With gusty winds greeting me yesterday morning I did for a moment ponder that these strong winds were perfect condition for fires to get out of control. Midafternoon the serenity of the garden was broken with the constant arrival of the aerial fire fighters, helicopters flying over the cottage in quick succession.
Passing over the garden the noise was deafening. Inside the cottage everything shook as the flight path took them directly over the roof. I realised that the fire was fairly close as it wasn't taking them very long to come back to refill with water.
The helicopters land at the sports oval across the road from my home, standing on a garden chair I caught a glimpse of yellow as one of the helicopters refueled while another flew in circles waiting it's turn.
Checking on the state emergency site I discovered that the fire was around 19 kilometers away. With the winds coming strongly from that direction and a lot of bushland in between I knew to kept tabs on the progress of the fire.
Thankfully around 6 pm the helicopters stopped coming, a sign that things were under control.
Checking this morning there is still a watch and act alert in place, truly hoping that it does not start again as the winds are again very gusty this morning.
It it part of life up here in the hills, we need plans in place for if we receive an alert on our mobile phones to prepare to evacuate, that happened the first summer I lived in the cottage, thankfully it hasn't happened since and won't happen again.......
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