Summerleas Road, the day after the 1967 bushfire on Mt Wellington on February 7.

Don recalls the day of the fires was “eerie. It was hot and muggy and you felt that something was going to happen. All of a sudden the fire exploded near New Norfolk and found its way down to Mt Wellington in the afternoon.”

In little over five hours, some 264,270 hectares were burned, 62 people died in the fire and 1400 homes and other buildings were destroyed.