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Life on two acres of arid dirt, on the edge of the Australian outback.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A close call...

The hot day yesterday brought with it some very strong hot north winds that caused a bush fire in our town. See here

We have heard that the blaze was caused by an electricity transformer blowing up with the strong winds. About 2.30pm our power went out with a bang when the wind suddenly got stronger.

Here are a few photos we captured of the fire, but for obvious reasons we couldn't get too close.

I captured this one on our arrival at the scene with my mobile.


We thought the local primary school was alight, but it was only the big trees surrounding it that was causing all the smoke...


The fire started in this vacant paddock,
and quickly spread.


It jumped the road and got into trees and grass on the other side. Behind the trees there are houses, and to the side there is a primary school and kindergarten...The trees border the school boundary.


About 150 houses were evacuated...


including the school children...




The fire was under control within an hour and monitored all night.

The cool change is here now thank goodness...

There was another bush fire that caused a bit of concern to the township of Gladstone, which is about 131 kms (81 miles) away from here. It was threatening the town and the local grain storage at one stage, but is also under control now.

A bit worrying for the up coming Summer that isn't quite here yet...


19 comments:

  1. Oh my! How scary! I am so glad that it turned out ok! Hope you have a blessed week!

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  2. That must have been very concerning for you. I'm glad they were able to get it under control.
    Take care,
    Anne xx

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  3. Oh Tania! I hate the widland fires season!
    Be careful! Thinking of you and sending hugs and lots of prayers your way!

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  4. We have forest right up to our house, so I know how folks feel about brush and forest fires.

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  5. Hope all is well now, fires are so concerning in our dry climate.

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  6. I'm glad that one was brought under control relatively fast. Mr W didn't mention the Gladstone one in his phone call last night, I must ask him about it.

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  7. Gee, I'm glad you're okay! Do you have a fire plan?

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  8. That was a very close call. Glad it turned out ok.

    Hugs

    Sft x

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  9. It is always a worry when you have fires so early on in the summer season. We have got so much grass fuel down this way, it's going to be a horrible season. Angus has spent the past few weekends mowing and whipper-snippering down our 2.5 acre block (the 2 sheep we have just can't keep the grass down). It is good for now but will need doing again after Christmas. Our council fines people if their blocks aren't slashed regularly.

    Cheers - Joolz

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  10. glad to hear your ok. Its hard to get my head around the fack that its bushfire season again. we have had such terrible weather lately. But it does mean that there is lots of fuel around so when the heat finally arrives it will be a bad year for them. stay safe

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  11. Thank goodness you are all okay.

    It is getting very dry here of late & it is here the driest November for the most consecutive days with out rain since early 1900's. Pretty amazing considering what the weather was like 12 mths ago. However they are predicting good rain for the Summer here.
    Stay safe Tania
    Caroline

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  12. Glad this one was maintained so quickly and pray that your concerns are unfounded.

    Blessings, Debbie

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  13. Amazing how quickly it was contained.

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  14. The weather is seriously nuts here too!! Maybe not as extreme as you but it's still 36 degrees one day and 17 the next. Luckily we are having the cool change now too!

    Glad to hear you weren't in the line of fire. Take care this Summer, I've got a feeling it's going to be a crazy one.

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  15. Good to hear you are all ok and things worked out the way they did, could have been a lot worse. We get the same horrid weather and fire threats here too, after a couple of huge ones we all see summers through with bated breath!

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  16. Thank goodness they got it under control, that would scare the crap outta me! There are fires in the north of NZ at the moment, one at least was deliberately started they believe. 2 men were killed yesterday when they lost control of their helicopter which crashed into the sea, they were getting buckets of water I think. Very sad.

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  17. Gosh - scary stuff Tania. Hope you get some rain soon to help out before summer really hits. cheers Wendy

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Your comments really make my day. Thank you for taking the time and for being so kind.