Black Summer bushfires firefighter laments loss of family after saving 13 people

A hero firefighter who saved 13 people during the Black Summer bushfires is still struggling to come to terms with losing his uncle and cousin.

Nathan Barnden, 27, was among the thousands of volunteer firefighters who battled the devastating blazes that burned across the country between October 2019 and March 2020.

More than 24 million hectares of land was burned, 3,000 homes destroyed and 33 lives lost – including six Australian firefighters and three US water bomber crew.

Mr Barnden, who is a Rural Fire Service Jellat Brigade senior deputy captain, battled the bushfires raging along the NSW south coast on New Year’s Eve 2019.

He saved 13 people and even pulled a grandmother, her daughter, and three grandchildren from their burning Quamma home, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Despite his act of bravery, Mr Barnden said he was haunted by the people he was unable to save – his uncle Robert Salway and cousin Patrick. 

‘Imagine you’ve devoted your whole life to saving ­people and you couldn’t save your own family,’ he said. 

‘In the early stages I struggled with it… it didn’t matter that I saved 13 people. 

Robert, 63, and Patrick, 29, perished while trying to save the family farm in Wandella, about 20km away from where Mr Barnden was at the time. 

Only the day before, Patrick was helping a friend protect his property at Bemboka, about 70km south of Wandella.

Firefighters were closing down the roads leading into the fire zone, though Patrick was able to make it home along the Princes Highway 40 minutes before it was shut down.

Mr Barnden says he couldn’t help but think how things might have been different had the highway been closed sooner.  

‘It is a significant element of survivor’s guilt where I felt I shouldn’t have been firefighting and I should have been out with my family on their property, helping them,’ he said.

Thoughts of losing his family and the fires continued to plague Mr Barnden for months before he recognised the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

He has seen psychologists and counsellors to learn to cope with the pain, and he is not alone.

An estimated 3,300 Rural Fire Service members have sought professional help over the past year.

The RFS is looking for psychologists to fill at least 17 new jobs. 

Mr Barnden said he received a heartening text message from the family he had helped to save from the Quamma home. 

‘She said: “We still get to have this day as a family and I have six grandchildren and you saved five of them”,’ Mr Barnden recalled.

‘Over time I’m grateful for the lives saved. I get to see them have a life and it makes it all worth it.’

It has been exactly one year since Patrick and Robert Salway perished from the fires, prompting an outpouring of tributes on social media.

‘Life hasn’t been the same and won’t ever be the same again but what remains is our strong family and community to get us through!’ one family member wrote on Facebook.

‘Today is tough but as my beautiful grandma told me yesterday, Always remember the good and these men were nothing but good and I’m sure everyone has a good memory and good story to tell about these two.’