Yesterday's experience.

[Kobione]

Yesterday was an interesting day. It was quite hot here, but it was mainly the strong winds that were a problem as far as fires were concerned. Obviously there was more going on in both Tasmania, and New South Wales, and there were some ongoing fire situations here in Victoria, but not close to us. As usual we were monitoring the CFA web site, (Country Fire Authority, and bear in mind the only firefighters we have are all volunteers!), and emergency services with our scanner radio. There was a fire started in Wedderburn, the other side of the town from where we are, and it 'took off' into bushland area. Roads were closed and fire services were deployed there for several hours. When this had cleared we sort of settled down for the evening. We were just watching tele when I got an emergency warning message through on my mobile. It was a 'watch and act' advice, indicating a going fire at Skinner's Flat, which is very close to our block. We rushed outside and could see smoke, not very heavy, but enough!:

Sorry about the sun flare, but we didn't have time to muck around! The wind was bringing the smoke directly over us, so we simply had to do something sensible. As already explained we hitched up the camper trailer, collected essential items and documents and left. We had heard in the earlier incident that the fire front was travelling about 30 metres per minute, being pushed along by the strong winds. In this case the fire front we were looking at would have taken about 10 minutes maximum to reach us. We headed off down to the highway and this is another view across the fields:

We travelled up the highway to a point where we had a better overview, but still had time to safely retreat into Wedderburn should we need to. This is looking back towards our property, which I have marked by the arrow. You can see the bush between our clear area and the potential approach area of the fire:

Looking the other way the smoke seemed to be lessening a bit, and it was further away than we expected to see:

It turned out this was not the Skinner's Flat fire, which by then had been controlled. After a while we returned home when we considered it safe, but we still had a pretty smokey sunset:

We remained vigilant the rest of the evening, no alcohol, no total 'zoning out', vehicles left at the ready just outside the house, but were thankfully not needed.

This morning we had a sort of 'debrief' over coffee, just reviewing how and what we did and collected to go with us. Apparently the two most neglected items are medications, and mobile phone car chargers. We had those along with dog food, spare clothes, essential documents. We decided we didn't pack some of the things effectively, but didn't do too bad. Spent some time today refining the packaging, as we have another two 40 odd degree days coming up! We have designated a 'safe area' actually on our block, but it would depend on the circumstances and severity of any future threat, whether I am there or at work, leaving hubby on his own.

Thanks for all your good wishes and thoughts, hope I won't be doing this again this Summer at least!

As a footnote it is suggested that we do have a firebug in our area, as both fires referred to were potentially deliberately lit. Nice!!!

[NannyFerret]

I can see why you have to keep on your toes. I hope the winds drop and you will finally be able to relax.

It's terrible that someone can start fires deliberately and put peoples lives and homes in danger.

I hope if they catch them, that they will get a severe punishment.

Keep safe. We're routing for you.

[Denis]

T'was on the news today, that yesterday was Australia's hottest day on record.

Keep lucky!

[Heather]

wow Kobione, sounds like you had a hell of a day ! im glad you all and your property is safe and hopefully you wont need to put your emergency plan into action again !

cant believe you actually have idiots out there that think its a good idea to light fires deliberatly ! <shakes head in despair>

[annie]

scary stuff.............