After the Cobargo Bushfires

Another of the survival stories, quite miraculous, comes from Cobargo residents Wayne and Margi O’Connor. This couple were well prepared for the fire season, having cleared all dangerous undergrowth, and with a sprinkler system installed into the wraparound verandah of their fire-retardant timber home.

“We set the sprinklers going and left, because there were two fire balls approaching, and we didn’t feel safe,” Margi said. “We got as far as the next-door neighbour’s place, which is a kilometre away, and he’s 78 and was going to stay. So we stayed for a day and a half and protected his house, not knowing whether ours was still standing.

Margi said she and Wayne stood from a distance watching the fire engulf their property, and fully expected their home had been destroyed.

“New Year’s Day, we came back to find that it was still there,” she said. “We’d run through a tank of water, but the house was still standing. It was a miracle. And when you see the trees around it, they’re just like match sticks, really.”

Margi and her husband, who are Christians, believe God was protecting their home, and that its survival was no coincidence.

The couple are active members of Cobargo Community Church ( which sadly burnt down in the fires), and happen to be the custodians of a large wooden cross, used by the church at Easter time each year. The shed in which the cross is stored, was right in the line of the fires—and by all accounts, should have been destroyed. Instead, it was saved.

“The fireball was heading towards the cross first,” Margi said. “That was the first thing it met—and not even the tyres on the tractor behind it got burnt. It went around the cross. The paint on the cross didn’t even get peeled.

“The fire went around the house, around the shed, and we’ve still got green trees around the house. It was like there was a blanket of protection over the home. It’s amazing.”
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