On a daybed in her home in Byron Bay, former Canberran Emily Rooney has a blanket that is still vibrantly-coloured but a little worn from years of being wrapped around her shoulders.
It was a blanket made with love by volunteers in the wake of the January 2003 firestorm that hit Canberra. Craftspeople from around Australia and the world made quilts and blankets which were distributed to people affected by the firestorm. It's still an enormous comfort to Emily, who was at her parents' home in Duffy when the firestorm ignited the pine forest across the road and destroyed their house, one of nearly 500 lost in the national capital.
"It's still a source of comfort and it still warms my heart to think that strangers went to such an effort to create something and took the time, because it's obvious it wasn't a quick fix," she said.
"Things that were bought after the fire just weren't the same as the things that had history, a story. So the blanket became even more meaningful."
Emily and her mother Barbara, now 79, started their own effort to make blankets for the victims of other bushfires, including in Tasmania and the Blue Mountains and now the South Coast and Canberra region.
They are planning a trip to the South Coast in the coming weeks to distribute hand-knitted blankets to people, in contact with a relief group in the area.
Emily is also keen to see where the 2003 firestorm quilts have ended up, particularly if they have been passed down to younger generations.
She would love people to post photographs of themselves with their 2003 quilts or blankets on social media with the hashtag #WrapUpCanberra. "I genuinely think about the other blankets and wonder if people love them as much as I do," she said.
Emily has also started a private Facbeook group - 2003 Canberra Firestorm - where people can connect and talk about the momumental event, especially in the midst of the latest bushfire threat.
"It's so good the conversation has opened up because I see so many people say, 'I thought I was OK with 2003, until the this summer, until the smoke, until the threat'. So it's quite interesting," she said.
Emily was with her mum and dad Jack at their home in Warragamba Avenue when the firestorm hit in 2003. They fled together in one car. Emily's own house was spared and it wasn't until years later she started to feel the emotional distress of the firestorm.
"I had this really crazy idea that it didn't happen to me because I didn't lose my house," she said. "And I think that's a really important thing to bring up. So many people in Canberra this summer are now disaster survivors but they probably wouldn't identify as that. But the ongoing crisis and stress they've been under, it's intense."
Barbara was the one who went to the recovery centre in 2003 to select a blanket, instead picking one that she thought would suit Emily better.
"She said you were with us and you lost things so you should have a blanket, you should have something acknowledging you were part of that day and I kind of went, 'Oh, yeah, it really did happen to me as well'," Emily said.
