Acheron

"As the fire drove south from Rubicon towards Marysville on 10 January, another seven people died along the Acheron Way."

As the fire drove south from Rubicon towards Marysville on 10 January, another seven people died along the Acheron Way. Four were residents of a milling community who had tried to outrun the fire by motor car. The men who found their remains the following day were able to deduce what had happened by the position of the bodies. Apparently Ken Kerslake had got out of the car when it had been stopped by a fallen tree and ran from the car with his daughter Ruth in his arms. His wife Ellen Kerslake followed her husband, but had lost a shoe when it became stuck in the molten tar on the road. Ken had put down his daughter and was returning to help his wife when the fire front passed over them. He died midway between his wife and daughter. The little girl had a scorched blue ribbon in her hair, with a tin of threepences clutched in one hand and her father's tobacco in the other.

Further back was Frank Edward's car. He had run off the side of the road and fallen out of the door and died where he fell. Edwards had not been alone as he had picked up some workers at a quarry only one kilometre past Feiglin's No.1 mill and the safety of the dugout there. The quarry workers had taken refuge in the Acheron River, and three of them attempted to join the Kerslakes but were held back by the other quarry workers. When Frank Edward's car arrived, the three could not be stopped and they climbed aboard. Their bodies were discovered strung out along the road where they had attempted to run from the fire front. One had wrapped his trousers around his head and attempted to run through the fire to safety. He was found dead beside the road, hardly burnt but apparently asphyxiated. The last of the bodies was not found until ten days later. The dead quarry workers were Chris Soldaris, Antonio Igoshus and his brother Peter Igoshus. Their mates, who had trusted to the safety of the nearby river and toughed-out the fire, survived.