THE PARKIE AUT25 - Flipbook - Page 17
HOLIDAY PARKS
ILLEGAL CAMPFIRE SPARKS EMERGENCY
EVACUATION AT BIMBI PARK
An illegal, unattended campfire in the Otway Ranges triggered a bushfire and forced
the evacuation of Bimbi Park during the peak of the busy summer holiday season. It’s an
incident that still angers park owner Frank.
“Someone camped illegally and
decided to light a campfire. It’s
against the law, and this is one of the
reasons why,” he said.
It was a warm summer night on
January 8. Frank, his wife Katrina,
their
sons
Emmanuele
and
Nathaniel, Emmanuele’s partner
Sophie, and Crue were at the park
along with around 400 guests.
Surrounded by coastal manna gums
on Cape Otway, the park is remote
and beautiful but always at risk
during fire season.
“We’re always on high alert in the
forest,” Frank said. “But the weather
wasn’t extreme and there was no
natural reason for a fire to start.”
What the weather can’t predict is
human behaviour. Unfortunately,
illegal campfires are becoming
more common. According to the
CFA, more than 600 fires were
caused by reignited campfires in
2024 alone.
At 1:50am, Frank was woken by a
call from a neighbour saying there
was a fire at Parker Hill, about five
kilometres away. He immediately
activated the park’s fire plan and
contacted the CFA.
“I can’t speak highly enough of the
CFA—they were incredible,” he said.
“They told us the fire was slowmoving but large. With the easterly
wind, it was heading straight for us.”
With evacuation orders issued for
Cape Otway, Frank and his family
moved quickly, personally notifying
all 400 guests across 100 campsites
and cabins. Within 40 minutes, the
park was completely empty.
Frank kept guests updated via SMS
and social media
Howell, the wife of the local CFA
captain, who sprang into action and
set up a refuge centre at the Apollo
Bay Senior Citizens Centre.
“We called her and said, ‘We’re
sending 100 families your way,’ and
she had it sorted in eight minutes,”
Frank said. The local bakery also
stepped in to provide food for the
evacuees.
Katrina, Nathaniel, Sophie, and
Crue went into town with the
guests to assist them, while Frank
and Emmanuele stayed behind
to monitor the situation and keep
everyone informed.
Frank used SMS and Facebook
to send real-time updates and
encourage guests to follow the
traffic into Apollo Bay and stay calm.
“We also used the Vic Emergency
app. It was excellent,” Frank said.
“And we drove to a nearby hill to
watch the fire front.”
“Our plan is simple: leave everything
and go,” Frank said. “Only one guy
wanted to hook up his van, but
everyone else was amazing.”
The response from the local
community was just as impressive.
With no designated evacuation
point, Frank reached out to Meloney
CARAVAN & RESIDENTIAL PARKS VICTORIA
“It’s something you hope
you never have to deal
with,” he said, “but I was
really proud of how our
plan worked and how
our guests responded.”
AUTUMN 2025
This was the first time in Frank’s 20
years of running Bimbi Park that
he’d faced a fire emergency.
By late morning, the fire was
contained, and everyone was able
to return to the park that same
afternoon.
“I had so many people come up
and thank us,” Frank said. “Some
had left in their pyjamas. The local
op shop even gave them clothes.
The community support was just
fantastic.”
There were a couple of key
takeaways. One was that, although
the park’s fire alarms are tested
twice a year, they couldn’t be heard
over the wind that night. Frank has
already replaced them with much
louder models that “you could
probably hear from Tasmania.”
The other was a lesson in software.
When trying to print a list of all
current guests and their contact
details using the RMS system, Frank
discovered that guests who had
opted out of marketing weren’t
appearing. A quick call to RMS
revealed there’s an option to ‘ignore
privacy settings’ in emergencies,
something he’ll be using from
now on.
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