A home devastated by the bushfires
On what appeared to be a normal day, Cecily and Roger Parris left their home in Conjola Park in the South Coast of NSW on New Year’s Eve morning to visit the hairdresser in nearby Milton but their return to home was blocked as a ferocious fire had swept through their township destroying their house.
The remains of the Parris’s home
Cecily told J-Wire: “We are shellshocked. We have just seen our ruined house. It’s very sad. We have only the clothes on our back. Fortunately I recently a lot of photographs to my daughter in Sydney.”
Formerly Sydneysiders, Cecily and Roger have lived on the South Coast for 20 years. They have experienced bushfires in the past but escaped them with no damage to their home. Conjola Park is 220kms south of Sydney.
Cecily and Roger Parris
Cecily Parris continued: “We moved to a different house five and a half years ago and it is completely in ruins along with about 90 houses in the area. We stayed with friends in Milton for the three nights. Now we are on the way to Sydney where our kids live.”
They said that there was no sign of a threat of fire when they left their home to go Milton. Cecily said: “We left before ten. There was smoke haze around but no alerts. Three-quarters of an hour later when we were on our way back there was a fire.”
It was not until the next day when the Parris’s found out their home had been destroyed.
She said: “Our next-door neighbours had tried to save the house but they couldn’t. An old lady who lived two streets away from us died, probably
through flames.”
The Parris’s will stay in Sydney until it is safe to return back.
The house before the fires
Cecily told J-Wire: “Some very good friends have offered a fully-furnished holiday house for a month and then we will decide what to do. We won’t rebuild. We will a small house or an apartment in the Milton/Ulladallah area.”
Roger Parris added: “We need somewhere safer.”
The Parris’s are members of JOSH – Jews of the Shoalhaven which has set up an appeal.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/cecilie-amp-roger-parris-bushfire-emergency-appeal
