any idea?

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Speaker 1: Absolutely not all. All I hearing from the grape vine

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Speaker 1: is that there was an explosion, a second one and

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Speaker 1: then a house just puffs straight up.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So Sara, did you get did you get to save

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Speaker 3: anything at all?

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Speaker 1: Like?

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Speaker 2: What did you save?

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Speaker 1: Oh? I'm a bag each We packed a bag. The

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Speaker 1: girls quickly packed, just packed three date clothes for three days.

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Speaker 1: Grab this, you know. We took photos of all the

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Speaker 1: photos on the wall and things like that. In cage.

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Speaker 1: It was like you can't take those. There's just no room.

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Speaker 1: I've got a bunch of kittens here at the moment,

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Speaker 1: I've got a big dog. So they were all ready

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Speaker 1: to rock and roll. And yeah, it was just like,

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Speaker 1: pack a bag, just grab whatever you want, let's get

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Speaker 1: out of here. So it is just thinking of what

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Speaker 1: you it doesn't matter about that, doesn't matter about that.

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Speaker 1: But then when you think about it, you think, oh man,

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Speaker 1: I should have really grabbed that, But it's like, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: how do you make this as.

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Speaker 4: Long as you guys get out and the grandkids get

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Speaker 4: out and and and what's on for today?

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Speaker 1: I've actually got to go and pack my grandchildren up,

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Speaker 1: and pack my granddadd up, and I've got to go

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Speaker 1: to work. So life is actually just normal. I try

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Speaker 1: to keep it as normal as possible, especially for the children.

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Speaker 1: They were my grandchildren actually went through the tar refires

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Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, so they were they saw

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Speaker 1: the devastation there, understood it and sort of translated it

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Speaker 1: to here.

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Speaker 4: And so they lost underestimate the trauma of that also.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, I hope, I hope they're okay, and thank

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Speaker 4: you well done.

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Speaker 1: Oh no, no, honestly, I did nothing. These the fieries

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Speaker 1: were amazing, amazing. I kept on, you know, open my

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Speaker 1: house up, come in, use the bathroom, use the toilet,

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Speaker 1: the food in the kitchen. If you need a rest there,

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Speaker 1: beds there, walking up and down with super dupers. Anyone

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Speaker 1: want a cold drink, you know, anything, anything you want.

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Speaker 1: My house is open for as long as it's there.

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Speaker 2: Weld unseaid, what am I steering your family through?

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Speaker 1: That?

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Speaker 2: How challenging and scary over the weekend.

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Speaker 3: It's in Whipper with Kate Ritchie is a Nova podcast

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Speaker 3: to walk great shows like this.

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Speaker 2: Download the Nova Player, find the app store or Google Play.

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Speaker 3: In the