Re-CLARKE family and Bendigo fires, the Clarke residence was not affected by the fires, as the crow flies however the fire was only about 1-2 kms from their place. The boys houses were also safe, with Noels house being the only one in the immediate fire area. Like all the other fires at the weekend they did not behave like a "normal" fire would, and changed direction several times, coming within metres of the local KTM and Suzuki dealership. Bendigo was fortunate (if you can call it that..)in a sense that just 57 houses were lost and one person deceased, as bad as that is it pales into insignificance compared to Marysville and Kinglake. Had the wind not changed the center of Bendigo was under a very real threat. A scene of devastation in the Long Gully area, so many houses and sheds destroyed, many cars and bikes just melted blobs of alloy. One thing that really pissed me off was the rubbernecks who were just trying to get in and look at other peoples misfortune, even while the fire was still coming through like a freight train people were trying to drive in and take photos on their phones and generally getting in the road of emergency services vehicles.
