In the line of fire

RESIDENTS whose homes were threatened by the fires in Pakenham Upper last week want to say thank you to those who fought to save their properties.
Police believe six fires were deliberately lit in the Pakenham, Army and Reynolds roads area when CFA crews got the call at 3pm.
Incident Controller Steven Hicks said crews quickly got on top of five of the fires but one spiralled out of control.
“There were six (fires) in six different places down Army Road and Pakenham Road,” he said.
“We caught five quickly but one just got away because it was in an inaccessible spot.”
“Our biggest concern was that we knew someone was lighting the fires so were there others we missed?” he said.
“There was a lot of uncertainly of whether we had got them all.”
“The risk was that if we had the wind or conditions predicted, it would have done a lot more damage and traveled a lot further,” Mr Hicks said.
The fires burnt a total of 10 hectares of land, with the biggest fire scorching five hectares.
“There were definitely houses under threat,” Mr Hicks said.
“The guys did a great job to stop it where they did.”
Police are investigating the fires and Cardinia Group Officer Phil Craig said it was too early to speculate about how they started.
“There is reason to suspect that the fires are suspicious,” he said.
“Police and the CFA investigation unit are investigating, but they appear to be suspicious at this stage.”
Pat Reynolds, 88, was told by fire crews when they arrived that they would be the team to save her house.
“And they did,” Pat said.
Paul Reynolds’ house was surrounded by flames after spot fires blew embers from the front to the back of his property.
With his wife Alex and 18-month-old daughter Cora safely away from the fire front, Mr Reynolds, 38, watched in horror as the flames raced towards his home, coming within just a few metres of buildings.
“For a good couple of hours we were in trouble,” he said. “It came right up to the fenceline … it was very scary.”
“If it wasn’t for the firies, we wouldn’t have a house,” Mr Reynolds said.