This week for one of my classes I was given an assignment where I had to watch and read through a really cool interactive story. This particular story (Ill share the link) is called Firestorm, and it is about a family in Tasmania specifically in the town Dunalley, and how they survived a wildfire. It was through this assignment that I gained a lot of knowledge and also a bit of wisdom, all through the people involved and a flower.
Heres a little (very poorly explained) overview for those who have never heard of this:
On January 4, 2013, the town of Dunalley located in Tasmania was struck with a wildfire-one of which nobody had prepared for. In fact, they had actually thought they had hours before the fire would reach them, but they were very wrong. Tim and Tammy Holmes, residents of Dunalley and the grandparents to 5 children were among those people. The Holmes were living in a home that they had built themselves 25 years prior, and they had (I think) six other buildings on their property as well. At the time of the fire, they were babysitting their 5 grandchildren (all aged 2-11) for their daughter Bonnie while she was off to attend a funeral. They knew about the fire as they were told to prepare for it, but they did not know how fast it was approaching. What they thought would be hours turned into minutes. When the fire had actually arrived, they were not prepared by any means. The Holmes were able to escape with the children, fleeing to their jetty (dock) on the bay. In a few short intense hours, the fire incinerated six of their buildings including the house they had built 25 years ago and all of their possessions. Miraculously, nobody died in their town, and even their 4 horses somehow survived as well. Even after the Holmes had lost everything, they still remained positive and happy. Tammy had even stated that even though they had been left with so little she was still happy with what they had (This is not by any means the entire story so i encourage you to visit the link and hear their story).
Through this I learned that home is not actually a place, but the people that make that place feel as so. I learned that it is not the things that you own that should make you happy nor is it the cost of the things you own, or if you have something or not either. It is all about how you perceive your situation and your ability to keep a positive viewpoint, even when you feel as if you have lost everything.
One image that really stood out to me was an image of the ruins in the fifth chapter of the project. Amid all of what had remained, stood a patch of pink/purple and yellow flowers. While something such as this—so devastating and unfortunate—can occur, we are still reminded that within catastrophe comes courage and strength. The little town and the people of Dunalley may have witnessed and endured something no people should ever have to, but at the end of the day they were able to come together as one and build themselves back up, better than ever.
What this project showed me is that among so much destruction, beauty can still be found. Whether it be in something as little as a flower.
I really encourage you to take 20 minutes to go through to this website and interact with this project because while it is educational it is also interesting and evoked some emotion from me personally.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/may/26/firestorm-bushfire-dunalley-holmes-family
