Fire And Ice

Whilst it snowed in Thredbo last week Sydney burnt, especially around our head office in Glenorie. The following is how I remember the last 5 days.
The best photo opportunities were missed as they occurred at the scariest moments when a hose was in my hands instead of a camera, consequently the thousand words below...

Wednesday December 4th
Arrive home in Glenorie about 3-3:30pm. The weather is hot and dry with a strong hot wind coming from the north-west and a clear blue sky.

4:00-4:30pm: Next door neighbour calls out to ask if we have heard about the fire. I go outside to see the north-west sky full of billowing clouds of smoke a 1000m high. Our guess is that the fire-front is some 5-10km away and looks like it will skirt past us some distance to the North.

By dusk we are not too sure what is going on as the air is full of smoke and reports or several more fires in our area are disturbing.

8:30pm: We evacuate the horses, cats, computers and some other valuables to friends in Galston.

9:30pm: Now pitch dark and we can see red embers blowing in from the west and landing on the oh-so dry lawns and gardens.
Three of us have arranged buckets and garden hoses at strategic points and began hosing down the roof and immediate surrounds of the house and shed whilst constantly watching for the burning leaves that are occasionally landing.

A big red glow is moving towards us from the west and looks to be less than half a kilometre away. There are sirens all over the place with bush fire trucks, police and ambulances racing up and down Cattai Ridge Road.

Near midnight a rural fire truck (from the Blue Mountains) reverses down our long driveway and eventually stops outside our house. They have come to protect our house and say that the neighbours to our west and east will also get a truck and crew to protect them. This is a great relief to us knowing we have well equipped experienced fire fighters on site but there is something gnawing away inside asking "how bad is this going to be that we need their protection?"

The crew that reversed into our western neighbour’s property pulls-out of there and joins the truck already stationed on our property. They said that it was just way too dangerous to leave the truck there on a thick bush block with a very narrow and winding driveway that took them a long time to get into in the first place.

We prepare cold drinks, coffee, biscuits and whatever else we can to help the bushfire fighters.

Thursday December 5th
2am: One of the fire trucks is called out to go to another location. The approaching fire has not moved much closer since they arrived and appears to be now moving in a more northerly direction threatening properties in Boronia Road behind us.

Sometime later (while I'm having a two-hour rest) the second truck leaves. My next shift on patrol begins before dawn while my sister and mother get some badly needed sleep. 2 hours later the fires flare up in the early morning as the winds swing around to the west again.

Mid morning: There is a wall of smoke and fire rushing straight towards our house and the back of our property. Flames are around our western neighbour's house and licking at the back of our shed housing stables, tractor and fuels. I rush down with a garden hose to stop the shed going up. My sister protects the front of the house and our mother the roof and back of the house. Where is the bush fire brigade?

Flames are only 2 metres from the back corner of the shed. I hose the fire but am continually driven back by waves of thick smoke and flame. I hear my sister yelling. The fire has come up the western grass bank of the horse arena, jumped the 20m expanse of the sand arena and started up the grass bank on the eastern side. This fire has now turned south into the newly planted orchard and is heading towards our house.

I leave the shed and neighbours on the west to fight their fire and rush across the arena. I can see our neighbours on the eastern side fighting the fire at the back of their property but they are oblivious to the fire that has turned back towards our house. Just in time, a small rural bush fire truck and crew of 2 arrive and extinguish the fire now at my sister's veggie patch and stop the approach of the fire towards our house from the north. While the other two fight the fire coming from the west I return to the shed and subdue the fire that had restarted there from the north-west.

Somewhere near Midday: Still no rest as we keep pouncing on the spot fires appearing at different points around the house. Our special thanks to the Triple M helicopter and another we could not identify for hovering low over us and fanning the flames we were trying to extinguish. If helicopters must get near a fire then do it with a water bucket not a load of perverted paparazzi.

Somewhere in the afternoon: a new fire comes towards our house from the west and this time a 2 man bush fire crew arrive to direct water bombing only 10m beyond our western boundary fence. This fire is now some 20m high and 50m wide. The crackling of the leaves burning turns to a roar. About 4 helicopter loads of water stops the worst of the fire’s approach whilst neighbours and friends next door prevent the fire restarting after each bombing.

Later in the afternoon: Just as we begin to relax a second front comes up the back gully beyond the arena. Although we figure there is not much left to burn we take no chances. This fire takes a course slightly higher up the far side of the gully and apart from smoke and embers poses no real risk to us but instead rushes towards properties in Post Office Road and Boronia Road. There’s little we can do as another flare-up to our west-south-west occurs and we move our attention back that way.

For the rest of the afternoon we watch for spot fires while a swarm of helicopters take water from our eastern neighbours' dams and bomb the fires now raging to the south and south west of our property on the other side of Cattai Ridge Road. The wind has now swung to the south-west but is erratic and fires are now burning on all four sides of our area of Cattai Ridge Road.

6pm: We take this time to sit, re-hydrate and eat something knowing that by 8pm the water bombing will cease with nightfall and we on the ground will be all that remains to fight the fires.

Taking it in turns to patrol around the house looking for spot fires we sit in the car port watching the fires rage to our south and south west. Fire trucks with sirens wailing race up and down Cattai Ridge Road. As the fire gets closer (may be 700m away) we again have glowing embers landing on the dry and yet unburnt gardens and lawns of our property and those of our neighbours. There wouldn't be much sleep again tonight.

This was the seventh wave of fire heading towards our house in 24 hours.

