All packed

Not the best image I've ever taken, but today is not the best of days.

There is a bush fire burning in the Belair National Park, about 5 km from our place. We've had phone calls from the Country Fire Service to say that it's burning out of control in all directions, and we should have our bush fire plan in place.

Luckily there isn't much wind at the moment, but the winds will pick up this afternoon, ahead of a cool change and will be come severe.

They announced the catastrophic fire danger warning yesterday, but the last thing we expected to hear was the fire brigade sirens at 9 am. My guess is that the fire was deliberately lit - there's no lightening strikes, and no power lines down - nothing that could have started a fire; and we had heard reports of illegal camping in the park a couple of weeks back.

The water bombers are out - we can hear them quite clearly.

The funny thing is when it happens you look around and think to yourself, what on earth am I going to take. But when it all boils down - a few papers, photographs, and the cats - that's all we need. Oh, and the camera gear - couldn't possibly leave that behind :)))

Anyway, enough waffle - I'll be back tomorrow, one way or another, hopefully to say that all is well.

EDIT Just before 6 pm and the fire is contained. So long as it doesn't jump containment lines when the winds pick up all will be safe, thanks to the water bombers.

On the News preview tonight, it said that the fire could have been started by a freight train - the line from Adelaide to Melbourne wends its way right through the Adelaide Hills. If that is the case, and it was started by a train, then it's high time the freight trains were re-routed.