The Inner Fire of Yoga

The Scariest Night of My Adult Life: Surviving My Second Fire

• Liz Albanis • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Content Warning:
This episode contains personal accounts of house fires and may be triggering for some listeners. Please listen with care. If you're in Australia and need support, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

On 11 January 2024, Liz's life changed in an instant. In this emotional and episode, she shares the story of the night her neighbour’s house went up in flames. So close that we she and her family only minutes to escape. It was the second fire she had survived, and it ended up sparking the inspiration for this podcast.

This episode isn’t about reliving trauma for sympathy. It’s about creating, awareness. Helping other survivors know they're not alone.  Liz talk about fear, guilt, and the emotional aftermath, but also the gratitude, the lessons, and the transformation that emerged from the ashes.

Whether you’ve experienced trauma, supported someone who has, or just want to understand how yoga supports us when life gets raw and real, this conversation is for you.

Key Takeaways:

  • Why trauma doesn’t always look the way people expect—and why it’s valid even if you “escaped” physically unharmed.
  • How a single moment can completely shift your identity and purpose.
  • The role yoga really plays when facing life’s most terrifying moments.
  • Why it's okay to grieve, even when others say “it could’ve been worse.”
  • How first responders showed up with selfless bravery—and what that taught me about service.
  • The long tail of trauma and the ongoing process of recovery.

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The content shared in these conversations is intended for informational and educational purposes only, and it is not suitable for listeners under the age of 18. Please use discretion and consult a qualified professional before making changes to your health or wellness routines.

If you’re interested in being a guest or know someone who might be head to my website: https://www.lizalbaniswellness.com.au/podcast

For bonus content Join the 3R Program: Regulate, Rebuild, Restore. Start your journey with a 14-day free trial and learn how to create a sustainable, personalised yoga practice that supports your mental health and nervous system.

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Liz Albanis:

Before you start listening. This episode contains topics such as house fires and could be triggering for some. Please take care. I'm not a licensed mental health practitioner. I am just a yoga teacher and I'm just talking about my experience. This podcast is not a substitute for professional mental health advice, treatment or assessment. The advice given in this episode, or any other, is general in nature. If you're struggling, please see a qualified mental health professional or call Lifeline if you're in Australia, 131114.

Liz Albanis:

Many things in our life are out of our control. Yoga doesn't give you a get out of curveball pass, get out of jail free pass like they have in Monopoly, but it can give you tools to help get through those curveballs. Funny thing is people say, oh, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Maybe it does. Sometimes it can make you weaker. Sometimes you develop more resilience out of it. But it will change you and I will never be the same person again. Welcome to the Inner Fire of Yoga, a podcast about transformation, resilience and the power of yoga beyond the mat. I'm Liz Albanis, senior Yoga Teacher and Yoga Therapist in Training. This podcast was born in 2024 after I survived my second fire. Fire has been a recurring theme in my life, not just in the literal sense, but as a metaphor. It has asked me to burn away what no longer serves me, to transform and to rise stronger each time. This podcast is about that fire, the one that challenges us but also fuels us to grow. There are rare occasions in life where you cannot believe what's unfolding in front of your eyes, or maybe you feel it's a surreal moment, that you feel like you're in a movie or something. Now, today, I want to take you back to probably the scariest night of my life so far. It actually inspired this podcast. I believe deep down that things happen for a reason. I believe in surrendering to the divine, as per Patanjali's Yoga Sutras Ishvara Pranidhana. As per Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, ishvara Pranidhana and that the divine has reasons for certain events occurring. I know that not everyone believes that. It may not seem obvious at the time, but later on it becomes more obvious. Many things in our life are out of our control, many curveballs, and yoga doesn't give you a get out of curveball pass, get out of jail free pass, like they have in Monopoly, but it can give you tools to help get through those curveballs. That's what we want from our yoga practice. We want our yoga practice to help us off the mat during challenging times. The beauty of experiencing such an event, such a curveball moments of adversity, is they show the efficacy of your yoga practice. They also show the weaknesses. What's missing. Has it made you stronger and more resilient? Where is it lacking? Now? For me, it was lacking in the form of self-study.

Liz Albanis:

Svadhyaya, january the 11th, 2024 started off like a regular, normal day. It was a sunny, hot summer day in Australia. I used my sauna, I used my reformer at home and that's pretty much what I remember. You know looking at my daughter's dinosaur growing in the glass jar, because I've got a video of it that day. Nothing out of the ordinary. We put her to bed. My husband and I had dinner together. We watched some TV. I went upstairs he was still downstairs, I didn't hear anything and the houses weren't that far apart. They were probably too close. You know now that I think about it.

