19th January, 2003
Jam
Sunday, 9:45 am in Archive
Hrm, well, okay. The good news is; we’re not dead, and we still have a house.<br /> <br /> The story basically goes like this; just after that blog post they announced a state of emergency in Canberra. We watched, from the balcony, as fires glowed first behind, then on top of, the right down the side of Mt. Taylor. They ended up burning down houses in our old street. Our other old street – in Duffy – was the site of the first and worst of the house losses. Spot fires were flaring up everywhere because of the winds, suburbs were burning and there were no fire crews assisting the residents. The emergency services people were stretched to the limit; there’s speculation on how badly the situation was mishandled. I mean, the fires have been burning for a week out in the forest, and people knew they could hit Canberra, but very few measures were taken to bring in other fire crews (who, in all fairness, were probably busy on the firs in their own states). The thing was, of course, that no-body blamed the firemen for not being there. Neighbours fought the fires as best they could with hoses (hard when the gas mains began blowing up) and saved as many places as possible. People didn’t complain that the fire crews weren’t there to assist, it was just assumed they were “busy elsewhere”. Go Aussie disaster spirit.<br /> <br /> Anyway, the worstof the fires burnt between about 3:00pm and 6:00pm, then the winds died down a lot. We took the opportunity of a lull to go pick up ~Mat [h] from the airport. When we got back, most of the suburbs were in a blackout (we, luckily, are on the same grid as supplies power to the hospital, so we’ve had lights all night). A fire was burning behind us over the ridge somewhere all night, but fortunatley the winds didn’t blow it our way.<br /> <br /> This morning, I went downstairs to find mum making plum jam out on the back porch. How… mundane. It was really sobering, in a way, I suppose. Because we still had a house to make jam in. I feel bad for those hundreds of people who’ve lost part or all of their houses.<br /> <br /> Now we have to clean up. Unpack the evacuation car, vaccuum up the dead and blackened leaves, and just generally get back to normal.<br /> <br /> I tell you, though. I really, really do not want to go through that again…- « Previous
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Comments
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It’s great to hear you guys are alright. I was a bit worried. Have a great time,<br />
Steve -
I heard 400 houses lost 3 people dead in Canberra, I was really worried. It’s good to know that you guys are safe.
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You don’t know how relieved I am to read this. I heard the fires were going down your side of the mountain, near O’Malley and not only does Steph live there but it struck me that the fires would be going through or near your suburb, right next to hers. <br />
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Good to know you guys are safe [hugs] -
Ah, dude, we were worried about you. oO There were fires in Lyons… we didn’t get fires near us much. They didn’t jump far along enough through Isaacs Ridge – thank gods – for us to worry about, so…<br />
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Good to hear you’re alright, though. -
Actually, we moved out of Lyons before we left for the holidays
So we were okay, we actually went for a drive up and found that the fires reached a street away from where we used to live >. -
How’s Wolf? I’m bit worried…anything about her?
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K … You guys… moved? oO You never told me.
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Ronin … wolf is fine (if a bit bored). I’ll poke her into updating sometime soon… assuming her house has power back. -
Haha…bored…because of power blackout? Modern young can’t make out without electricy, that’s right. Well, it’s good that she’s alright.
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wow, that seems like one hellova fire. all we get here, where i live, is rain. we get more rain in one hour then someplaces get in 2 years
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anyway, its great to here your ok