(Good morning everyone, Eha is our guest Un-Blogger today. As a child she emigrated from Estonia to Sydney on a big ship and now later in an eventful life she is living in a part of Australia that is smouldering with fires. She wrote this for us when she was in the midst of an horrific fire last week, in fact she had her bag packed and at the door in case of evacuation. Over to you Eha. c)
The sirens heralded the disaster. An ambulance? No, there were a series of ululating sounds one after the other and a view out of my window showed long rows of fire trucks racing up the road. The time: Thursday 17th October; the place: the beautiful Southern Highlands south of Sydney; the day: hot, dry and windy . . . the bush had exploded.
Cold shivers ran down my spine ~ I had been there before! Little did I know the same was happening all along the NSW coast and across the Blue Mountains west of Sydney? The city was totally surrounded by fire . . . one of the largest had started about 10 km SE of my community. Ten days later my ‘backyard’ blaze has burnt out some 16000 hectares in a conflagration now affecting some 11 villages and stretching some 40 kilometres. So far this is the worst natural disaster we have faced in fifty years. Our bushfire season normally begins late November and lasts to March ~ Quo Vadis?
Celi had just trusted me to fill in for her on one of the mornings she is to be in California . . . what other scenario could I present to the Fellowhip?
What is ‘bush’ strangers ask. It is an iconic word for us to denote the vast areas of land outside urban development and cultivated land. Oft covered with dense vegetation or undergrowth it is our ‘forest’ with gums or eucalypts being the predominant tree.
These can be hauntingly beautiful but also one of the deadliest trees in the world. They spread from the coast as far inland as vegetation grows . . . we are the ‘dry continent’ after all with 80% of us living within a two hour drive of the sea. The land being oft quite dramatically rugged much cannot be cultivated and thus this bush, including national parks and water catchment areas, almost reaches into suburbia. The terrain is oft quite inaccessible . . . when a fire starts it oft has to burn itself out . . .
A bushfire needs fuel, lack of rain, heat and wind. We had a record breaking warm winter with no rain since June. Hence the gums shed leaves and sheets of bark to carpet the ground. The gums are full of explosively flammable oil. That is the fuel. We oft have a spate of 100 C days in early spring, but October this year has broken all existing records. Hot, wild gales blow from the ‘Red Centre’ followed by line squalls from the Southern Ocean, oft at 100 km speeds.. If a fire begins it may move much faster than a man can run and gain momentum. It can cross wide roads and creeks and jump gulleys. The fire and heat are but some of the problems – smoke inhalation kills more than the flames and the myriads of embers which may move kilometres ahead rob the air of oxygen and start new spot fires to grow.
The spark? I wish I could say lightning or household accidents: well, the biggest this time was caused by army exercises!! But most often they are caused by man ~ a careless flick of a cigarette butt or the sick actions of juveniles playing God! Three of the main conflagrations were started by 11 – 15 year olds who will all ‘get off’ !!!
So, how do we fight nature? Especially if we want to live in the bush as an increasing number of urban folk do? With vigilance and an indomitable spirit methinks! The state of NSW has the world’s largest rural fire service. The administration is paid: the70,000 proud volunteers are not. When the bush bursts into flame they leave farms, shops and offices, don their heavy garb and go on incredibly long, hot and dangerous shifts! Often whilst their own homes burn!!
Once they remove helmets you see teenagers, so many females and so much grey hair!! Mateship whilst the community needs you! Oh, mates from all other states have joined us: some 800 in all! The rural fire service has concise free educational programmes and wonderful media coverage. A warning phone call is issued as a fire front approaches ~ the police doorknock whenever possible. Each house is checked. So many thousands of hectares have so far been burnt and hundreds of families have lost their homes ~ there have been only two deaths: a heroic helo pilot and a guy who succumbed to a heart attack.
I must have seen dozens of interviews . . . barely a tear! Usually it has been ‘It’s OK, mate! Got the wife and kids out! And the photos! Even the dog and cat . . . heck, mate : it was only a house! We’ll rebuild!!’ With their indomitable spirit they will!!
| … Eha |
The Kitchen's Garden 
111 responses to “Living in the Land of Flood and Fire . Guest post by Eha.”