Liz Albanis:

I went upstairs, I had my pajamas on or I put my pajamas on then I can't remember that much and I went to turn my phone on silent so I could do my meditation while my husband was still downstairs. And as I did that, the cameras went off the security cameras. Thank goodness they went off and luckily I didn't have the sound on, because I would have heard the noise of my neighbor's house crashing down and I thought, oh no, that camera never goes off. On that side of the house there must be a burglar, because all of that time before the fire I was worried about burglaries. I was sure we were going to get burgled. We'd already had our house scoped. We'd caught someone on camera, we'd reinstated the alarm system, put cameras up, we'd put in sensor lights.

Liz Albanis:

The crime was getting worse. Our next-door neighbours had had a terrible burglary and that had freaked me out. So I was on guard and I looked at the video and I thought it was me out. So I was on guard and I looked at the video and I thought it was a ghost. And then I thought, hang on, a minute, it's a burglar dressed up. No, it was smoke.

Liz Albanis:

Within 10 seconds I hear my husband running up the stairs, tearing up the stairs, yelling out to me call triple zero, zero. Next door's on fire. I'm grabbing Audrey. I had my phone in my hand already, so I called triple zero. She was on the side of the house where the fire got in. She was at the back. He was in a hurry. He didn't get a toy out or anything. I didn't grab my handbag. I didn't put shoes on. He handed Audrey to me. The AirPods had dropped. I had my silk pyjamas on, no shoes.

Liz Albanis:

I walked out into the hallway of our two-story house. My husband came back. My daughter went into my arms. My husband came back. My daughter went into my arms. The front door was deadlocked and our neighbours started banging on the front door Get out, get out, there's a fire. Your front door's deadlocked. Why is it deadlocked? Of course it was deadlocked.

Liz Albanis:

We were scared of getting burgled and we fumbled to get the keys. There was no smoke in the house. Then we were okay to get the keys. There was no smoke in the house. Then we were okay. But the guilt was that my daughter was in the back bedroom and she was right near the fire. And I thought to myself later on why on earth did we put her in that bedroom? She was the furthest away from us. There was guilt there. I'm never putting her in a bedroom like that, I thought. But anyway, my husband handed me our then four-year-old daughter, who was crying. She'd been sound asleep. This happened at approximately 11 o'clock at night. We got out of the house in less than two minutes. I know this because I was on the phone and I've still got record of it and I've got the video of me going outside the door talking to my daughter, saying it's going to be okay, while she cries. We didn't nearly die, but our neighbours did. I remember getting out of the house and saying to my neighbours oh, I'm so sorry. To the neighbours on the other side and they're like oh, it's not your fault. And I'm saying to them I can't believe this is happening.

Liz Albanis:

There was a fire on our very own street less than six months ago. How is this happening? And it's true, there was a fire I think it was around the 6th of September the year before on our street. I think it was about 10 houses down. I never did count and I remember coming home from that fire after teaching Pilates, seeing the fire truck, seeing the road shut off, going oh, those poor people you know these people nearly died as well, by the way. Their smoke alarms didn't go off and thinking, oh my God. And then saying to my husband later on those poor people, oh, but we'll be okay. What's the likelihood of us suffering a fire when someone else down the street has had a fire. But we did say to ourselves the week of our fire I don't think we've got enough contents insurance. Let's look at that on the weekend. The weekend was too late.

Liz Albanis:

This fire happened on the Thursday night. I took a video of the house and my daughter crying and talking to the neighbours of me saying I can't believe this is happening. I'm sorry. I was standing there. I was told to go across the road. There was police there. By then A few of us had called triple zero. Obviously there was police there. By then A few of us had called triple zero. Obviously there was already a crowd of people coming and then a police officer yelling out Dan back because there were embers flying.

Liz Albanis:

My husband went back into the house to get his car keys and he got his car out. And that was wise because otherwise we wouldn't have had a car later on. We didn't have wallets and he drove it down the street so the fire engines could get in there and I didn't have him nearby. Luckily I had battery on my phone. I had my daughter in my arms. Main thing is we got out. The smoke wasn't in the house yet, but it wasn't long before it was. The houses were really close together, far too close. The garages were nearly touching they're about 600 and something metre square blocks, but the houses were big and they were far too close together, in my opinion.

