For some it was their baptism by fire

This is Knox. Urgent. We're on the corner of Mount Dandenong Tourist Road and Janiesleigh Road and the fire has completely got away from us. Can we have some assistance? This is Knox ...

By ELISSA BLAKE

``Right. Get in the truck. We're going,'' shouts John Poulter, lead firefighter with the Corio strike team. A convoy of trucks from Geelong City, Corio and Grovedale has been sitting by the side of Burwood Highway filling up water tanks.

They've already saved three houses in Belgrave and now they're in Upper Ferntree Gully and Upwey. Across the road, flames are curling around the entrance sign of the Dandenong Ranges National Park. The ``D'' has been scorched off the sign, the ``A'' is about to go.

A teenage boy covered in ash is still guzzling water from the fire truck Esky. He is Terry Cooper, a 16-year-old volunteer fire fighter from Corio. ``Get in,'' shouts Poulter again.

``He's only new, only just got off his probation. This is his first real job,'' he explains as Cooper scrambles on to the back of the truck. Cooper is just one of 20 volunteers with the Geelong Strike team. For some, this is their first bushfire. Others have seen dozens of homes go up in flames.

John Poulter, 42, of Grovedale, has been a fire fighter for 22 years. Today is his birthday. ``I don't think I'll be back in time for my surprise birthday party. I even had relatives coming up from Portland.''
The convoy of fire tankers moves slowly up the mountain toward Sherbrooke. Residents stand on the footpath watching the trucks toil up the hill.

Halfway up the steep Janiesleigh Road, the Corio tanker breaks down. Five firefighters leap out and repair the clutch. It takes four minutes. But the delay has given them time to spot flames leaping behind the nearest house - 18 Janiesleigh Road.

Within minutes the flames are into the roof, the walls, the balcony.

``Come on Terry, keep it together!'' shouts Poulter as the young volunteer struggles with the hoses. The 90-metre hose is run up the driveway only to become snagged on the letterbox.

It takes but 15 minutes for the house to become engulfed in flames. Another five minutes and only the brass bell on the front door frame remains intact.

The Corio unit surrenders the house and instead train hoses on 16 Janiesleigh Road. Then a helicopter drops 600 litres of water on the house - soaking Terry Cooper.

In the street behind, another two houses are ablaze. A neighbor attempts to smother embers flying across on to his property. A chubby dog waddles slowly down the hill and rests beneath a fire tanker.

``Now I can say I've been to a house fire and a bush fire. All on my first day,'' grins Cooper. ``But you have to feel sorry for the poor mongrels coming home to this. We saved the chickens out the back. They were damn lucky they didn't go up. Can you imagine that?''

Number 16 Janiesleigh Road has been saved. The owner, Louis Tsaf, has arrived to find his neighbors' home destroyed. ``They only moved in about three months ago. They came across from New Zealand. They never had a chance.''