Fire Emergency Report 3

11:49 am
It ain't over until the rotund female person sings. The air is quite still. It is currently 14 degrees and I am wearing a jacket. The RFS website identifies the Grose Valley fire at Blackheath as being the only current "emergency level" blaze. We have had two evacuation advice robot calls this morning.

The fire is creeping up the reserves of natural bushland that  lie between the three fingers of residential development in this town. Properties in eastern Hat Hill Road and Eastern Govetts Leap are definitely in danger. At the moment, Evans Lookout Road seems unaffected but there's no telling how long that'll last. We are three streets away from Evans Lookout Road. If the fire starts to creep up the bush, south of there it'll threaten our escape route along the Great Western Highway. We will have no choice but to evacuate.

I have counted approximately 20 fire appliances roaring past along the main road with sirens blaring, looking to join the dozen or more already here. Water bombing aircraft have been in evidence and are due to return. 

Just when we thought we'd have a reprieve once yesterday's "catastrophic" hot windy conditions had passed, "it goes ON Judah. It goes ON ... (cough splutter)" 

The picture shows the police road block (closed to non-residents) across Hat Hill Road, earlier this morning. Trisharooni's house is down there, amongst the smoke.

3:50 pm
We went down the street about an hour ago to get some cash at an ATM lest power went down and cards couldn't be used if we evacuated. All is quiet. Most businesses are closed. There are no tourists. It is 12 degrees and I am actually cold.

We watched a long line of fire trucks slowly pull out of town. Each has its home base printed on the side. Some of these trucks had come from the north coast, interstate and heaven only knows where. Some places I'd never heard of. One firefighter told us that the fire penetration had been successfully halted, a half dozen houses had caught fire but the flames had been put out before much damage had been done - mainly to fences, decks and sheds. Another said that there'd be plenty of resources standing by for Blackheath over the next week or more. Good to know.

The status of the Grose Valley fire has been downgraded to "watch and act" i.e. red down to yellow on the RFS map.

6:52 pm
There has been a lot of noise almost directly overhead for the last hour. Three choppers with water gondolas attached are circling. First they pick up water at the golf course dam just at the end of the street and then they fly off into the distance, finally orbiting overhead once more to approach the dam and continue the pattern.

I got in the car to see what was going on. It turns out that there is a flare up in a bushland reserve called Popes Glen. It is one of the nature reserves mentioned above. I found about eight fire truck crews hosing a sizable fire in the middle of the bush, assisted by the water bombers. They seem to have the situation in hand but the bombers may have to move off soon because of failing light. For now the whirring and circling continues.

I took a pretty awful picture of what I could see at the fire site. It was at 1/25th second using maximum telephoto I am afraid. I have posted it as an extra.