Marathon runner talks of anguish at being caught in bushfire

Another victim, Kate Sanderson, 36 said there was a severe staff shortage
along the course.

“You put your trust in the organisers. We just assumed that everything’s taken
care of,” she told the inquiry.

Miss Sanderson has extensive scarring to her body, half of her left foot had
to be amputated and most of her earlobes are missing after becoming trapped
during the run.

“I stood there in shock – I didn’t even look. I just knew I had been badly
burned,” she said.

Michael Hull, who suffered 20 per cent burns when he and three others were
caught in the flames, said they were taken by surprise.

“It was just horrendously hot. We tried to run away from the blaze but we
became trapped by the wall of flame,” he said.

“We had a quick choice of being a human fireball and burning and that was the
end, or what we did, instantaneously, is just stop and run back through the
wall of flame.

“We knew the flame, while it was high, we knew on the other side of it there
was nothing left to burn.”

Mr Hull claimed that stewards at a checkpoint failed to warn runners despite
knowing that the fire was coming.

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