Thread: NSW Fires

Originally Posted by crowie

PS - we really need rain and buckets of it......

Hear, hear! You listenin' Hughie? We need RAIN!

Luckily Anne and I are relatively safe here in Katoomba; the fires are pretty much staying to a 40k+ circle around us. So far, anyway. Although with the Bell Line roads shut down, we're sweating on the Mt Victoria or Springwood ones cutting the M4 and leaving us isolated. Still, better cut off than burnt out, yeah? At least we still have a house & property to be concerned about...

What concerns me more than the current batch of fires are the near-future fires! It's only the middle of Spring, fer chrissakes, so I'm sweating the onset of Summer and the "usual" fire-danger season.


On a slightly different note, we recently copped one of those phone calls, you know the type. "We're insurance comparators and WE can arrange a GREAT DEAL for YOU!" (And yes, I can hear the capitalised words. Anyone who has watched a steak knife advert knows what I mean. ) Anyways, they rang around tucker time and I was interested in seeing what sort of rates they could do insurance for... especially fire insurance. So, they asked me what my current premiums are and I had to head to the desk to find the relevant paperwork. On the way back to the phone, Anne asked me about the bushfires & whether we needed anything else in our "bail-out bags." (Y'know, clothes & essential paperwork in a bag next to the front door, just in case of an oh #### moment.)

I suspect the caller heard... 'cos they could NOT get off the phone fast enough once I picked it up again. Didn't even wait to ask about my paperwork...

Good to hear that Skew and Anne are ok, has anyone heard
of John (Orraloon) during this drama?

Allan

Best wishes to all in the fire affected areas. I wish I could send a bucket or two (million!) of rain your way.

Driving back North from the Melbourne T&WWW Show yesterday, all I could see was smoky, hazy sky, possibly from the Nor-Nor-Easterly I was driving into carrying it down from NSW. Same thing happened on Black Saturday (and for the week after) at home when smoke hung in the air. Still a bit of haze this morning too (9.50am).

Stay safe; we're thinking of you.

Craig

Speaking of the Show, the Sturt School (Mittagong) was represented wonderfully, with big smiles on their dials, despite the fires being close (within 10km) to their homes and work.

Spoke to groeneaj just now - he's ok at Hawksbury Heights, which is next door to Winmalee (where all the houses were lost). The member in the most serious danger will be rustynail at Bilpin: the Lithgow fire is marching on Bilpin as we speak.

Originally Posted by Allan at Wallan

Good to hear that Skew and Anne are ok, has anyone heard
of John (Orraloon) during this drama?

Allan

I think John lives on the southern side of Springwood; a few kms away from the fires.......

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Spoke to groeneaj just now - he's ok at Hawksbury Heights, which is next door to Winmalee (where all the houses were lost). The member in the most serious danger will be rustynail at Bilpin: the Lithgow fire is marching on Bilpin as we speak.

Good to hear Andy is okay, his second threat in 2.5months.....
I do hope "rustynail" is safe at Bilpin!!!
The smoke is as thick like a fog this morning.....

Just spoke to Ken's wife (rustynail). Things are ok there for the moment, but plenty of smoke, no embers. Much less smoke in Katoomba today, but that doesn't mean much.

We will stay put and continue dealing with ember showers. Tomorrow may well be a different matter. If the wind picks up again we'll be in deep doodoo. I've seen my fair share of bushfires but this one is too big to play with. As I type this, the glow is about 4k to the west and extends to the north, going out of site down the gullies. At this stage, it would appear the Wollemi National Park will cop it with a nw wind over the next couple of days and we back onto the park. Tonight is calm and, with a bit of luck, we can catch a bit of sleep before the big show over the next couple of days.
I trust others are safe.

Hi Rusty
I was at the 68 fires there and this is worse than then
We lived in Glenara Rd for 7 yrs, where are you?

I'm with the RFS in southern NSW first 14 days of this year was called every day dealing with one of our worst fires I'm a decade or so.

Tuesday I may be flying up to blue mountains as part of a strike team for three nights.

Depending on family obligations I will be there and no doubt post from the fire front.

Good luck from me to all of you guys down there. We do get fires here, but they are like back garden bonfires in comparison to what you have there.

A few years back we had a couple of fires a couple of Ks East of us. The first was OK with a Tramontane NW wind blowing, but the second had a Marin SE wind blowing it towards us. The French were red hot, as usual, with their water bombers and I got some cracking video of them in action. That one was worrying.

Once again, good luck to all of you and stay safe!

Thinking of all of you who are in the fire areas. Please stay safe.
And thank you to all RFS volunteers.

Originally Posted by rustynail

We will stay put and continue dealing with ember showers. Tomorrow may well be a different matter. If the wind picks up again we'll be in deep doodoo. I've seen my fair share of bushfires but this one is too big to play with. As I type this, the glow is about 4k to the west and extends to the north, going out of site down the gullies. At this stage, it would appear the Wollemi National Park will cop it with a nw wind over the next couple of days and we back onto the park. Tonight is calm and, with a bit of luck, we can catch a bit of sleep before the big show over the next couple of days.
I trust others are safe.

Good luck rustynail, and stay safe.

Craig