Biznik member Klaus Jaritz escapes deadly Australian wildfires
Monday, February 9th, 2009
I got a note from Terra Vita this afternoon, asking me to share the news that Biznik member Klaus Jaritz, a documentary filmmaker from Colo Heights, Australia, has survived the deadliest blaze in the country’s history. The death toll currently stands at 108. We’re glad you’re OK, Klaus. I’d like to share this note from him, for those of you who know him:
This time we just got away. We were standing by waiting for hell. At night the red sky came closer. We could smell the fire, eyes burnt from smoke. Then, within an hour, the temperature dropped 20 degrees Celsius. And it rained. Relief! We were hugging each other and laughing again. Yet, you feel so guilty. You are glad it didn’t get you but others.
Lost close people in fires. It stays with you. It haunts you at times like now. Could spend the whole day crying. Crying also for the animals that can’t fly or run and burn to death. Or drown right now up in Queensland.
I understand something of what Klaus is feeling right now. I spent five years as a US Forest Service smokejumper when I was in college, and lost a buddy on the infamous South Canyon Fire, which took the lives of 14 firefighters in Colorado in 1994.