Last wednesday after taking some pics for a friend for her web site, l was having some lunch at home and checking out APP, when l noticed thick smoke blowing all around the house. I shot down our lane to the road from where the smoke was coming from only to see a big bush fire coming my way. Staying to fight it with 30-35km winds l thought was not an option, as there was no escape route if things went bad.
So, l closed all the windows, put put 2 sprinklers on in front of the house, turned on the bore pump, grabbed my wallet and mobile and went out on the road. And in no time at all, the fire jumped onto the property.
For a while there, l thought that l would lose everything, but fortunately the wind turned into the semi tropical forest and slowed, giving me and my stepson who had now turned up to put out the fire heading towards the house, as well as saving the bore pump. We had spot fires here and there, that kept us alert for the next couple of days, until we got a lovely downpour of about 8mm of rain.

The fire claimed 3 sheds, a caravan, and thousands of dollars of exotic timber stored by one chap on his property, as well as some crop loss. The rural firebrigade did a fantastic and brave job saving a number homes that were in its path. Also they had the water bombing chopper in action for a couple of days. Not sure if its true, but when l went into town for some supplies, l heard the police were questioning a couple of guys about some rubbish that was tipped out onto a block not far from Marton, a small township not far from here and set alight. I'm just happy that no lives were lost. Was a tad stressful at the time, but feel better now

This pic was taken with my phone, just as the fire was jumping the road onto the property. And unbenown to me fire fighters were saving 3 homes to the left of this pic, behind the burning trees. It was fast.








You can see how close it got to the house here.







This is looking back along the path to the main road. The grass and small bushes under the powerlines went up very quickly.








The only positive thing about the smoke was, that it kept the mozzies away








Saw the chopper constantly for 2 days. They and the crews below did a wonderful job.