The bush fires that raged through the hills outside of Adelaide last week not only effected areas where Scouts Rally SA runs in and around the township of Kersbrook but also decimated the property of former ARC regular Barry Kirk.
The fires burned for six days and over 13,000 hectares in the Sampson Flat area and destroyed 27 homes before finally being contained, with heavy rain on Thursday and Friday helping fire fighters.
Scouts Rally SA Clerk of Course Ivar Stanelis said: “Lots of our rally officials and competitors live in the hills,” added Ivar Stanelis. “Many were affected by way of being evacuated and/or threatened.”
“We also have many members of the MFS and CFS who are both officials and competitors in rallying, and I know a lot of them were involved in fighting the fires in the Adelaide hills. As a community we want to thank them for all their work fighting and controlling the fires.”
“With rain overnight last night, and more predicted, this fire in now under control, and roads are being reopened. We will do a full assessment once we can safely drive through, probably next week,” Stanelis stated.
Fire officials confirmed that no lives had been lost in the bushfires despite the ferocity with which they expanded. The forest and roads that Scouts Rally SA utilizes though weren’t as lucky.
“Certainly one stage in Kersbrook, the one we called Gum Flat, has been affected. We are meeting to look at fire ground maps and see where else, but I think the rest are ok,” said Stanelis.
Kirk in action in Scouts Rally SA.Former ARC regular Barry Kirk, who campaigned both a Mazda RX7 and a Mitsubishi Mirage over a two-year period, had his property in the Humbug Scrub area destroyed.
“We lost everything except the house and our sheep,” confirmed Kirk. “We were very lucky, all the buildings around the house were burnt to the ground but the house itself was miraculously spared.”
“I’d been watching the fire all day, it had stayed about three kilometres out from my house. But by the afternoon the wind dropped and I knew straight away it would be on us in no time.”
“My neighbor said the flames were thirty feet higher than the sixty foot trees. It’s a miracle no lives were lost, and for all my sheep to have survived too, they are smarter than we think!”
Kirk did lose a number of his prized vehicles though, including a rare German racing Ford Capri RS2600 and the first ever motor cross bike Kirk competed on. “It was the very first bike I raced for Husqvarna, it was bike number one,” he said.
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