 Roger Woods' harrowing experiences of Black Saturday provide the inspiration for King Lake 350. Roger's message that the book is true and should be taken seriously is important. Do you have a message for teachers and students studying King Lake 350? This book is real and it's fact and it happened and I'd like them to take it fairly seriously and realise that there were a lot of people that were killed, a lot of friends of mine were killed by the bushfires on the day and a lot of people were injured. So it is a fairly, fairly, very serious disaster. King Lake 350 is the call sign that I was using on Black Saturday. Working up at King Lake I started at 10 in the morning and I worked one up, we call it, which is by myself. So I worked during the day and then I come on later at about 5 o'clock. I met up with my offside of Cameron Kane on the afternoon shift. Can you describe the weather that morning? Yeah, I'll never forget that morning. I sort of had this gut feeling that it wasn't going to be a good day. It was something, I don't know, it's hard to explain. I just sort of had this gut feeling that it was going to be a bad day. I just woke up and you could hear the wind and it was howling, it was hot because the air was just like it was on fire. Everything was just ready to explode. I remember coming outside and I just looked at the ground and I looked at the trees and I thought, I've never seen it like this before. It was just something that no moisture and it was just so dry. I think I told Adrian that as I was getting in the car to go to work. I don't know if I was down the drive or where I was, but I did look at the leaves and I remember thinking how it was a shocking day. My children go to Stratheon Primary School and the author of the book, one of the dads, Adrian Highland, his daughter went to Stratheon that time as well. About a week, two weeks after the fires, Adrian approached me and said, I'm thinking about doing something and I want to get it down and writing and write a bit of a book and a bit of a story about the fires and I've heard a lot of good things about you and I'd like to use you as the main character in the book. I wasn't too keen, I said to Adrian, can you find someone else? I'm not that sort of guy, I just sort of keep to myself. He kept asking me and sending me text messages and I kept saying, after about a week I said, look Adrian, you're not going to leave me alone unless I say yes. Everything that's in the book is exactly how it happened. He said, I want to know what you had for breakfast, I want to know what happened when you got up in the morning, I want to know everything from when you got up in the morning to your whole day exactly. Everything that's in that book is exactly how it happened. Like I said earlier, Adrian wanted to know everything that happened on the day, what was going through my mind and what I was thinking and he was just picking my brains and I put him in the car. I took him down to the Talangi Tavern and we had a cup of tea down there and had a chat to Michelle, the owner of the tavern because that was a part of the book. You can see the whole time he's planning and he's writing things down and he's done it well, he's done a great job with the book. I couldn't have asked for any other better person than him to do what he's done with it. He's just got everything down and he hasn't gone off, he's gone off a little bit of tangent but it's good things about facts and fires and what happened prior to the fire, the lead up to it with the weather conditions and that. But he hasn't sort of taken exaggerated a bit and he's gone off here and there and everywhere so whatever's there with regards to me is exactly what happened. I've got to ask Roger because you just reminded me the scene at Talangi Tavern where the person in the car with the alcohol interlocker came in, what did ever happen to him? Nothing, no I didn't hear from him again. I thought I'm alright because he was really worried and it was a funny scene when he was coming out of the forest and he was in such a state and his wife was screaming and he was just worried about losing his license because he didn't activate his interlock device because before you start the ignition you've got to blow into it and then you've got to wait five minutes and then you get the oil cleared before you can drive and he didn't do any of that, which is fair enough. He just wanted to get out but he was really worried about it and I did say to him on the day I said mate I'm from King Lake, Roger Wood, if you've got any dramas give me a call and I'll sort it out but no he mustn't have any dramas. Well Roger you're clearly perhaps a little uncomfortable being regarded as a hero but in the book you are the hero of the book so you're a hero in literature and you're also regarded as a hero in real life so I mean how does that feel? Uncomfortable? I sort of a bit embarrassing I don't see myself as a hero I sort of see myself as just a bloke that was in the wrong spot at the wrong time and lucky to survive and during the day and there were some parts of the day that I didn't think I was going to survive and I was just a survivor not a hero and I was just lucky that I was, like I said in the right place at the right time I've been able to guide