(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.”
Hello Eha. Your pictures sent shivers up my body. My DH was a firefighter for over 30 years and we still live in an area of southeast Oregon that gets terrible wildfires. Nothing scares me more than fire. I am so sorry that you are having to suffer thru another year of wildfires. The kids that set these should get much stiffer sentences, IMHO. Please stay safe. Keeping you in my prayers.
Thank you Emily! Until I told a longtime blogfriend of mine I was doing this guest post I always thought Oregon too wet to have forest fires. He also lives down south [Grants Pass from memory?] and told me he had been surrounded by about six of the beasties for a whoile month until your September rains. Those culpable ~ Oh: this is a HORRIBLE thought, but so many here say some should simply be taken up in a ‘copter over the fire zone they set off and pushed right into the maelstrom in view of the media: end of problem. But then we are obviously incapable of that even if they feel no compunction about bringing a community to a halt!
The west side of Oregon is wet…mostly. This summer they were in a drought situation so had some very bad forest fires. We live east of the Cascade mountains which is high desert and dry with no rain in the summer, except for an occasional thunder storm with hundreds of lightning strikes which start fires. We are always happy when the rainy season starts.
Have just picked this up 24 hours later! Have friends in Portland and a blogfriend further south in Oregon : did not realize the state had a ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ season: thank you for telling me – shall look that one up and learn s’thing again!! With November having come along you should be safe until the next ‘dry’!!
Wonderful to hear from you Eha, even in difficult times. You conveyed the nature of the bushfires so well. As soon as I smell even a whiff of smoke my senses go on alert, regardless of how far away the fire is. I have been on evacuation standby once, and couldn’t think, despite it being quite obvious ordinarily, of what to pack, so just got the cats and dog ready to go.
I have endless admiration for the firies, and am appalled to hear some fires have been deliberately lit. It defies belief.
It seems at least the lessons learned from the Victoria fires, have saved lives this time, if not property, and lives are the main thing. I’m quite impressed by what I’ve seen via the media of the organization and communication.
I think if I had to choose, to stay or leave, I’d leave as I wouldn’t want someone to risk their life for me and my property.
It would be awful to lose house and possessions, and seeing the news reports of people who have brings me to tears, but I’d like to think I’d be as stoic as they.
I hope all is well with you 🙂
Hello EllaDee: All those of us so oft in the path of fire seem to have the same understanding and feelingworld. I know what you mean about the ‘whiff of smoke’! Yesterday’s first new fire must have been over 10 kms from me but the clouds of brown coming our way and the smoke permeating right into the house did bring fear! We weren’t even in the direct line of the fire 🙂 !! Have followed a lot of the ABC/SBS discussions over the last fortnight ~ yes Victoria’s terrible tragedies and horrific loss of life have taught those in charge so much! Did not realize the importance of sparking power lines either!!
Be safe, Eha. The wind has sprung up here…northern NSW…and even before I read your post I was sending thoughts and prayers south, asking that it not be windy in the fire areas. I have friends in the areas in the Blue Mts who are at risk. It’s such a terrifying thing…….I’m in a flood prone area, although my house won’t go under, I do get cut off. That first time the phones all started ringing at once and the unemotional voice giving warning that the river was rising rapidly ( I can see it rising rapidly from my back deck!) , and urging evacuation, then the sirens and banging on the door and the yellow suited SES (State Emergency Service) urging go, go!! …I can only imagine how much more terrifying when you’re surrounded by dense smoke and bright hot flames. My son is with the SES, and although not frontline, he is there in the back lines, and that worries me too…fire moves so quickly. Be safe Eha.
Oh Nanette . . . yes, we had THAT change earlier: THAT is the one which began another 20-odd fires here! [Seem to be contained, tho’ of course burning!]. I lived for some seven years up on a hill in Ocean Shores – often got cut off, but not flooded. And yes, I DO remember the police bullhorns going off in the middle of the dark night here during a fire about to reach us [the firies stopped it 100 metres away!] and pulling us out of homes in night gear with but a handbag not knowing to what we would return! Thank you for your part of the story: I only began it, it seems – you all have written it and I hope a fair few of those not affected will get some new understanding!
A post which graphically depicts the danger and drama, and is a real eye-opener. I wonder how one can live knowing things like this can happen so quickly … and then I recollect that we have the same sense of imminent disaster, but from insane drivers and crime out of control.
Dear colonialist ~ Since we are roughly on the same latitude and you in South Africa also have so much dry land, I guess bushfires or whatever your terminology is, would not be quite a strange phenomenon to you either? As far as crime of all kinds is concerned: many of us who have made the socalled ‘treechange’ to live rurally or semi-rurally have partly done it for those very reasons also. And the hip-pocket: four of Australia’s capital cities now figure amongst the top ten in the world!! So now we prefer to fear nature and not man!
