The Winmalee bush fires....hence no nail swatches.

Hi there everyone!

I have been a little AWOL for the past 2 weeks. There has been a lot going on where i live. most of you may have seen it on the news. You see I live in Winmalee Australia, and over the past 2 weeks we have had some pretty bad weather here including one of the worst bush fires ever for the blue mountains. A "perfect storm" with 120km pr hr winds and 38oC days caused a very bad bush fire where i live and took over 200 houses and damaged many more. As a small community of only 6500 people that is a lot of families who have lost everything. For us we were lucky. I evacuated with my 2 barnicles on the thursday of the fire starting after our neighbour down the roads front yard catching on fire due to the embers in the air. My hubby said we needed to go and he would protect our house. Which i am so glad, as what followed,if he had not been there i would not be on this PC blogging right now.

After we left to the evacuation centre, my hubby went around the back of our house only to find our back gutters on fire and the roof starting to go up in flames. His quick thinking and previous years in the rural fire service kicked in and he managed to get the fire out with only min. damage. We were very lucky indeed.
So with all this going on I have not really have much time to blog at all. here are a few pics i took of the smoke etc. not at all exciting but it was just amazing how quick the smoke came and all you could hear was fire sirens and helicopters overhead.

water helicopter cranes overhead

water crane

hubby on the roof wetting it down to stop embers catching the roof on fire again.
He was spending 12 hours a day up there in 38 oC heat to protect our house.

It is amazing tho in the communities time of need how everyone pulls together. just amazing. The donations have been fantastic for those who have lost their homes and everyone is helping out where they can.
i will be back tomorrow with swatches as life has calmed down now we have had rain and the fires are all under control.
What i have learnt is my fire evacuation plan works great and even my barnicles know what to do and do it quickly and without drama.

until next time......