The day started off as normal, the dogs were exercised before it got too hot and I checked the water tanks to see how much extra water we'd gotten from the shower the night before and was pleasantly surprised. We were prepared for a hot day.
Michael went into town to get something for lunch, he got home about 12.15pm and all was normal. As it was a hot, windy day, we made lunch and retired to the lounge room where we closed the doors, windows, curtains and put on the air conditioner and The Blues Brothers.
Half an hour later, we heard a pounding on the lounge room door. It was our neighbour across the road, Cathy, telling us that a fire was going through her paddocks to the east. Her husband was busy moving stock but she wanted to let us know in case we didn't. Because the winds were strong northwesterly, we couldn't hear or smell it. And with the curtains closed, we didn't see the large plumes of smoke.
Michael and I went out to investigate immediately. It had come over the hill in the neighbour's property and taken out their hayshed and $50,000 worth of hay. Their house was spared. It had moved east, very quickly and burnt out the hills between here and Balmoral Rd. Just as it got to Balmoral road, the winds changed to southwesterly, which saved the town! The CFA (country fire authority) contained the fire quickly and cannot be praised highly enough for their work yesterday and last night.
view from our garage
view of the highway from our propertyWe had 10 minutes of panic - the house insurance was due yesterday and I couldn't remember if I'd paid it or not. After a mad scrabble through the bills, I discovered that I had actually paid it - we could burn down now :)
Luckily, the only house that was lost was an empty house up on a hill. One man was allegedly taken to hospital with burns and some stock was lost, and about 700 hectares burnt, but no human lives lost. We were all very lucky! The Premier, John Brumby, was a bit frantic... he couldn't contact his parents who live in Coleraine. They were okay, the fire stopped 500m short of their house.
The fire jumped the highway just down the road, and a power pole fell across the highway, closing it off for the rest of the day.
This meant we were without power, or phone for the rest of the day. No power meant no water (tanks need water pumped into the house). We felt reasonably safe from bushfire as the CFA were on high alert and planes were doing spotting sweeps, but we couldn't flush toilets, refill water bottles or have showers. Dinner at the pub was a must!
As the highway was closed, we had to go down Huggins Lane, across the dry creek bed and into town through the back street. Came home before it was dark and pretty much went straight to bed. Power came on around midnight but the phones didn't come back on until this afternoon.
Considering the disasters happening in other areas of hte state, we were very lucky! It has been touted that yesterday was worse than Ash Wednesday; so far 49 people have been confirmed dead and the toll is set to rise.
Bring on the rain.
This was the neighbour's hayshed
Only part of the devastation
Heroes of the day
The shed flares up again
Still working throughout the night
A beautiful sunset to end an horrific day
2 comments:
god i had no idea - we've been sitting here going "well thank goodness shaz is nowhere near those fires" - sheesh. :(
guess the lesson is - go outside and check on the goings on every now and then - you could burn down and be sitting there listening to the blues brothers!!! :(
hey guys did not realise till now that they were that close to you. am glad to hear that you all(even Him )are safe and well. will catch up soon
sandra and co
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