Just evacuated because of a bushfire

Forums: Bushfires, Australia
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I've just left my home of 30 years to go to my daughters place. We've had fires before and I've never even considered leaving any other time but this one is different. It started on Wednesday and until this morning wasn't too bad - about 400 hectares had burnt. But today it got up to about 7500 hectares. I've never seen a fire spread so fast and in so many different directions.
The wind has been strong and erratic, changing direction constantly so there's no way to predict where the fire's going to go. This was all scary enough but then we had another thunderstorm, which is how this one and several others in the area started.
I live in a small town in the mountains with only 2 roads in and out and when one of them was closed because of the fire it seemed like a good time to leave while I still could. Especially given the possibility of more fires starting from the lightning.
Right now I'm feeling very emotional, I was actually getting teary as I was driving away. I know there's a very real possibility that my house wont be there when I go back.

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@cherrie,

Damn. I can barely imagine how this must feel. Wishing you the best.

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@cherrie,

Oh, no. Wishing you and your family the best of all possible outcomes.

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@cherrie,

Oh my, please be safe.

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@cherrie,

I would be feeling pretty emotional, too. Hope it's not as bad as it might be.

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Take care, words are too woefully inadequate to express what you're going through right now.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

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@cherrie,

Sorry to hear what's happening. At least you're safe and hopefully your home will survive.
Best wishes.

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@cherrie,

I hope you are safely set up with your daughter.

It's horrible even trying to imagine what you're going through.

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Thank you all so much for your concern and good wishes.

I'm back at home now, my house and town have survived thankfully. Unfortunately the little town a few kilometres away where I work wasn't quite so lucky, they lost a few houses. One was a permanent residence and the others were weekenders.

The thunderstorm that was happening as I was leaving actually produced a decent amount of rain - the previous ones we've had were all dry thunderstorms - so that dampened things down a bit and helped the firefighters. Today we had misty rain all day, lower temperatures and no wind so hopefully that will slow things down as well.

Having said that, the fire is still going and still spreading but at a slower rate. It's up to 8640 hectares now. I think everyone is still in shock at how unbelievably fast it spread the other day.

We're expecting lower temperatures for the next couple of days so hopefully they'll be able to get on top of it before predicted higher temps and more thunderstorms - sigh - at the end of the week.

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@cherrie,

I'm pleased to hear you're back home and the house is OK. Hope things get better soon re the fire.

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@izzythepush,

Thank you. It's good to be home and even better to still have a home to come back to.
I was talking to the bloke who lost his house yesterday. He's putting on a brave face but he's pretty gutted. He lost everything and didn't have insurance.

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@cherrie,

Glad to see it wasn't a total personal disaster.

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@roger,

Yep, I'm pretty happy about that too.

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@cherrie,

I'd be gutted too. Is there any government help available? Over here some properties liable to flooding are pretty much uninsurable so the government has had to step in.

On the plus side all those poor people unable to finish their crosswords are now breathing a huge sigh of relief.

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@izzythepush,

That made me laugh. Most of the crossword people don't spend that much time here and probably haven't even seen this.

On a more serious note the Department of Human Services stepped in very quickly and gave him money to go shopping for clothes and toiletries and so on. All he had left was what he was wearing.

A Go Fund Me page has been started for him. They hope to raise enough to get a caravan or a small kit home type of thing to put on his block. Where he lives isn't actually in the town, it's in the bush up in the hills behind the town, and it was very basic. I think he'll be happy with just something to live in as long as he can get back out there.

There are hardship grants available from DHS but I have no idea how much they give.

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@cherrie,

That's some good news at least, glad you're still able to laugh at a time like this.

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I'm glad that things are able to get back to normal (whatever that might be) for you and hopefully those who lost so much it will proceed smoothly.

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@Sturgis,

Things have settled down but we're still a long way from any sort of normal. The fire is still burning and the sky is still full of choppers. It's like a war zone sometimes. Today I went to work and had to go through a police roadblock stopping tourists and rubbernecks, they're only letting residents and people with a genuine reason for being there through. But we'll get there.

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A bit of an update on what's happening here.

The fire is now contained as of yesterday. This means they've built containment lines around the perimeter and all being well the fire will stay within that area and not spread any further. If we were to get strong winds the fire could jump the containment lines, but hopefully that wont happen.

The weather has been incredibly mild for February, this is supposed to be the hottest month but we've been having temps in the 20's most days - they would normally be in the high 30's - low 40's at this time of the year. We've also had lots of rain which has been a big help.

So we still have hundreds of firefighters in the area, a few helicopters flying around, but not as many as there were at the start, and life goes on relatively normally for most of us.

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@cherrie,

Thanks cherrie.

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Just evacuated because of a bushfire

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