Normally we would welcome this as it means some lazy days at the beach, Christmas, cricket tests and long days doing not much. Oh, and the population of the area increasing fourfold for four weeks due to the influx of holiday makers, but we won’t go into that downside of things.
But this year the lead up has been all but calm.
For six weeks it seems the entire east of the state has been on fire. So far over 1.6 million hectares has been burnt out with 660 properties lost and 6 lives taken.
There seems no end. Substantial rain is needed to extinguish the fires and that is not happening or forecast.
Up unto Tuesday we had been spared any trauma as our little pocket of the world was fire free.
But in the afternoon we got word that a fire had broken out in inaccessible state forest and national park just 30km to the south west of us. It was a hot low humidity day with gusty dry winds and we were soon covered in smoke and falling ash which is always an ominous sign. Fires can ‘spot’ well ahead of main front in windy conditions.
Our ‘fire plan’ is to leave when told to by the authorities so we have the basic necessities already packed and ready to be thrown in the car with a few other things.
But as luck would have it, the wind changed later in the evening and the fire headed away from us.
Fast forward to today and ‘our’ fire is still burning but contained. It has grown to almost 7000ha (17000acres).
Hundreds of firefighters on the ground have done a wonderful job back burning and creating firebreaks. Water bombing has been relentless.
So in the interim we have taken time to fire prepare the house by cleaning combustibles out the gutters and removing the (inflammable) plastic leaf guards. In case fire approaches down pipes would be blocked and the gutters filled with water. Two back pack sprayers and my larger trailed battery operated one have been made ready in case we need to combat an ember attack. We can’t rely on electricity being available to run our house water supply system under bush fire conditions.
We know the firefighters would arrive to ‘defend’ our property if under threat like last time even if we are not here. Every little bit residents can do to make their job easier helps.
So here we are, sometimes covered in dense smoke, other times not. We check the ‘Fires Near Me’ app on a regular basis to keep updated and try to carry on our normal daily lives.
Welcome summer? Not yet!
In the meantime we 'enjoy' bush fire suns.
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