Later in the morning we decided to clean up around our winter's wood pile down near the shed. A job like many others around the place waiting an opportune moment to move from the bottom of the list. Everything ran smoothly during the morning, logs neatly stacked along the fence line, all the dry leaves raked up into a small heap for burning out in a cleared open site.
Around midday, I told my wife I would go up to the house to make some coffee. We were both quietly sitting around the table when a lot of banging was heard at the front door. It was my neighbour to tell me several trees were on fire and the fire was travelling down a slope of some forty acres of dried bush.
We quickly ran down grabbing shovels and rakes on the way to try to control what could have developed into a serious situation. One look prompted a call to the local Fire Brigade. In the meantime my neighbour, and I scrambled under the fence to try to cut off the fire as it dance down the slope at speed. Luckily shortly after this a fire truck arrived and sprayed all and sundry with their big hoses that put our little backpack sprays to shame. Whole piles of wood were burning fiercely as I watched several tons of winter firewood disappear. Some ten trees were by now also on fire with the flames reaching up into the sky. A second firetruck arrived, and after distributing some fifteen tons of water were able to gain the upper hand and extinguish the fire.
- Gum trees are such a problem in this country as they are full of oil that almost explores. During our coffee break the wind came up and blew a few sparks over into the bush, which underlines the homely, never leave a fire unattended.The fire show took an good hour or so before order was restored.
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