Here's the latest from the fire services.
BEECHWORTH FIRE
Update as of 0200hrs 12/02/09
Yesterday’s continued calm weather conditions have allowed fire fighters to make good progress on a number of important back-burning operations within the Beechworth Fire area.
Fire crews are patrolling and mopping up where possible overnight and will continue to work on containing fires today (Thursday) including back-burning and bulldozer work.
The fire was downgraded from alert to 'awareness' yesterday, and at the community meeting we attended the district commander was reasonably confident that (barring unforseen weather conditions) they would be able to mark the fire as contained by the weekend. There's still lots of work going on down the road from us on mopping up, backburning and taking care of dangerous trees, but we're not in danger - so we were a lot luckier than others further south that are still going through it all.
I just want to say again that I think the CFA are absolutely brilliant! Our favourite winemaker has been out there all week, in his own vehicle, fighting fires. I can't say enough about their tireless (and often unpaid) dedication. Please, if you see or know any CFA / Rural Fire volunteers in Vic or in your state - tell them what awesome humans they are for doing what they do!
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Sunday, 8 February 2009
We're safe!
Thanks to all the friends and family who've been ringing, texting and emailing (although we only just got the power back after nearly 24hrs without.)
To those of you in Australia that heard about the Beechworth fire - it started about 300m from our property about 6:30pm. We lost power about 6pm and have since found from a neighbour (who reported the fire) that it was sparked by a downed power line in grass. It's now burned over 22,500 hectares. Bloody scary stuff. We went out several times between 6 and 6:30 and saw and smelt nothing. Then Jerry opened the front door and bang! smoke and visible flames and then firetrucks came.
We had filled our gutters in the morning, and had done a tidy up and filled the fire pump as it was going to be such a bad day.
Jerry's never moved so fast! He was out, on with the sprinklers and got the fire pump going (I am so happy we had that to run the water, plus the tanks on the hill so we still had water). I got my gear on and was out putting other sprinklers on. Luckily the wind was blowing away from us so it didn't jump the road to our place, but frankly it's as close as we want to get. We also learned some useful things to adjust our fire plan. We've had power back for an hour or so now, but it's still tense as the fire is moving towards the other side of town, and you just can't be sure what the wind will do. Our road is still closed, and crews are working blacking out and keeping an eye on burning stumps. It is also very smokey.
But so far we are on alert, but safe, and in no immediate danger unless the winds reverse directions. We are VERY grateful that we are no worse off - many, many others have not been so lucky (50 is the latest death toll), and it's not over yet.
Here's some pics: but there are many more on flikr here:
This morning - standing at the bottom of our road. The pic on the left shows our main paddock, the one on the right I turned 180 degrees, so you can see it was pretty darn close!
Trees stumps were burning after 12 hours
See more photos on flikr here
To those of you in Australia that heard about the Beechworth fire - it started about 300m from our property about 6:30pm. We lost power about 6pm and have since found from a neighbour (who reported the fire) that it was sparked by a downed power line in grass. It's now burned over 22,500 hectares. Bloody scary stuff. We went out several times between 6 and 6:30 and saw and smelt nothing. Then Jerry opened the front door and bang! smoke and visible flames and then firetrucks came.
We had filled our gutters in the morning, and had done a tidy up and filled the fire pump as it was going to be such a bad day.
Jerry's never moved so fast! He was out, on with the sprinklers and got the fire pump going (I am so happy we had that to run the water, plus the tanks on the hill so we still had water). I got my gear on and was out putting other sprinklers on. Luckily the wind was blowing away from us so it didn't jump the road to our place, but frankly it's as close as we want to get. We also learned some useful things to adjust our fire plan. We've had power back for an hour or so now, but it's still tense as the fire is moving towards the other side of town, and you just can't be sure what the wind will do. Our road is still closed, and crews are working blacking out and keeping an eye on burning stumps. It is also very smokey.
But so far we are on alert, but safe, and in no immediate danger unless the winds reverse directions. We are VERY grateful that we are no worse off - many, many others have not been so lucky (50 is the latest death toll), and it's not over yet.
Here's some pics: but there are many more on flikr here:
This morning - standing at the bottom of our road. The pic on the left shows our main paddock, the one on the right I turned 180 degrees, so you can see it was pretty darn close!
Trees stumps were burning after 12 hours
See more photos on flikr here
Friday, 6 February 2009
Batten down the hatches
Extreme fire weather is back to bite us, after a few days reprieve from the 40s. This is what the premier had to say in The Age newspaper
Victorians should cancel whatever plans they may have had for tomorrow and take whatever steps necessary to prepare for what Premier John Brumby is calling the "worst day in the history of the state".
