Noojee

"The Noojee postmistress, Mrs Sanderson, locked the safe in her burning post office and fled to the river with the keys strapped to her wrist."

Noojee was almost totally destroyed in the 1926 bushfires, when four members of the Olsen family were killed. The residents of the township were forced to shelter in the Latrobe River while the town burned around them. Only a church and the recently-built hotel were saved. The pattern was to be almost exactly repeated in 1939 as the fire swept south and east from Warburton with a north-westerly gale behind it. When danger was imminent, an evacuation train was rushed from the town carrying women and children, with the flames licking at its wheels and threatening several bridges spanning deep gullies.

Those left behind defended their property as best they could, but were forced to retreat to the river. The Noojee postmistress, Mrs Sanderson, locked the safe in her burning post office and fled to the river with the keys strapped to her wrist. She was awarded the OBE for her bravery and another, police constable Alfred Gustav Sommer, was also recognised for risking his life on repeated occasions to save the lives of others at Noojee.

One man lost his life. Hugh McKinnon was a 58 year-old Forests Commission fireguard in the Loch Valley north of Noojee. After a heroic effort to save property and lives he and his postmistress wife abandoned the burning Loch Valley Post Office and attempted to escape by car. When their route was blocked by a fallen tree, they took to the nearby river, where they were forced to stay for five hours. Exhausted by his efforts, he was forced to endure extreme heat and long immersion in the water. Having inhaled a large amount of smoke and fine cinders, Hugh McKinnon was stricken with double pneumonia. He died six days later in the Warragul Hospital.