Ellenbrook father and volunteer firefighter Matt Beilken has recounted the terrifying moment he was forced to shelter inside his own home during Thursday’s bushfire emergency.
Mr Beilken managed to safely evacuate his two young children to a neighbours’ house before flames reached his property minutes later, forcing him to stop firefighting efforts and shelter indoors.
“Initally it was moving in a sort of northerly direction and then at one stage we had a wind change, and it came straight at my house,” he told The West.
Camera IconFirefighter Matt Beilken. Gary Ramage Credit: The West Australian
“I had to seek shelter at one stage because the flames were coming right up to my garage.
“Once I realised that the fire was coming my way, I quickly threw the kids in the car. One of my neighbours was standing out the front, so I drove the kids and the dog over, and asked him to look after them.
“The kids got pretty freaked out at one stage.”
Mr Beilken said he was “in a spot of bother” when he was forced to shelter indoors.
“I was pretty much straight into defence mode. I had the hose going anyway, just watering down the edges of the carport and just basically hoping that it was going to blow over quickly so I could get into defence as quickly as possible before any part of my house got taken out.”
Mr Beilken, a volunteer firefighter, said his bushfire plan could have potentially saved his home — which is located less than 10m away from bushland.
“This is the first time I’ve actually had to defend a house . . . my first time defending a house from a fire was my own house.
“I just got back from the Boddington bushfire last weekend, and again, straight into it four or five days later.”