{"id":505505,"date":"2026-01-10T06:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T06:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/505505\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T06:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T06:10:15","slug":"ravenswood-local-catman-shares-heartbreak-after-catastrophic-bushfire-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/505505\/","title":{"rendered":"Ravenswood local ‘Catman’ shares heartbreak after ‘catastrophic’ bushfire damage"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a moment, Troy “Catman” West thought his Mount Alexander property was going to survive the fire.<\/p>\n

The well-known Geelong fanatic watched the Ravenswood fire go past across the hills and head south towards Melbourne, he told the ABC.<\/p>\n

Victorian bushfires continue to rage<\/a><\/p>\n

Victoria’s premier has declared a state of disaster as fast-moving bushfires threaten dozens of towns.<\/p>\n

Then the winds changed, and the flames were heading straight for his home.<\/p>\n

Mr West fled to stay with his family in Bendigo.<\/p>\n

A watering system in the roof \u2014 refilled by friends who braved the danger overnight \u2014 spared the house from the “catastrophic” damage.<\/p>\n

“It’s the only pocket that isn’t burned,” he said.<\/p>\n

Gone is Mr West’s gym and his “CatCave” full of Geelong memorabilia, gone are family videos saved for his nieces, gone are multiple large sheds.<\/p>\n

“It’s been horrendous, I’ve been in tears,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s my peace palace, it’s where I keep calm, keep my anxiety at bay. I just work out and I potter and I do a bit of painting.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

Multiple structures on the property were destroyed by the fire. (Supplied: Troy West)<\/p>\n

Approximately 50 structures have so far been destroyed in the Ravenswood and Harcourt fire, according to emergency services.<\/p>\n

Many residents from Harcourt and Mount Alexander evacuated to nearby Kyneton, anxiously awaiting news of their homes.<\/p>\n

Mr West returned to the property to retrieve medication this morning.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The fire swept through the property late on Friday night. (Supplied: Troy West)<\/p>\n

He spoke to the ABC from a spot further up the mountain, which he said was the only place he could get phone service.<\/p>\n

“I’m surrounded by smouldering trees that are falling down,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I can hear them cracking every five minutes and smashing to the ground. I’m in a little bit of an open area, so I’m okay, but I shouldn’t be up here.<\/p>\n

“It’s the only place I can get service though, because the house is just a dead zone.<\/p>\n

“There’s no power, no water \u2026 because the power lines were burnt down. So we’ve got no heat, no nothing, no power, Wi-Fi [or] running water, TV, electricity, phone chargers.<\/p>\n

“I’m just completely devastated. I can’t stop crying.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Troy West was able to return to his home early on Saturday morning to retrieve medication. (Supplied: Troy West)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a moment, Troy “Catman” West thought his Mount Alexander property was going to survive the fire. The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":505506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,3534,5025,8516,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-505505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-emergency","10":"tag-fire","11":"tag-geelong","12":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115869320836443421","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}