Those photos were stunning and terrifying and horrible and I can’t go on!! They have reports here, but nothing like this!! Prayers for rain for you all of you and SOON!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Thank you! Well, the photos are more than real and do not depict the smoke, the embers, the explosive noises nor the fear that but a brief time later you may lose your home! Even your life!! Since every year is not as dry, since the fires return in consecutive ‘circles’ mostly, it is a yearly fear but not a yearly ‘return’ . . . we need rain from the north ~ unfortunately that would mean relief for us but floods up ‘there’! Thanks for your comment 🙂 !
Hello, Eha. Thanks for sharing your photos and stories with us. I can’t imagine standing there and seeing fire so close out the windows. Thankful for volunteers who come to help. It’s sad to see how much loss one’s carelessness can cause. Stay safe.
Hello Patti – thank you so much for reading and commenting . . . fire simply is a part of living outside the urban areas in Australia: it really does not matter which state! It simply was ‘our’ turn!! All of the fires of course are not due to carelessnes or worse. Old overhead electricity lines knocked down or otherwise ‘sparking’ can and do cause these conflagrations and especailly in the Outback lighning does cause most . . . but they burn away from human habitation . . .
Eha, this looks so scary. You have to be tough to live in the Australian bush. Do hope you and your home are safe now. I’ve been praying for rain for some time now, on behalf of you all, from here in NZ where we have plenty to spare right now.
Well Juliet, I do wish the weather systems moved from east to west and not the other way about – we could surely do with a LOT of the wet stuff. I have three live fires within about a 20 km radius, one of them the infamous Hall Street, Balmoral one which was so much in the news: about 16000 hectares already burnt out! Have had a couple of cooler days, tomorrow and Friday up in the high 30s again but no big line squalls expected.. Day by day!! We worry about bushrires every year: madly clean gutters and rake leaves and put all our important papers in the one spot. But, say in my area, this is the first really bad time in ten years. Thinking logically ~ that is a long time!! It’s like childbirth: you forget the pain when it is over 🙂 !
How absolutely terrifying! Having just experienced a very small taste of what a natural disaster of sorts can do to disrupt your home and life, I cannot imagine the anguish and real fear of dealing with these fires. I’m so happy to hear that you and yours are okay.
Thank you so much for your words: If you read my comment to Juliet just above you’ll see we are not exactly safe, but every day some of the fires slowly burn themselves out. Have just been on the Rural Fire Service site and it seems we are down to some 30 fires in the State now, all of them more or less contained and not threatening properties at the moment. The Bureau of Met ‘promises’ some rain on Saturday: I’ll believe it when I hear it on my roof 🙂 !
Eha (sorry, I’m late to the party, but life keeps interrupting) Thank you so much for your post. The pictures make all the reports I’ve heard on the news more real. Terrifying
I didn’t realize so much of Australia is so dry. We live on the TX coastal prairie. We do have droughts, water shortages, and brush fires. (like someone in central TX mentioned above). Some of our trees are still dying from the last one. I can identify with the bag by the door as we also get hurricanes and usually leave with pets and not knowing what will be there when we return.
You have to love the spirit of those who know the danger, experience it, and say, “Well, we’ll rebuild.”
Stay safe. A salute to those who dare.
OMG – just showed a friend how I had seen the bushfires back a bit personally – found I had not answered you 🙂 ! I so know what you mean about ‘real life’ ‘interrupting’ that on the page 🙂 ! Altho’ we have just had two totally unexpected days of 100 km winds, I would hate to be in the proper hurricane/[cyclone in oir language 🙂 !] belt!! I have lived in situ for nearly 20 years and I have a pretty good feeling about the rest of our ‘season’. Some wild weather right across the Continent but there has been some rain every week and some very cold seasonal weather – I cannot see the worst happening in my part of the world!! Thank you SO much for commenting – and I too am late 🙂 !