Fire victims await news of damage

Photo / AP

Anxious and tired after days away from home, the survivors of a devastating bushfire in the Adelaide Hills waited for news of the damage to their homes.

Though authorities were gradually opening roads, many at the Golden Grove relief centre had no idea when they would be able to return to their homes.

For some, the damage was already clear. Michael and Jodie Koczwara's Inglewood home was gutted in the blaze, just hours after they decided it was no longer safe to stay and defend the property.

The couple were initially confident their well-maintained property would escape damage but hours later, their home was in ruins, a shed had exploded and their paddocks were burnt black.

"Seeing what happened to the house, we know now that we would never have been able to take any cover anywhere," Jodie Koczwara said.

The couple said they planned to rebuild and were hopeful a more modern home would better protect them from future blazes.

"No house, not very much of anything, mate." That's Dave Miller's blunt assessment of what's left at his ravaged property at Kersbrook.

Miller, 60, was forced to flee to a friend's house with his blue heeler Zeus when fire bore down on his Devil's Gully Rd property.

Yesterday, he was met with a grim scene.

"I've got a diesel tank still standing with 4000 litres of diesel in but I've got nothing else. I've got full rainwater tanks with fire pumps attached to them that just disintegrated."

Miller says he plans to rebuild and has no intention of leaving the Adelaide Hills despite the constant threat of bushfire.

Others were more fortunate.

Truck driver Chris Chamberlain, 41, learned that firefighters had saved his home.

He feared the worst when he heard the blaze was closing in on the Cudlee Creek Caravan Park but a quick response from the CFS saved his caravan and a sea container which stored all of his worldly possessions. AAP