Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Fire!

Last week I mentioned our unseasonably high temperatures and that the dry conditions had led to a Total Fire Ban.

Last week that led to fires down south around Taree and Sydney.
This week things are different.
Different in terms of where the fires are.

This was the view out our lounge-room window when I got home this afternoon. 
 As you can see the hot weather has dried the country out.  The puffs of smoke in the distance are a bushfire burning in Eucalyptus forest. The strip of track in the middle ground is our trail down to the road (about 5 km or three miles away).

This next piccie zooms in on the fire a little. At the moment it is about 8km (5 miles) away. 
It isn't a huge fire, but because of the country it is burning in it hasn't been controlled. Unfortunately it has burnt out two properties including one dwelling.

Fortunately, three things mean we are not too worried up on our hill:
  • the wind is blowing away from us so the main axis of the fire is in the other direction.  The forecast for the next few days predicts the wind will keep favouring us.
  •  second the road cuts a line between us and the fire, which forms a good halt line for the Rural Fire Service brigades to stop the fire.
  • and finally between us and the burning bush is a band of rainforest. Even in these conditions the greener forest doesn't often burn.
Still I guess I am in for a restless night.

Especially as this piccie I took a few minutes ago shows how eerie the fire looks at night.


 

1 comment:

Yvonne Osborne said...

A fire in the distance is disconcerting. My sister who lives in Palmdale, CA deals with this all the time. You live in a beautiful place. Unfortunately, such beauty is often fragile.