A Melbourne resident who was enjoying a New Year's family holiday in Mallacoota has found himself trapped in the coastal town due to Victoria's ongoing bushfires.
In an interview with Magic Talk's Peter Williams on Monday, John Fimmel recounted his "extremely lucky" brush with the bushfire that forced thousands of people to seek shelter at Mallacoota Beach on New Year's Eve.
"I'm still in Mallacoota, I haven't been able to get out," Fimmel said.
"The road home is closed, they have no idea when that's going to be open... it depends who you talk to. Police say 40 days, doing one kilometre a day... the misinformation going around is unbelievable. That's probably the worst part - nobody really knows what's going on."
Fimmel, who had been using Mallacoota's camping facilities, said "there was no warning" when the panic ensued on December 31.
"We were having a swim in the lakes with the kids and a girl came down and threw gas bottles in the water... she told us, 'there's a fire coming, we've been told to throw gas bottles in the water'," Fimmel recounted.
"That was on the eve of the fire. Locals were telling my son to get out of town, [saying] 'this place is going to go off like a bomb'."
Fimmel said his family decided on a fire plan, which included his son and nephew taking everyone to the middle of the lake in their boats when the time was right. Meanwhile, Fimmel stayed at the campground to defend the caravan.
However, campers were "extremely lucky" as the fire changed direction "at the last minute".
"You could see the embers flying past like bricks... if one landed on your caravan, it would go 'poof' up in smoke. If we saw the fire coming, we probably had about 30 metres to run and jump in the lake - I didn't feel brave, but I felt safe."
Fimmel described the "pitch black" scenes at 9am on New Year's Day when the fire hit the small town.
"I've never seen anything like it... probably half an hour later, everything was red. It was just weird... just really eerie."
The "thick" lingering smoke is now Mallacoota's biggest problem, with welcome winds helping to disperse the smog on Sunday.
Trapped holidaymakers have since been informed they can travel north, adding roughly 10 hours to the Fimmel family's trip back to Melbourne.
"I would like to get home - the town's a ghost town," Fimmel said.
"It hasn't been a holiday."
