By Kyra Gillespie
Garfield North resident Olivia Exposito is relieved to be back in her father’s arms after he bravely stayed to defend the family home over the weekend.
The 20-year-old, along with her brother and mum, did not know if father and husband Alex Exposito was alive when flames surrounded their property on Sunday.
“I do believe that someone was watching over Dad, and I’m safe to say it was an absolute miracle,” Olivia said.
“After hearing on the news and radio that the end of our court where my house is was on fire, we had not heard from Dad. Over four painful hours later, I finally heard his voice and burst into tears.
“Whilst the blaze surrounded the entirety of our house, my dad stayed to save what he could.”
Emergency crews were unable to reach Alex at their Wallaby Court home.
Still in the same shirt he’s worn for the last five days, the battle-weary father of two recounted the horrors of that day.
“While I was attending a grass fire another fire came around and took out all my firefighting gear.”
“I’d lost power, so I used the dog blanket to put the fire out at the front, and then this old thing” he said, slapping the bonnet of a small Bobcat. “Wherever the fire was, I’d put it out with that. I put a pretty good fire break in and and stopped it from getting in front of the retainer wall.
“When the diesel ran out, I was left with a shovel and a blanket and just made it happen.”
Around the house every inch of their 20 acre property, which they have had for 18 years, has been charred.
A wood shed, the tin black from the flames, has chunks of thick wood spilling out of it – Alex had tossed the flaming pieces out of the shed in an effort to save the structure.
After saving his own property, Alex – armed with a shovel – ran down to neighbouring properties and put out a number of fires.
With no phone battery, it wasn’t until hours later that he could contact his family.
“He saved their houses,” wife Denise said tearfully.
“We didn’t hear from him for hours, my legs were jelly. It was horrible. It was the not-knowing that was the worst part.”
While the Gazette was visiting the Garfield North property, neighbours Michael and Emma returned home for the first time and, stepping onto the Exposito property, embraced the hero who had saved their home.
“There’s not much damage, because of him,” neighbour Michael said.
“We thought everything was gone – we thought he was gone.
“My brother who passed when I was young, all his stuff is in that house. Thank you so much for saving it.”
Mr Exposito came out the other side of the ordeal relatively unscathed, save some harsh smoke inhalation.
“Would I do it again? Yes. There’s a lot of things I’ve learnt from it – how to set things up the correct way so they don’t get hit; all sorts of things are going through my head on how to do it better next time,” he said.
“But I would absolutely do it again.”
“I am so beyond proud, words can’t even describe it,” daughter Olivia added.
“What dad has done is just unspeakable and I don’t think anything anyone says is enough to commend him for the bravery and hard work he has displayed, and I love him very much for it.
“Having the house and garage being the only things left of our 20 acre property is the most traumatic thing I believe my family and I will ever experience.”
The family are now reunited, but have a lot of work to do; with no water or power, the rebuilding process will be a slow and arduous one.
“We’ll start from the beginning with a lot of rebuilding to do and starting from scratch on the property,” Olivia said.
“We are one lucky family.
“My heart goes out there to those who were not so lucky in these horrific and traumatising times.”
