Printable View
I am up in the hills, thankfully safe and a distance off from the fire. A lot of my friends/fellow horse owners have had to evacuate themselves and their animals. Massive effort from the horse community getting some 2000 horses out. Mostly thanks to social media helping coordinate everyone. Its been a devastating fire. all those fighting it are absolute heroes. Disappointed that there are reports of looters now in the area.
Excellent (if I can use that word for such a dreadful situation) images, gives some idea of the extent of things.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eevo
Thanks, Pickles.
Hello all.
I live right in the middle of all this.
The fire came through on Friday evening and was bad enough as it took out about a third of my property. The CFS were available and helped with some fires my hoses couldn't reach.
Next morning (Saturday) tired but satisfied we had survived relatively intact. I rang my brother (Lanceanot) to see if he and his wife could deliver some fuel for the pumps...just in case. We did not expect him to be allowed past the road blocks, but thankfully the blocks were not in place.
Unlike the fire lessons suggest this fire did not pass through and move on. Its erratic behavior forced the CFS to abandon our area. When the fire returned we were on our own. Saturday was much worse than Friday. The wind was very strong yet its direction random. The fire came though three more times. Twice we were almost overwhelmed.
We would have lost it all without my brother and his wife who risked a lot to stay with me and my wife. He had to put his faith in my fire fighting set-up. It has been tested to beyond capacity.
We have saved our house and nearly all the sheds. And both my brother's and my D4s. Much of the fencing and nearly all the pasture is gone. No stock, pets or people have been lost on our place. Neighbours not so lucky. A few houses lost in every direction from our place.
We received a gift of hay yesterday to keep the stock going. It is not yet safe and so the roads are closed and the mains have been off since the beginning. We have a generator to keep the fridges running.
We are now an island on a sea of ash. The smoke is clearing (here at least) and it is cooler. There are big trees still burning and randomly trees fall over or drop branches with a tremendous crash.
Elsewhere the fire is still burning out of control, good luck if you are in its path.
Thanks to everyone who has offered support and good wishes.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...15/01/1130.jpg
The picture from the Advertiser shows the road past my place on Friday. Hard to believe it but Saturday was worse. You can see why the CFS had to leave. Too dangerous to be caught in the open.
Fred, glad you and yours are ok.
Where are you,...our friends are in Humbug Scrub.
Pickles.
We are on Wattle Road just North of Kersbrook.
A link to this morning's fire map:
http://www.cfs.sa.gov.au/public/download.jsp?id=76451
The fire ground looks to be about 17km from N to S and 13km from E to W with lots of activity around the edges.
Fred,
Quite frankly it looks bloody terrifying....I'm very glad to hear you and yours are safe.
The way the news reports appear over here... it's not necessarily over yet if they don't get a few things under control before the next run of hot weather. :(
Stay safe....glad you were obviously well prepared.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALPStjWN9TY[/ame]
We had a Town meeting yesterday evening. It was an emotional time. Since all roads are blocked except to locals we are still isolated. The Firefighters are absolutely buggered and emotional. Two of them have lost their homes while fighting the fires elsewhere. One of our CFS fire trucks has been damaged, the wiring loom to the pumps etc burned out. A number of "farm utes" have been converted to fire units.
Community spirit is high and so many are helping each other. We are facing another hot windy day but there is a 50% chance of rain on the fire ground this evening. We all hope the fire can be contained.......
Thinking of you all Fred....:(