Great Australian Bushfire Stories

'The biggest cleared area was my vegetable patch ... I ran and lay down and made a little tent over myself. I thought it would preserve the last of the oxygen. Under the blanket I could hear explosions — the gas bottles from the houses further up, and I could just imagine all my neighbours dead up the road. The wind was roaring, the trees cracking: an awful lot of noise ... I thought I wasn't going to survive.' Peter Luke, Gaffneys Creek, Victoria

'The sky got darker again ... I started to think about the next day's newspaper headlines: "Stupid thirty-eight-weeks pregnant woman drives into fire with toddler."' Sonia Stanton, Canberra

'I looked down into where the houses were totally surrounded by a sea of flame and thought, well, that's it, she's all over. Everybody will be killed down there.' John Hyles, Namadgi Ranges

GREAT AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRE STORIES is a collection of remarkable tales from all around Australia that tell of our country's fiercest natural phenomenon: the bushfire.

Farmers, landowners, firefighters and city dwellers share with ABC journalist Ian Mannix their experiences of fires: preparing for them, fighting them, and the heartbreak task of mopping up when even their best efforts failed.

Some stories are funny, some tragic, many courageous, but all are a testimony to the ingenuity and grit of human beings as they fight to save their homes, their towns and, in some cases, their lives.