Thursday 7 February 2013

Fire!

Hi all,

Well this is normally just a scrapping blog but we had quite a bit of drama today. A fire broke out about one kilometre from our house. Fortunately, the wind was blowing the fire more or less away from us but it was still very exciting - not necessarily in a good way!

We had three helicopters and a fixed wing plane circling around for ages. One of the helicopters was a fire fighting one - it's called Elvis. Elvis certainly saved the day. We watched in amazement as he picked up water  from dams with his huge siphon thingy and dumped it on the fire again and again. He's like a giant mosquito!

We heard on the news that no houses were lost but they certainly dumped a heap of water on one house. They must have saved it.

As the fire was on the hill next to ours we had a great view of the whole thing. Here are some pics:

A tree goes up in flames.

Elvis arrives to save the day.

They must mix fire retardant chemicals with the water as it comes out black.

By now the fire is almost out .

You can see the burnt out paddocks and how close it was to houses. Friends of ours had to evacuate but from what we have heard, nobody was hurt apart from a firefighter who somehow injured himself (not from the fire).

Well that's enough excitement for one day! I hope everyone else is keeping safe from the various fires and floods that keep threatening us. What an interesting country we live in!

Hugs to all,
Heather


9 comments:

  1. Gee Whizz! Bit close for comfort! YOu'd be keeping a close eye on that one....lucky they got it out so well with good ole Elvis:):)

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  2. Great pics Heather but a bit of a scary time I'm betting, too many fires this year already. Stay safe in your part of the country. xxx

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  3. Eeek. That would have been a little too close for comfort. Glad there were no houses lost.

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  4. Oh crikey.. the smell of smoke around here sends me in a spin.. we had fires around here about 6 years ago and it was threatening toowoomba and we had elvis dropping water on the range too.. so i know how exciting this must have been... and yes not in the good exciting...The fire was heading towards us and then the wind changed and the fire raced up over the hill away from us.. the fire fighters put themselves between the fire and a house.. they are true heroes i reckon.. so glad it is all out now.. yes we do live in an amazing country.. fires, floods and droughts.. take care...

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  5. Yikes!!! Thank goodness Elvis was there to save the day!!

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  6. Glad you are safe, it must have been scary, thank God those firefighters do such an awesome job!!! Take care Sandrine xo

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  7. Whoa!
    I love photography and how not like these photos!!
    Loved :)

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  8. If nothing else, you got some amazing photographs of the day Heather. Stay safe :)

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  9. Wow Heather! So glad that you and your family are safe xo

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