Just evacuated because of a bushfire

The silence is the worst thing, that and just waiting for something to happen, and hoping nothing happens.
I'm being very cautious and very aware.

Cherrie, is there a area alert system to warn people? Maybe something as simple as neighbors rotating watch responsibility. Please be safe and I hope you begin hearing the birds soon.

We have a website called VicEmergency and an app can be downloaded to the phone. You can choose your own watch zone and alerts are sent to the phone when something happens or any warnings are issued. It's not just for fires but anything involving emergency services.

Today certainly hasn't turned out as anticipated, thank god. The wind didn't happen here and it's been hot and still and smoky.

However it has been an utter disaster in other places. The other fire I mentioned earlier is completely out of control, they've actually said that they have absolutely no hope of stopping it or even slowing it down while this heat lasts. And it was very windy there today. Houses have been lost, I don't think they know how many at this stage.

There's another fire about 70km south of me which is pretty much the same as that one and houses have also been lost.

So we dodged a bullet here today but it's by no means over yet.

And there are supposed to be more thunderstorms tonight.

A big 'whew' (pending developments)

What a difference a couple of days can make. It's like winter here today, the heat wave has well and truly broken. It's raining and windy and very cold, and the most ridiculous thing is that there was snow falling this morning about 20 minutes drive from here. It's expected to get back up into the low to mid 20's tomorrow and for the next week or so.

The fire here is now 'contained' again and with the amount of rain and the cooler temps hopefully it should all be over soon. We've been living with this for about 6 weeks now, and that's long enough.

The other fires around the place are still blazing away. More firefighters have been brought in from New South Wales and South Australia to help out and the cooler weather will obviously help as well. We could just do without the wind, and with any luck we wont get more thunderstorms any time soon.

Keeping fingers crossed.

Thanks roger.

Cherrie

I just came across this. The fires in Victoria have been especially bad this yer. Glad you're safe now and I hope you stay that way.

Snow?! At the end of summer? I didn't realise the weather had changed so much. Here in Sin City we've just had heat, humidity, rain and repeat!

I know it sounds odd but snow in summer isn't that unusual here, although it doesn't happen too often, maybe every 7 or 8 years. We had some on Christmas Day one year.

It has been a bad year for fires here, mostly started by lightning. We seem to have had a lot more thunderstorms lately than we normally have, and most of them have been dry storms.

The fire here is pretty much over. They're still working on some hot spots and removing burnt and dangerous trees from near the roads and tracks. It's been a little over 2 months since it started so this has been a big job.

The fire at Bunyip is now contained, with 29 houses and about 70 sheds and outbuildings lost.

The fire south of me is also contained with 2 houses lost.

Further east there are still fires burning out of control. These are mainly in State Forests and National Parks so there's been little impact on towns or houses.

In Victoria now we have firefighters from all the states and territories in Australia, except Tasmania, and also crews from New Zealand.

On the up side no lives have been lost, quite amazing given how many fires we've had in the past few months.

Changing that to no human lives. The number of stock and native animals lost is uncountable.