Aussie Atheist-Turned-Christian Claims Prayer Saved Thousands Fleeing Encroaching Bushfire

Getty Images | Sam Mooy

On the morning of Dec. 31, 2019, residents from the close-knit community of Mallacoota, Australia, fled to the ocean in an attempt to escape a huge bushfire headed their way. Local resident David Jeffrey claims it was prayers that spared them.

“We were bracing for the worst,” Jeffrey explained to the BBC from his hometown in the East Gippsland region of Victoria. “It should have been daylight, but it was black like midnight and we could hear the fire roaring.”

Jeffrey described himself and the gathered crowd as having been “terrified for our lives.”

The fire approached Mallacoota from the west. A local fire chief called and warned Jeffrey, who owns a bed and breakfast, to round up his neighbors and get to safe ground. They headed for the wharf.

“There’s a rock wall they built to keep back the sea,” Jeffrey continued, in footage that he filmed himself from the water’s edge. “[T]hat was where we were gonna jump in the water if the radiant heat had hit.”

Fire and Rescue personal hurry to move their truck as a bushfire burns near the town of Bilpin in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 19, 2019. ©Getty Images | David Gray

According to Australia’s Eternity News, Jeffrey’s two children were safe elsewhere, but the business owner took his pets—two dogs, a cat, a rooster, and two rescued ducks—with him to the wharf.

An alleged 60-foot-high wall of fire advancing at a rate of around 90 kilometers per hour was headed their way. “We could hear the roar,” Jeffrey said. “It sounded like a thousand freight trains coming at us.”

Two kangaroos navigate a field shrouded in smoke in Snowy Valley on the outskirts of Cooma, Australia, on Jan. 4, 2020. ©Getty Images | SAEED KHAN

Jeffrey, who identified as previously being an “atheist” before converting to Christianity 25 years ago, began to pray alongside other close-knit members of his community, later describing their fevered pleas as “desperation personified.”

“I prayed, ‘Lord if you don’t push this [fire] back now, we need [wind] from the east,’” Jeffrey recalled. “As soon as I said that, it started blowing from the east a little bit. Then I got louder and [the wind] got stronger.”

Debris of a burnt house in Sarsfield, Australia, as seen on Jan. 4, 2020 ©Getty Images | Darrian Traynor

Gusts of wind blew black clouds into the air above the wharf. The smoke was so thick, Jeffrey explained, that it became difficult to breathe. But shortly, the terrified crowd noticed a shift on the horizon.

“I felt it change,” Jeffrey explained. “I was yelling, ‘In Jesus’s name, thank you Lord for rescuing these souls!’”

As the sky turned red, the crowd momentarily panicked that the fire front was pushing through the easterly wind. But to their great relief, they realized that the redness was simply the sun shining through.

Thousands of people escaped with their lives. However, tragically, many lost their homes.

Evacuees from Mallacoota arrive aboard the navy ship MV Sycamore at the port of Hastings, Australia, on Jan. 4, 2020. ©Getty Images | Ian Currie-Pool

Days later, emergency services officials in Victoria evacuated a number of the displaced Mallacoota residents onto the 176-meter-long HMAS Choules as a temporary measure. On Jan. 3, a defense force official addressed the evacuees; footage was later shared on YouTube by The Guardian.

“Once you’re aboard and it’s safe, they‘ll do a final head count,” an official explained, “and it’s about a 10 to 15 minute transit over there. Once you’re in location, you’ll be provided with some food, some water, and accommodation.”

Back in Mallacoota, Jeffrey decided to open his bed and breakfast, which was spared from the flames, to feed and house emergency services personnel. Speaking to Eternity News, Jeffrey reflected on the lives saved by the “miracle” at Mallacoota wharf.

“There is no way that it was all just luck,” he said.