{"id":508038,"date":"2026-01-11T07:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T07:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/508038\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T07:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T07:47:16","slug":"volunteer-firefighters-alexandra-home-burns-while-he-battles-victorian-bushfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/508038\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteer firefighter’s Alexandra home burns while he battles Victorian bushfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volunteer firefighter Michael Harper had been defending homes in central Victoria against the state’s catastrophic bushfires for more than 24 hours when he learned over the truck radio that his home was under threat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deployed last Thursday as a driver of a CFA strike team \u2014 a group of CFA operatives from regional areas \u00a0\u2014 Mr Harper had spent the past few days on the front line battling blazes across central Victoria.<\/p>\n

And it was while he was fighting a blaze on the Maroondah Highway that Mr Harper was instructed to drive his team back to Alexandra late yesterday to defend his home town from the incoming Longwood fire.<\/p>\n

His team of four, which included a 20-year-old volunteer and Murrindindi Shire Council Mayor Damien Gallagher, had just returned from checking on Cr Gallagher’s house, which they believed was under threat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Both in the CFA, the Harpers knew their home was at risk but never thought they would lose their house.\u00a0 (ABC News: Jessica Longbottom)<\/p>\n

“Once we got up there, we found that Damien’s house hadn’t burnt down \u2014 which was a huge relief \u2014 but over the radio we heard that they were pulling trucks out of [my property address] because of the danger of gas bottles, and they said that they lost all assets there,” Mr Harper said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I realised at that stage it was actually my house.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pulling up to the street, Mr Harper jumped out and started walking towards his property “speechless”, Cr Gallagher told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“His response was deflation at first, obviously, as you would, then after a while he just started providing water to all the extra crew who had also arrived to the street. He’s an incredible guy,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He said, ‘That’s OK, I can’t change it.'”<\/p>\n

“I suppose it’s about choice, isn’t it? You can go down that rabbit hole of feeling sorry for yourself, but there’s stuff we need to do,” Mr Harper told the ABC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bushfires continue to burn in Longwood in Victoria. (AAP Image: Michael Currie)<\/p>\n

Cr Gallagher said he told “Mike” his day on the truck was over, and took him back to the fire station.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pair had spent the last 24 hours defending fires first from Ruffy and then to Terip Terip, before making their way between Yarck and Merton to defend the fire crossing the Maroondah Highway, where the blaze was “as intense as fire gets”, the councillor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Conditions remain difficult for firefighters in Victoria. (AAP: Michael Currie)<\/p>\n

“We were putting a bandaid over a brain injury, really,” Mr Harper said, describing the fire on Maroondah.<\/p>\n

“I told him, ‘You’ve done too much, so much’. But we were down to a crew of two, and Mike knew that,” Cr Gallagher said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Michael came back out [of the fire station] and said, ‘Mate, let’s go again.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The team was tasked to defend a farm under threat in Acheron and left immediately.<\/p>\n

“That’s just the kind of guy he is,” Cr Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Michael Harper (centre), his wife Cathie Harper (right) and Dan Irvine (left) of the Acheron CFA. (Supplied: Cathie Harper)<\/p>\n

You don’t think it will be you<\/p>\n

Mr Harper had left his house on Thursday quickly to respond to fight fires south of\u00a0Longwood, in central Victoria, and had no time to pack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The call came through that they needed a strike team driver for a deployment straight away, so I literally went home, threw on my fire clothes and went out the door and that’s all I had with me,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The volunteer and his wife Cathie, also an Acheron CFA volunteer, knew their property was in a high-risk area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We always discussed that we’re in a fire-prone area and we wouldn’t be there to defend our house because we knew we’d be on the trucks,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.\"The<\/p>\n

Kathy Harper said she and her brother high-fived when they learned Alexandra had been saved. Just an hour later her husband would call her from the ruins of their home.\u00a0 (ABC News: Jessica Longbottom)<\/p>\n

Mr Harper’s wife Kathy evacuated the night before with their dog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I didn’t really believe that I needed to take anything, you don’t think it’s ever going to happen,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kathy watched the fire’s progress with her brother and said it looked for a long time like her town had “miraculously” avoided disaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We were all high-fiving each other, saying best outcome ever,” she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

An hour later she got a call from her husband, telling her that he was walking up their driveway and that everything had gone. \u00a0<\/p>\n

She didn’t believe it until she saw photos of the destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was shocked, devastated; so many emotions run through you.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We just have to play on’<\/p>\n

Mr Haper said the pair just had to “play on”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is what it is, and we understand that when we’re in the fire brigade. It’s the first few days of the next journey in our life and we’re just going to look at it that way.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Michael Harper said he had no time to pack before the blaze.\u00a0 (ABC News: Jessica Longbottom)<\/p>\n

“That’s what we were meant to do.”<\/p>\n

Mr Harper said that being on the truck with such confident and capable people and “doing what we did for that 24 hours” was “pretty exhilarating”.<\/p>\n

“We run on adrenaline and you just keep going and, you do, you feel the immense pride in what you’re achieving,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more about the bushfires and heatwaves here:<\/p>\n