Historic events you've experienced in person

[skepticalbip]

I lived through the 1974 flooding in South East Queensland. It was fun and we swam down the street. Yes, we SWAM down the street and into the pool at the bottom of the road, though there wasn't a pool down there at that stage.

The 1974 floods are equal to the 2011 flooding of Brisbane as well.

I was in the  2003_Canberra_bushfires. My spouse even got sent home.

Why? Were they suspected of having started the fires?