Liz Albanis:

Now I'm not telling this story to complain, to say I've got a. You know it was the worst case scenario. It wasn't. But when a person talks about such an event, it's not necessarily to complain. It can be to shed light and to help other people who have gone through similar things, or to help people who've had relatives or loved ones, friends, go through this, so they give them a little bit of insight. Not that I can ever understand what others have been through. We're all different, we're unique, our experiences are different, our perception is different, based on our experiences in the past that have brought us to this very moment.

Liz Albanis:

And when a person talks about this, it's not because they're in the worst-case scenario. But that doesn't mean they don't have the right to grieve, to feel traumatised, to feel stressed, anxious, sad, scared. No one has the right to deny them their experience, and we saw plenty of this in the Californian fires, with people saying well, it's okay for celebrities to lose their house. They've got all the money in the world. Yeah, they might have more money than an average person, but it doesn't mean they weren't scared, that they weren't traumatized or they didn't find it stressful. They still had an experience there.

Liz Albanis:

But you will get that for people who are listening to me and people come out with some weird comments. They will come out with oh, I hate my house, I wish mine had gone up in claims without realizing what an insensitive thing that is to say. But they will say stuff like this. One of my husband's work colleagues said that to him, much to my horror. Or they'll say things like oh well, at least you have insurance. Or it could have been worse. Or oh well, you well, you'll be okay. You know you've got a roof over your head. Because they don't know what to say. Or they may not realize the gravity of what you're dealing with. Many of people didn't know what we were dealing with until they actually saw more of it. One of my friends didn't get it until she actually saw the house. Anyway, I digress.

Liz Albanis:

This is an emotional episode for me. I wanted to take my daughter away. I had her facing away. It was hard enough for me to see it and I stood further away so I couldn't really see how bad it was. I was separated from my husband watching it, with my daughter crying I'm worried about my toys and me singing songs to her. And, yeah, I felt guilt. I didn't blame my husband for not grabbing a toy off her bed. Why would he? I mean, you just don't think. I didn't even put shoes on. I didn't get my handbag, I didn't get my keys.

Liz Albanis:

I was there in a silk nightie, in front of what? 100 people with no shoes on, in a skimpy silk nightie that I would not usually be caught dead outside of the house in, or even with guests. Luckily, I had two gorgeous neighbors who gave me a fleece jacket because they saw me shaking despite it being a hot night. That's shock and my daughter. They gave her a jacket as well and they gave me a pair of shoes and they miraculously got me a bottle of water and I thought, gee, they're organised. I didn't know that they'd set up a food and drink stand for the firefighters because I wasn't close enough to see this. So they were really nice people. And there's a couple of people who came up to me to say I'm so sorry, my parents lost their house in a fire.

Liz Albanis:

Most people don't say anything because they don't know what to say, and I get that because when I was living here in Canberra back in 2003, we had a major bushfire. A lot of people lost a house. We had streets wiped out and one of the ladies at work she lost a house and I didn't know what to say to her. What do you say to someone? It can be very awkward. It's an uncomfortable conversation to have. Us people. We like to avoid discomfort, being pleasure seekers, and so most people didn't come up and say anything. Um, that's normal.

Liz Albanis:

People like to watch the spectacle. Some people like to watch it and video it because they think it's entertaining, and some people are just watching it because they're scared that the fire will spread to their house and they want to keep an eye on it. Fair enough, I would have watched it too. It's scary. Though it did, it damaged three houses. It actually damaged four houses in the end. That's how quick a fire can spread in modern day, even if it's not a wildfire, as they call it overseas, we call it here a bushfire. It made three houses inhabitable and two of those houses got demolished, so a fire can really spread quickly. We had three large pine trees at our back fence and they got singed in this fire. If they'd gone up, the people behind us could have lost their house. It was a much bigger fire than I thought it would be and I just remember standing there helpless. You know it felt like an eternity for the firefighters to get there, and it wasn't. They were amazing. They got there quickly.

Liz Albanis:

But when you're a victim it feels like ages, thinking to myself is this really happening? Surely this is a nightmare. Surely I'm not just surviving my second fire. I can't believe this is happening. It was like I was in a movie. It was just surreal. I've had an interesting life. I mean, I've had some boring days working in the office, retail, where it's been incredibly dull and slow. But I've had some interesting events happening in my life, interesting stories to tell. But I haven't had an event affect me this much since the first traumatic event at age 11. And I had no idea it would have such a profound impact on me, that I will never be the same. And you know, the funny thing is people say oh, oh. Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Maybe it does. Sometimes it can make you weaker initially weaker, or forever weaker, or, you know, sometimes you develop more resilience out of it but but it will change you and I will never be the same person again, and that's okay.