I migrated to Australia 30 years ago and am continually inspired by the selfless service given by so many, and the indomitable spirit of the people. Thank you for sharing what is certainly a very difficult time for you. Best wishes from Alice Springs .
Hello ardysez ~ I had no idea that so many from Down Under had discovered the farmy and loved to have a cuppa in the Comments’ Lounge! An extra bonus for me in the future when reading these 🙂 ! I am certain that there are many wonderful volunteer organizations all around the world. But as the Sydney Olympics volunteer spirit showed and of course everyone from the firies to SES to Vinnies, Salvos and so do every day, giving freely of themselves is a very natural thing Down Under.
I’m so sorry that your area is having such horrible fires right now; I couldn’t imagine whatnot must feel like, getting ready to leave with the strong possibility that your home will not be there when you return. How do you choose what to take with you? I do hope all works out in the end. Best of luck.
Hello Eva ~ One can really get devastating bushfires anywhere in this country: many in remote areas are not even ‘newsworthy’ – they just burn themselves out! It was Tasmania in the beginning of the year, South Australia already again now and so it goes on. This year after a decade it was simply ‘our turn’!! What to take with you: to have a little lightening on the situation – people have sometimes found a dozen pairs of knickers and an old book in their bag afterwards: I do not think one’s mind is really in gear 🙂 !
I wish you all the best.
Eha, I certainly do know what it is like to live in fire prone country. I lived in Southern California most of my life. The last 20 years there saw more and more horrific fires, and many were started by arsonists. It is hard to fathom the mentality of someone who can set a fire knowing that it will go out of control, taking lives and property. I am so sorry that you are surrounded by this devastation and smoke. I do hope that you continue to be safe!
And yes, we all choose to live where we are most happy with our surroundings, because most of the time, we are safe and don’t have to worry about disasters, natural or otherwise! I now live in tornado country and wouldn’t change it for anything! It is simply to beautiful here.
Hello Lynda: as the saying goes ‘one rolls with the punches’ . . . . If you knew how beautiful it can be here ‘amongst the gumtrees’ as the famous song says, being woken up by the ‘laughter’ of the kookaburras, having lunch outside most of the year with a brilliantly green King Island parrot looking enviously down at your plate . . . no manmade noise, just the wind in your hair and sun on your face . . . lovely . . .
Eha, what a moving post, and what wonderful comments from all the lovely people who read Celi’s blog… I never cease to marvel at the courage and kindness and resilience of the people I read about who’ve come through these great disasters in your country.
I still have the picture taken some years ago of a fireman giving a singed koala a drink from a bottle of water, and also boat-ful of well-behaved kangaroos sitting neatly in a motor boat being rescued from floods somewhere in the Northern Territories I think…Amazing how they know when they are being rescued, bless them – and blessings to you all, living with nature at her most challenging….
Valerie: thank you so much for commenting! You have verbalized the delightful surprise I too have received to have SO much personal feeling and history added to my story by those who have been there themselves and hold the same fears when Nature decides to show its power. Celi called us a Fellowship way back – the lady was more than correct!! Yes, I too remember the firie giving the very thirsty koala a life saving drink – ther are so many stories sands pareil coming out of such disasters!
Fabulous post Eha – so awful what the bush and the people who live in and around it have to go to. Until I saw it I couldn’t comprehend the enormity of the bush. We have fires in Spain in the summer, some of them massive and devastating, we’ve had a few near misses but nothing on the scale of this. Glad you are safe and sound 🙂
Thank you so much for commenting . . . Yes, most of Australia bar the Red Centre is what we call ‘bush’ and one really has to see it and walk in it and see it friendly and see it angry to comprehend! ‘Safe and sound’ is a term I do not dare to use at the moment . . . unless heavy and/or continuous rains arrive the fires in the inaccessible parts will not go out and the first hot day and the first strong wind will awaken both them and begin new ones . . . one lives hour by hour and day by day and tries to do it a normally as possible. I have just had a couple of guys working here putting my new TV set up [hence the pauses in my comments 🙂 !] and both had warning phone calls at home last night to be ready to evacuate. So far all good!!!!
It must have been frightening going through all that (while in Melbourne we’ve had so much rain).
Great post…..telling it exactly like it is. Photos are amazing too.
My own family went through bush fires in outer suburban Melbourne when I was a small child in the early 1960s and we had our caravan and car packed to evacuate. We could see the smoke and fire coming up the hill behind our home and I remember how frightening it was. Our home (which was a weatherboard which my Father built) was saved by a wind change.
It’s worrying to know there are so many fires around at the moment when it’s not even summer yet.