With temperatures set to soar to the mid-40s throughout Victoria, Mr Brumby said the conditions were worse than those that preceded the devastating bushfires of Ash Wednesday or Black Friday.
"It's just as bad a day as you can imagine and on top of that the state is just tinder-dry. People need to exercise real common sense tomorrow," he said.
"If you don't need to go out, don't go out, it's a seriously bad day.
"If you don't need to travel, don't travel.
"Don't go on the roads. If you don't need to use the public transport system, don't use it.
"If you can stay at home, stay at home.
"If you've got relatives who are elderly, if you've got friends, if you've got neighbours, please call on them.
"Ring them ... it's going to be a terrible day for anyone who is ill or who is old.
Mr Brumby said he expected Melbourne to reach 43 or 44 degrees with similar temperatures throughout the state, reaching as high as 46 in Mildura.
He said if anything, the expectation was for the day to be even hotter rather than cooler.
He recalled scenes last week of wooden power poles self-igniting.
"I can't stress this enough, I know that the chief fire officer has been out and he said it will be as bad as you can get and he's not exaggerating," Mr Brumby said.
I've swept around the house, done a tidy up, and our fire kit (including new face masks with filters and eye protection) is ready to go. All that remains is to keep everything crossed that we don't need it.
Victorians should cancel whatever plans they may have had for tomorrow and take whatever steps necessary to prepare for what Premier John Brumby is calling the "worst day in the history of the state".
With temperatures set to soar to the mid-40s throughout Victoria, Mr Brumby said the conditions were worse than those that preceded the devastating bushfires of Ash Wednesday or Black Friday.
"It's just as bad a day as you can imagine and on top of that the state is just tinder-dry. People need to exercise real common sense tomorrow," he said.
"If you don't need to go out, don't go out, it's a seriously bad day.
"If you don't need to travel, don't travel.
"Don't go on the roads. If you don't need to use the public transport system, don't use it.
"If you can stay at home, stay at home.
"If you've got relatives who are elderly, if you've got friends, if you've got neighbours, please call on them.
"Ring them ... it's going to be a terrible day for anyone who is ill or who is old.
Mr Brumby said he expected Melbourne to reach 43 or 44 degrees with similar temperatures throughout the state, reaching as high as 46 in Mildura.
He said if anything, the expectation was for the day to be even hotter rather than cooler.
He recalled scenes last week of wooden power poles self-igniting.
"I can't stress this enough, I know that the chief fire officer has been out and he said it will be as bad as you can get and he's not exaggerating," Mr Brumby said.
I've swept around the house, done a tidy up, and our fire kit (including new face masks with filters and eye protection) is ready to go. All that remains is to keep everything crossed that we don't need it.
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Do these chicks look ready for eating?
These are our two 5 week old chicks (a pure dorking, and a dorking light sussex cross) with their mum. They're not big enough to eat - not even as a snack. However, if they were commercial intensively reared chickens by now they would be in a supermarket freezer with a 1.6 or 1.8kg label on them. It's a frightening thought.
To learn more about intensively reared chickens take a look at chicken out.
One of my aims for this year is to get to the point that we eat 100% locally grown (and preferably home butchered) meat, raised the "old fashioned" way. We've managed it with lamb, and almost with pork. Next step is expanding our chicken accommodation so we can eat our own chickens, and finding a good beef source. Of course, this means we will be eating less meat, but I'm OK with that - and Jerry is getting used to the idea - particularly as the meat we do eat has such a great flavour.
Oh, and by accident I stumbled upon the new egg hiding spot yesterday - in behind the worm farm! Must be cooler there. I had assumed the chickens had just stopped laying due to the heat :)
To learn more about intensively reared chickens take a look at chicken out.
One of my aims for this year is to get to the point that we eat 100% locally grown (and preferably home butchered) meat, raised the "old fashioned" way. We've managed it with lamb, and almost with pork. Next step is expanding our chicken accommodation so we can eat our own chickens, and finding a good beef source. Of course, this means we will be eating less meat, but I'm OK with that - and Jerry is getting used to the idea - particularly as the meat we do eat has such a great flavour.
Oh, and by accident I stumbled upon the new egg hiding spot yesterday - in behind the worm farm! Must be cooler there. I had assumed the chickens had just stopped laying due to the heat :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
