The Fire
At 15:26:00 pm on 1 February, I grab my camera and walk to our neighbour’s house. The wind is hot and dry. It’s unruly and strange for this time of year. It blows ash towards our home. Dad stands atop the hill with Lee, our neighbour. “Hopefully we get a wind change,” Dad says, as the smoke overshadows our house to the right. He knows what I’m still unaware of; without a wind change, the fire will reach us. Twenty-five years of history at this house gives Dad hope that the wind will change. It always does.
*
At 16:32:17 pm I’m in my parents’ bedroom waiting. I don’t know what I’m waiting for. Waiting for the fire to pass? Waiting for the house to burn? There are no thoughts for what was or what will be, I can think only in the seconds surrounding me. My memory is now only attached to the photos I collected. At 16:34:56 a spot fire starts. And within 30 seconds a raging inferno erupts on the other side of the glass. I don’t remember if I felt the heat. I don’t remember how much smoke was in the house. I just remember raising my camera and taking a photo, hearing mum yell “It’s in the roof.”
*
We solemnly watch the house burn down from the safety of our pool. In a strange way it feels right that we’re here to bear witness, and that I’m here to capture it. It feels like my responsibility. I owe it to all those who lost their homes last year, today and in the many years to come. To capture the personal devastation that a natural disaster brings, in a world where disasters such as these, are only becoming more common.
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Louise Coghill is a freelance photographer and writer, often found walking through various mountain ranges with her backpack called 'Big Red'. She discovered travel from the age of 10 when her family moved to a small mining camp in Tanzania. Since then, she's struggled to stay in one spot for very long and has hiked through Nepal, rode horses through Mongolia, caught trains through China, hitchhiked across Laos, and walked the length of New Zealand. She recently won The Independent Photographer 2021 Landscape competition and has been shortlisted by the Photo Collective 'Stories' competition. Her words and images have been published by Canon Australia, Tiny Atlas Quarterly, and The Adventure Handbook.