those people to the right location because I was working the day and I knew where the safest place was to be on the mountain where I was going to be and that's lucky enough for those people that I've come across them and showed them where it was. How have the fires changed you and your life? Yeah well they have changed me I've changed everyone I'd say I think now that I live for the now now I think you don't know what's around the corner you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow and that showed that people just living their normal lives one day having a great time next day they're not with us In the first couple of chapters there is a scene where you are talking to a lady in town who's come to you seeking advice on what she should do can you take us through that? I'll never forget that but you know we're not supposed to tell people to leave they've got to make their own we've just got to activate your fire plan and whatever your plan is do it but this lady she was such a I was in the watch house at the police station I just opened up in the morning and like I said I'm on by myself for the day so I take the car home I'm on call during the night I finished at 2 in the morning I started at Friday at 6 and finished at 2 Saturday morning and then I slept, I was on call any jobs come up I'd go out so I started at 10 in the morning so I'm up at the police station at 10 open the doors about half an hour later I think the door, look at a buzzer thing on the door and this lady's at the counter and she's in a bit of a dither she didn't know what she was looking pretty concerned and she said she's only been on the living up there for a very short time King Lake and she doesn't not used to not used to being in the bullshaw she's a city girl and she wanted to know what what she should do on a day as bad as it was this was before any fights started this was earlier and I just, yeah I said to her and I'm glad I did if I was in your position I would take my family and go downtown and spend the day with with friends or family down in the city out of here because it's going to be a bad day and she sort of she sort of shoulders sort of dropped and she said okay thanks and she said I'll do that and she went and I thought oh yeah she'll go I didn't hear any more I assume she went what happened again in the future we're going to have bad days in the future would you say the same thing yep sure anything has come out of that is you only get one chance at life and it doesn't matter if you've got to pack everything up and you've got to get in the car and the hassle of moving everything downtown for the day and putting yourself out a bit you only get one chance at life and I think I think you'd be crazy not to move not to get out evacuate or leave town if it's a code red day or if it's a bad day so I think now with the codes and the warnings I think people will take more heed and take it more seriously now what's happening on this day what do you hope students will learn from reading 350 I think if they're ever in that position where they are facing any kind of danger I would like to think that they would stop and think and think safety first like don't put themselves in a position where they could get themselves hurt or killed people have learnt now that bushfires can happen and they can happen quick and they can come on to you before you know it which is what happened on Black Saturday so I think people I would hope that they would not be as complacent as people have been in the past living in bushfire prone areas and I know on some occasions it's hard on a really hot day windy day all you want to do is stay in by the air condition or stay by the pool but you really have to think about what's happened in the past and think what could happen to you and your family and to get out when you can and well before any danger presents itself there is quite a lot of information about fire history and science have you learnt much from reading the book? Yeah I found it quite interesting a lot of points there that I didn't know and Adrian's has enlightened me with what's happened in the past and the technical side of how fire works and he's put it together and he's put a lot of thought in it and he's put it in a way that's interesting and not boring I've been at King Lake for seven years now and I think two or three years prior there was a fire that was heading towards town conditions weren't as bad as Black Saturday but and it rained and it stopped the fire just before it got to town which was a good thing but that fire on that day that was not your ordinary fire that was something from Helen it was after kill it was just it was a bad bad day I'll never forget that day I'd like to forget it but someone has to be there and do the recovery and no matter who it is you're only human and you're going to be traumatised because of what you're subjected to on the way up the hill just this afternoon and my partner up there he also lives in St Andrews Ron and I gave him a lift up there today and we were talking about how it's come back the growth it's come back thick and it's come back quickly but let's hope we don't have that drought and all those same conditions again for a long long time but safety first you only live once and yeah that's it