Fires

These pictures were taken during the terrible bush fires of 2003. Four lives, and hundreds of homes were lost.

Lucciano, a colleague came back from a weekend trip to find his house
gone. The wife and daughter of long time friend and colleague John were
horribly burnt. His daughter went through years of agonising treatment,
and is permanently disfigured.

The weather in January was frightful. Hot howling winds, and not a drop
of moisture. Our gardens drooped, and so did we in the oppressive heat.
The year before we'd seen fires in bushland in the middle of our city. I
recall watching great sheets of flame and rising plumes of smoke. But
that was fairly tame compared to what was to come. Each day the sky was
covered by smoke clouds from the approaching fires, but we had no idea
just how devastating they would be.

Then on the day it hit we were at a local tourist attraction, and
announcements started coming over the PA. Residents of Southern suburbs
were advised to return home to defend their property. We looked out a
window to see large white trees contrasted against the black clouds
behind. It was a fearful site. And then they announced that people in my
own suburb should return home. Luckily it proved to be an isolated fire,
and was quickly contained. The helicopters flew over and water-bombed
the house. That put the fire out, but several tonnes of water collapsed
the roof, destroying it.

All day long the helicopters flew overhead, filling their tanks in the
lake, and heading out to protect the perimeter of the city. But
unfortunately it was not enough, and the fires cut a great swathe
through the southern suburbs. They followed the remnant bushland
reserves, swallowing houses as they went. There were stories such as the
man on his roof plugging downpipes and filling the gutters when a
fire-generated windstorm blew through whisking the ladder away, and
peeling off roofing tiles around him while his wife tried to help him
down. Another man was on a jog to the summit of Mount Taylor, and saw
the fires off in the distance. Within moments it had jumped to the base
of the mountain, threatening to take him with it. Legend has it that he
achieved a personal-best for the trip down.

The fires was of such intensity that they generated their own
micro-climate. The heat generated updrafts, and local storms ahead of
the fire front. There is an amazing photo somewhere of a lightening bolt
striking, bright against the dark red fires behind. Out in the forest a
few weeks later, I found fully grown pine trees snapped off by the wind.

Friends of mine told me of how he defended his house against the fire.
Burning embers dropped from the sky, lighting spot fires. Not far away
there were loud booms of exploding gas connections. An entire petrol
station went up, as did our space observatory on Mt Stromolo with its
historic Oddie telescope.

John's wife and daughter had gone to check on their horse, unaware of
the great danger. Being hot weather, they were not particularly well
dressed. The fire front hit at great speed, and they ran for their lives
across the paddock. Daughter later lost the tips of all her fingers, and
now has severely limited use of her arms.

The whole experience was the nearest thing I could imagine to being in a
city under siege. Each hour there were new reports covering the latest
developments. Complete strangers would stop to share experiences and
information about what was going on.

So now I'm hearing news about fires in California, and I hope you're all
okay Patti, and any others of you who live in that area.

.......................
This pictures were taken on my first digital camera - a "Dolphin". Check
them out, all stonking half a mega pixels of them.