Friday December 6th
1am: I took the 1-3am sleep shift after which I sat through a calmer and cooler early morning till after dawn when the breeze started lifting.

8am: I have now had nearly 4 hours sleep in the past 48 hours. Those late nights in Thredbo and the fitness level I had attained in Thredbo were paying off but the smoke was way more intense than ever encountered in the Keller Bar. Sore raw throats and sore red eyes were mandatory in Glenorie.
Every time I shut my eyes all I can see is fire and flames. A very strange experience I can only surmise was brought on by lack of sleep and may be a little subconscious stress ;-)

Mid morning: While we were mopping up a grass fire suddenly ignited near the shed - flare-ups would be common as the winds intensified and swung around to the west. Just when you thought you could relax there would be another surprise.

8pm: The winds have dropped and the towering columns of smoke appear much further away than before. We all eat together inside for the first time since Wednesday and with a cool calm night outside we all slept for the best part of 7 hours, each of us awaking at different times during the night to check that no winds had sprung up.

Saturday December 7th
8am: We feel much better this morning after a real sleep although we are all suffering with headaches. There is a mild nor-easterly breeze picking up.

10am: I join our two longest hoses together to get in deep behind the arena and our neighbours' properties to extinguish the still burning stumps and logs. Later my sister and I walk further into the neighbouring properties to see what fire risk still existed. It was during this grand tour my sister spotted a forlorn looking brush-tailed possum about 6 metres up a tree. It did not look to be in good condition. As we headed up towards our neighbour's house to contact someone for help our neighbour informed us of yet another possum hiding under a rock ledge near their swimming pool from where it had been drinking earlier. After advice from the local vet (all we got from WIRES was their answering machine) we attempted to capture the first possum from the tree but failed. Leaving a possum trap, fruit and water beneath the tree we went and bagged the little one hiding under the ledge.

3pm: We bring the evacuees (horses and cats) back home as we think that the unburnt suburb of Galston could be a more dangerous place to leave them than the relatively burnt-out suburb of Glenorie.

Now instead of spending our time on fires we have one young male possum to be hydrated and treated for burns to all 4 paws every 4 hours as well as regular checks to see if we have trapped the other possum.

The news forecasts that tomorrow afternoon will be bad with hot dry winds high temperatures and low humidity. It could all be on again.

9:00pm: Have my first beer since before Wednesday and even then only a light. Knowing we need our wits about us 24 hours a day means forgoing any luxuries like beer or wine. I sleep very well for about 8 hours.

Sunday December 8th
8:00am: Check the possum trap but the poor little thing is tightly wedged up under a rock overhang. Between the 3 of us we manage to extricate it. Extremely dehydrated and in shock (it hadn’t touched any of the water or fruit we left it on Saturday morning) my sister takes it straight to the vet who after sedating it, prescribes an ointment for the possum’s eyes. Her feet are not nearly as badly burnt as little “Mango’s” (yes - we have now named our first patient). Tash’s eyes (yes we have named the second as well) are not looking good and she could be blind in one or both. We now have an animal hospital starting up in one end of the house. Many other birds and animals have moved into the remaining unburnt areas around our houses and we all place fruit, vegies, seed and water around our gardens to help ease their plight.

It is warm but luckily not the sort of day we were warned about last night. As it doesn’t look like we will have too much to worry about we spend much of the day talking a lot with our neighbours. Community spirit seems to flourish with adversity and I think it is a form of self-counselling as we all relate to each other the past days’ events.

6:00pm: Sit down in front of the tele with a glass of wine. Looks like the worst is over.

Wednesday 4:30pm - first sign of trouble - looking north of Glenorie

Loading next door then water bombing on the south side of Cattai Ridge Rd

Thursday morning’s fire was stopped 2 metres from the shed

Friday morning behind the horse arena looking north-east

Where the fire jumped the arena and was stopped at the veggie garden

‘Mango’ with burn cream and about to enjoy some banana

All points at some time: north-west, north-east, south-east, south-west

Marshmallow star picket cap and other scenes around our property

Ashen shadows where once trees lay - vaporised by the intense heat

We now realise that we have been extremely lucky and that our fires were not nearly as intense as the firestorms experienced by some of the others around Glenorie and neighbouring suburbs. No one was injured; we didn’t lose any buildings or our power. We only lost 1 of 3 phone lines and although water pressure dropped significantly during the worst time we were on town water, unlike many who only have water tanks.

We and our immediate neighbours have lost acres of trees and bushland. Other loses include my sister’s newly planted orchard, electric fencing and irrigation piping and fittings as well as damage to fences and the surrounds of the horse arena.

As my first bush fire experience I can say I will not be disappointed if I never have the experience again. One of our neighbours to the west has lived here for 30 years and has never seen anything this bad before.
We have all learnt a lot. We thought we had done a lot of preparation but still in hindsight there is more we could have done to help us fight the fires.

Our thanks to our neighbours who did a marvellous job of protecting their properties and those of fellow neighbours. Thanks to the Rural Bush Fire Service and the helicopter water bombers without whom there would have been far less houses standing in our street.

Thanks to all our relatives and friends offering us their wishes and offers of help. Unfortunately we were in a situation where very few from the outside could do anything to help. The roads were closed to all but the fire fighters and residents over the duration. We had next to no time to return calls and could not return e-mails as our computers were off site. If we seemed a little brief or distant to those we did speak to it was because sleep was far more important than returning calls.

One good thing has come about because of the fires ... Very few people will ever again ask the question "Where is Glenorie?"