Currowan

A lightning strike set off the Currowan fire in a remote stretch of forest, and over the next seventy-four days it spread until it covered much of the New South Wales South Coast. It burned close to 5000 square kilometres and destroyed well over 500 homes. It was among the most ferocious blazes Australia has known and one of the most frightening episodes of the Black Summer.

Bronwyn Adcock was among those who had to flee the flames with her children. Her husband was on the fire lines, and his last call to her, a plea for help, cut off before she could learn whether he had got out. Her account moves between that fear and the experiences of others who fought the fire or waited it out, setting down what they saw, thought and felt as they faced a blaze of intensity no one had seen before.

After the fire passed, Adcock asks why so few resources were available that many people were left to face the flames alone, why back-burning went ahead on a day of extreme fire danger, and why the region was not better prepared. The book is about loss, survival and the way a community holds together under pressure. It also looks outward at a country facing a more dangerous era of fire and asks what it will take to build resilience.