Just after I made yesterday's post I set out to scout down the track to see if it was safe for Deb to use it to go to work. By the amount of smoke and the still conditions I was pretty near certain it would be safe.
About half way down the track I reached the area which burnt so brightly the night before.
As you can see the fire was pretty intense here, but it hadn't crossed the track.
Further down I paused to shoot this piccie, I think it shows two things nicely: Just how narrow the track is through the forest (you can see why I wanted to check it before Deb used it); and how much smoke was still in the air.
When I reached the other end of the forest I ran into these gentlemen, two members of a Rural Fire Service (RFS) brigade. They told me they had been working along the track all night and were about to head home.
They also said other crews would be here later to work on containment lines during the day as the fire is still burning in inaccessible bush.
The wind picked up through the morning, and contrary to the forecast began blowing the fire toward us. As the day progressed the a number of RFS crews worked up along the side of our track before reaching the edge of the clearing we live in.
Up this way they turned at ninety degrees and began using a bulldozer to push a fire break through the paddock, and along a trail the loggers cut recently.
This piccie shows a crew setting back-burn fires along the new break. By evening they had cut a break across the ridge behind us and I slept much easier last night.
This morning they were working further across and have reached an old fire trail in the next valley.
By this afternoon the wind has reversed and is blowing the fire back on itself. The RFS are now confident enough to list it as "controlled"
I should note that the RFS brigades are entirely voluntary. These brave men and women defend life and property, sometimes at considerable risk, for the sake of the community as a whole.
4 comments:
Amazing blokes! Here we have the 'anti-incendio boschivo' teams, which are created specially for wild fires and the prevention of them - quite separate from the fire service. Fortunately it's raining hard and often here now, so the fire risk has gone down to zero.
Fingers crossed for you Al. Summer's barely begun down there.
I could tell in the other pics that the fire was very near you but I had no idea that or missed that it had, essentially, cut off your escape route. It certainly does take a special kind of person to volunteer to fight such dangerous fires. Thank God for them!
Glad the fire is controlled and I hope it stays that way! Stay safe.
Yikes! Fires are so scary! Thank goodness for firefighters!
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