Liz Albanis:

We stayed there for a few hours. I was holding my daughter. I called my stepson and my brother-in-law and both of them, being good people that they are, came to help me out, because I was just exhausted from holding my daughter and I thought it'd be nice for her to have someone else to comfort her as well. Luckily, my stepson had moved out of the house less than a week before the fire, which was great for him, because the room in the house that got incinerated was his former bedroom. So I'm incredibly grateful because he would have lost everything.

Liz Albanis:

I remember leaving at 2 or 3am and my husband asking about locking up the house because of crime, and the firefighters just said to him well, we'll be here all night, mate, don't worry about it. Your house and the police will be here too, investigating. We thought, okay, I was still in shock. You know, you just don't fathom it's actually happening. Your nervous system's in overdrive. I didn't go into the freeze response, but I was very wired from it. We didn't have ID on us or money, so we had my stepson book us a 24-7 hotel nearby Thank goodness for 24-7 hotels and thank goodness for 24-7 Kmart. Because we had no clothes, we didn't have our stuff and we got into a hotel and I remember trying to get my daughter to sleep, my husband bought her another toy at Kmart and still feeling tremendous guilt over not getting a toy out for her. And I'm shocked, I got sleep that night. I got a few hours in anyway.

Liz Albanis:

Surviving a fire isn't just about escaping the flames. It's about the aftermath, the shock, the grief, the realisation of what's been lost, of how much your life is going to change. It's about coming to terms with the fact that you can't go back. Things are not going to be the same. For days I felt like I was floating outside my own body watching everything happen, as if it wasn't real. But it was real and there was no choice but to move forward. I didn't feel like myself. I felt like a completely different person. That night changed me. It forced me to look at life differently, to question what I needed, what really mattered. I'm going to share more about what I learnt not just practical lessons about fire safety and insurance, but resilience, letting go and rebuilding.

Liz Albanis:

I'd like to thank first responders in this episode. I've never really thought about the role such people have so much as this event, and how brave they are and how much we take calling triple zero for granted and that they'll just be there, and a lot of these people here in Australia are volunteers giving up their time to do such amazing things. It must have been a big fire, because we ended up with 14 fire trucks and 50 firefighters. I didn't believe that when I saw it on Facebook and then I oh no, I read it on the news or no? I didn't believe it when I heard it on the news, but then I looked at the Vic Emergency apps and some other things and yeah, there were 50 firefighters there and 14 trucks. That's insane, completely insane. They're heroes. They put their lives on the line just to help the community out and they're so brave and I take my hat off to all of them. It's an important job and I just never thought of how hard they worked.

Liz Albanis:

I wish I could have thanked everyone. I thanked the people when I was there the next day. It shouldn't take 50 firefighters to put out a house fire. It really shouldn't take that many people and that many trucks and I don't know how many police. I really regret not going into the five fire stations and thanking people. I really feel bad about that. So if you're one of those people listening and you know about this, I'm really sorry. I wish I'd done that, but last year I was preoccupied with the aftermath and I just want to thank people out there who do such things. It's true karma yoga. Really it's an incredible selfless thing to do.

Liz Albanis:

This was the second fire I had survived. This fire was different. I felt like I could have died, even though I didn't get burnt. I felt like I could have died even though I didn't get burnt. This fire occurred about 13 hours before the 20th anniversary of the other one. Something else that kind of spooked me, as I'm a little superstitious, like my late grandmother and my friend said to me yeah, be careful in 20 years time, because fire is a bit of a theme of my life. Anyway, it certainly shook me. Part of the reason actually probably the main reason I decided to create more awareness about trauma and fire safety and start to get the government to change certain legislation, certain legislation. So this fire changed me. It changed my purpose in life. You know what, even if you've survived a fire, it doesn't mean lightning's not going to strike twice and it can happen to you again. The other fire I survived was very different. It burnt me and caused me to be in hospital for 17 days with second and third degrees and need three lots of surgery, but the house was okay. Life can change in just a moment. Everything can change, doesn't take much. Your circumstances can change just like that.

Liz Albanis:

Thank you for joining me on the podcast. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired and informed and empowered to take meaningful steps towards your well-being. If there's a topic you'd like me to cover or if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you. Just fill in the form on the podcast page of my website. Your voice is an important part of this journey. I want this podcast to reflect the conversations that matter most to my listeners. If today's episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who might benefit from these conversations. Don't forget to subscribe. It helps grow this incredible community of resilience and support. Until next time, take care of yourself and never forget the power, the possibilities of a regular yoga practice. See you soon.

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Liz Albanis

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