Fifty years ago, a series of fires tore through the state’s South.

The firestorm was indiscriminate, destroying almost everything that stood in its path of destruction. 

The catastrophic events of February 7, 1967 led to the loss of 64 lives, but the emotional echoes of that day would last a lifetime. 

Black Tuesday will be forever etched into the minds of survivors as the summer that Tasmania changed. 

On that day, 110 fires, spanning from Richmond to Snug, Bridgewater to Sorell, came together to create an unstoppable force.

The months leading up to the catastrophe set the landscape up for disaster – an increase in vegetation from the wet weather followed by a long, dry summer.  As the winds picked up and the temperature swelled into the high 30s, a deadly inferno was created.  

The day started out as any other – families waved goodbye to their children, dropping them off for the first day of the 1967 school year. 

But as the fires grew and spread, it soon became clear that this was no normal day.  By midday, the sky was as black as midnight - filled with thick smoke.

With almost no form of communication, locals were forced to flee their homes and leave their livestock, not knowing whether they would have a home to come back to. 

Citizens sheltered wherever they could, heading to the nearest beach to take refuge – to watch as life as they knew it was ravaged by flames. 

The aftermath of the fires would shock the nation. Sixty-four people dead, 900 injured, 60,000 livestock gone, and about 3000 structures destroyed. 

Phyl Norton, now 82, still remembers the day the fires ripped through her home.

“I had three children, two were at the school and one had only been there a day, and I had a baby of 18 months,” Mrs Norton said. 

“It was like the middle of the night – it was pitch black, howling wind, smokey, cars coming everywhere, sheets of iron and branches flashing through the air.

“I can remember as I walked up to the school feeling sick in the tummy, it was like a rising panic, but you had to push that down and just get on with it.”

Mrs Norton is one of thousands of Tasmanians who still remembers that day as clearly as if it was yesterday. 

Tasmania Fire Service chief officer Chris Arnol said the fires would go on to change the state’s firefighting capabilities, its resources, and its prevention strategies.

“We’re as ready as we can be but it’s important that people are ready,” he said. 

“My big message is please don’t be complacent – we don’t want to have to go out there, we want people to learn how to live with fire.” 

The official death toll of the fires was 62, but in 2017, two more names were added.