THE morning after Black Saturday, Cliff Overton was one of the first to search for survivors.

A volunteer firefighter and CFA employee for a decade, Overton had spent the previous day in Whittlesea helping to co-ordinate fire crews as the fire front tore through the north-east.

Together with other CFA volunteers and employees, he went out on the back of a truck and drove from house to house through Strathewen and Kinglake, looking for survivors.

Instead, what confronted Overton was the grim sight of dozens of victims.

“We didn’t find any survivors; just a lot of dead people,” the 46-year-old recalls.

The tiny towns had borne the full force of the blaze. Strathewen, population 200, lost 23 people and 80 homes.

“When you went into these areas that had been completely burnt through, they looked like an atomic bomb had gone off,’’ Overton says. ‘‘Everything was grey.

Source: Banyule and Nillumbik Weekly