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morslaI woke up this morning, half-listening to an ABC news item on the bushfires. Then a surprisingly familiar voice came on the air, describing the flames in sight of her house in Myrrhee, Victoria...
Apparently, my Aunt's house is right next door to a fire. It's just across the Fifteen Mile Creek. Well, where the creek used to be... it dried up completely months ago. In a wetter year, the surrounding land would be planted with tobacco and hops, and a fire would have rushed through it in minutes. Fortunately (if you can call it that...), the fields are currently just barren rows of ploughed earth - there's no water for crops this year. That gives her a buffer without any fuel for the fires to burn, but the wind is carrying embers across the area. She has already left her house, as there's no water to fight the fire with either - a 20L drum of drinking water won't go far if the fire crosses the Monari family's fields. I hope the house is there when she goes back.
The ABC regional news is full of stories about towns we drove through on the way home last week, as the northeast burns. Virtually all of the coverage has been about the fires in Tatong, so Dianne called the ABC to ask why they hadn't said anything about the fires in Myrrhee. With no staff chasing stories in the area, they had no idea which town the fires had moved to... so they interviewed her about the situation.
From the ABC website:
Here's hoping that the area survives the night.
Apparently, my Aunt's house is right next door to a fire. It's just across the Fifteen Mile Creek. Well, where the creek used to be... it dried up completely months ago. In a wetter year, the surrounding land would be planted with tobacco and hops, and a fire would have rushed through it in minutes. Fortunately (if you can call it that...), the fields are currently just barren rows of ploughed earth - there's no water for crops this year. That gives her a buffer without any fuel for the fires to burn, but the wind is carrying embers across the area. She has already left her house, as there's no water to fight the fire with either - a 20L drum of drinking water won't go far if the fire crosses the Monari family's fields. I hope the house is there when she goes back.
The ABC regional news is full of stories about towns we drove through on the way home last week, as the northeast burns. Virtually all of the coverage has been about the fires in Tatong, so Dianne called the ABC to ask why they hadn't said anything about the fires in Myrrhee. With no staff chasing stories in the area, they had no idea which town the fires had moved to... so they interviewed her about the situation.
From the ABC website:
'Holocaust'
The fires have come within sight of Dianne Moore's Myrrhee Valley home.
She says local residents have never seen a bushfire as severe as this one.
"We have burning embers and black gum leaves laying all over our property, and ash, as everybody else has," she said.
"The Fifteen Mile Creek people - they've faced, well, they called it a Holocaust last night and anyone that saw what we saw would say the same."
She says erratic weather is fanning the blaze.
"They've just had the Skycrane water bombing right along the ridge," Ms Moore said.
"At the moment, the wind's dropped but then it just suddenly starts blowing a gale again."
There are concerns the water supply for the nearby regional centre of Benalla may be affected after the fire spread into the Loombah Reservoir catchment.
Here's hoping that the area survives the night.
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Date: 2007-01-14 10:22 pm (UTC)Mikee's parents are currently up at our holiday house north of Bairnsdale trying to do what they can to save it, and help the neighbours who are permanent residents fight. The front has come through, but is still close enough to come back through if the winds change direction....
Hope your Aunt's place holds up...
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Date: 2007-01-16 03:16 am (UTC)And the verdict is...
Date: 2007-01-25 12:36 am (UTC)Re: And the verdict is...
Date: 2007-01-31 05:54 am (UTC)Jane's house had a much closer call - they've lost everything up to the fenceline behind the house, but their buildings are okay. My uncle and his brother are both carpenters, and have spent the past 12 months building a new house for a friend of theirs... of course, two weeks after finishing it, the fire came through and cleared out everything. His two horses got away relatively unscathed, but the timber house is no more.