KEY POINTS:
When so many have lost so much, Bill and Sherrill Carta can't believe that a miracle came to them not once, but twice.
Caught in the Kinglake inferno, they became separated in the embers, smoke and flames - Bill on a motorbike and Sherrill and their two dogs in a car.
Amid the chaos and the terror, they found themselves alone, each fearing the other had perished.
"The fire was so thick you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. So we got separated, even though we were following each other," Mr Carta said from hospital yesterday.
Bill abandoned his motorbike and took shelter in a four-wheel drive. Sherrill's car became bogged, forcing her to dash towards town.
"It was like a snowstorm of red embers and I was almost ... I felt like I was playing hopscotch at one stage to miss them all," she said as a nurse in The Alfred hospital checked her pulse.
After the fire front swept past, Bill was able to see his wife's car and realised it was empty. She had managed to get out. There was a chance, just a chance, that she was safe. She was eventually picked up by a driver who took her to the local Country Fire Authority station. But while she had survived, she was filled with terror that her husband had not.
The next seven hours were among the longest of the couple's life. But in the accident and emergency department of Melbourne's Alfred hospital, Sherrill heard a familiar voice call out.
"We were sitting in the A and E area downstairs and I called out 'Sherrill'," Mr Carta said. "It was a fantastic moment, it was the best moment."
"I grabbed him by his big toe," Sherrill said, "because it looked like the only piece that wasn't burnt at the time."
The couple had arrived at the hospital within 30 seconds of each other, one by helicopter, the other by road in an ambulance.
Bill, 52, has burns to his face, hands and arms and will undergo skin grafts tomorrow. Sherrill, 56, has deep partial burns to her feet.
- AAP
New Zealand's Red Cross and Salvation Army are accepting donations for those affected by the fires in Victoria.
Red Cross: Donations can be made by visiting redcross.org.nz, calling 0900 33 200 to make an automatic $20 donation, sending a cheque to Australian Bushfire Appeal, Red Cross House, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington, 6144, or by visiting any Red Cross service centre.
Salvation Army: Donate online at salvationarmy.org.nz or post to The Salvation Army, PO Box 27001, Marion Square, Wellington, 6164.
