Bushfire Danger Close to Home

I had scare yesterday. I have never been affected by bushfire, it was always something that happened to someone else. I am now affected by bushfire in three ways.

In the past week in Victoria (and many other states) the temperature has been over 40 degrees everyday. The land had become very dry and on Saturday 7th of February 2009 the grass caught fire quite easily. Fires burning from the day before got bigger really quickly and new fires started in most of the state, some were done by arsonists. The map on the news showed that there were hundreds of fires in every part of the state. Entire towns have been destroyed and an estimated 40 people have died in the north of the state, about half were children.

All day the smoke covered my house. Visibility was only a few meters. It was hot but I could not have the evaporate cooler on because the open windows would have brought the smoke in. Instead I tried to use the old air conditioner with the closed vent.

The evening is when the real scare came. So many things happened at around the same time. I was watching the news and got a big surprise. Houses in my town were on fire. I had such a shock that I jumped up and cut my hand in the ceiling fan. The news continued the report and showed that the fire was heading towards my Grandmother's house.

Less then an hour later my Grandmother called really worried. I thought that she might calling about the fire near her house, but she was not. She had a call from my Aunty who said her house was on fire. Then the phone was cut. I told my Mother who then called the police station closest to my Aunty's house. They said they would check on her.

Later that evening my other Aunty called to say that my Aunty's farm had been totally destroyed. The house, car, cats and farm animals had perished. My Aunty still could not be contacted. We did not know what happened to her.

On Sunday morning we found out that my Aunty was hospital. My Mother contacted the hospital to talk to my Aunty briefly. Fortunately the animals were saved but the house and car was not.

Our focus was now on my Grandma. She was still surrounded by bushfire and wanted me and my Mother to come to her house. We started driving to her house but there was a road block. We had to go back home. I checked the Internet for information on the road blocks. There are so many road blocks that the state is split in half. People in the east of the state can not go to the west.

It is now Sunday afternoon and it has been raining. Hopefully the fires will stop burning soon and the roads will open once again.