Hello Vicki . . . yes, I have been oh SO envious of your rain! Hmm, not that I am such friends with Melbourne’s ‘Four Seasons in a Day’ weather 🙂 ! But I so love your cultural life and those restaurants!! Sadly Victoria really is the most fireprone inhabited/cultivated area in the world . . . As most of us know Celi has a daughter living and working in Melbourne – you had quite a few scrub fires late last summer on the outskirts and I tried to keep a watchful eye to tell Miss C that her offspring really had to be OK 🙂 !
Lovely to have you watching out for the baby Eha!.. c
Eha, you’ve captured the Aussie spirit true and well. I love the ‘she’ll be right’ attitude, it’s true because we go through it year after year and thrive and prosper. It’s amazing how the land ‘needs’ to burn, the Aborigines knew this and would start fires in the bush so that the land rejuvenates. Animals depend on it so that seed pods crack open and they can eat.
It is sad and unfortunate when lands, houses and lives are lost but what a true testament it is to our fire-fighters, SES and volunteers who are able to save so much with minimal loss.
I’m so happy to hear you’re safe and well xx
Thank you Lisa . . . yes, many people do not understand the wonderful land management by the Aborigines who, going walkabout, burned and renewed the bush. for centuries and centuries until white man came to put his imprint on the Continent. I remember driving thru’ Kuringai Chase some three weeks after a vicious fire some three decades ago thinking all I would see would be a scene of devastation – NO, wherever I looked there was lovely spring green foliage popping up from almost still smouldering embers: hope eternal 🙂 ! And methinks we here all realize that when the chips are down we can depend on the firies and the SES . . . and they are getting better and better!
Fascinating. Breath-taking. Awe-inspiring. You made this horrific event even more real for me, and I thought that not at all possible. Just a fantastic post in every way–with great photos as well.
Thank you Vicki ~ I just began a true story the scenario of which is largely not ours to write! Look how many from Down Under have helped me tell the tale and fleshed it out better than I possibly could!! We have a wonderful TV programme called ‘The Australian Story’: well, methinks last night and today [for me] the Aussie Contigent of the Fellowship have written one facet of an Australian Story and I so thank them for it. As I do all those from the US and elsewhere who also can relate! Thank you for your comment Victoria . . .
What an amazing — and frightful — post, Eha! I’ve read about the fires but had no idea of how close they had come to your door and nothing informs like a personal account. I’m glad to read, should the unthinkable happen, that you’ll leave. Good to read, too, that the fire fighters are making progress on so many fronts. Just as with California’s wildfires. it is appalling that some of these fires are purposefully set. We can put out the fires but how ever do we stop such mindless acts?
Stay safe, Eha. I hope the fires come no closer to you and all whom you hold dear.
John dearHeart ~ numero uno: we have been under State of Emergency since 20 October for initially one month That means the police can order us to leave, put off electricity at whatever cost to one to avoid sparking in the lines etc. Oh you should see how efficient the whole setup is!! At the Sydney HQ there is a huge oval room many stories high atrium-like and all knowledge down to the last second is in the hands of the controllers. A firefighter sneezes and it literally shows up on a dozen screens 🙂 ! They have learned so much from the disastrous fires in Victoria [Black Saturday 2009] and remember we are Govt funded and don’t have to collect money in the local communities. But as far as fires coming closer, John – pray for rain for us – that is the only thing that can stop this horror! But no smoke in my nose today . . . am just a wee sleepy – you are much better pulling allnighters than I am 😀 !!!
Hi Eha, a very late post I hope your having a better day today.
I’m in one of the other areas of fires north west of Sydney; I try not to look at the news footage its all too close and graphic for me.
All good so far today; the wind is blowing the smoke to the east and the sky to my north is a delicate shade of pink. The cicadas are just deafening when you open the door and a blue wren who comes every day to tap at his reflection in the window next to me; is back today……….almost a perfect spring day.
I know ~ I almost feel the same way about the day even tho’ I have had to cope with greedy kookaburras, galahs and sulphur cresteds! We are all different, aren’t we!! I ALWAYS have to know; so the ‘favourites’ section on the computer has the Bureau of Met, the Rural Fire Service, MSN Ch 9 etc marked and, boy, have the markers been used. NW of Sydney: up towards the Hawkesbury?? That area has had a rough trot! Ours are stable, but still the Balmoral burning, as is the Wilton methinks: have not looked at the Alpine today: have close friends in business there!! No wind till Thursday – enjoy!!!
Yes in the Hawkesbury……..we’ve had a lively couple of weeks like you.
Well, I’m late to the party…
So glad you wrote this…praying for rain and calm winds for all of you. Stay safe!
Ah Marie, but I came back after I had travelled to see Mere just now in North Dakota! I too was meant to write about my semi-rural life . . . but the current fear and tragedy did not make this logical! At the end of the day methinks I only started a sharing and talking in the Comments’ Lounge . . . I was so warmed by the way others Down Under came in with their feelings and personal stories . . . yes, say a little prayer for rain here when you go to bed . . . thank you for having come on . . .