Our town and the homes in the surrounding areas owe a huge debt to the volunteer Rural Firefighters. They step up to protect homes in the path of incredible fireballs - and if their own home if threatened at the same time they have to put their faith in their fellow firefighters. The Granite Belt lost 5 houses, acres and acres of bush and farmland, many garages and sheds - but thankfully, no lives. And it's only the beginning of Spring!
@koalagardens I can't bear to think about the wildlife - it is just such an enormous loss and they are so vulnerable. The habitat loss is devastating for the future - it's just so dry that areas which were burnt earlier in the year have barely started to regenerate.....
I'm hearing ya - and we are just weeping here knowing too that every year the heat and dry are only going to escalate. thank you for showing such stark and important images
@gilbertwood Thank you for your concern Denise - we bounce up and down between the Gold Coast and the Granite Belt. We just happened to be on the G.C. when all of this happened so were not subjected to the horrible days that happened. Our house was out of the danger zone too so we were very lucky. Water is still a terrible problem - they had to resort to using chemical fire retardants over large areas - it worked but it means that anybody near the fires now have to empty their tanks.... It seems impossible to not believe in Climate Change! Thanks again for your concern.. Cheers Rob
I didn't know anything about the fire in your area. I suspect it's too far away for our TV and newspapers to consider it of interest. But it is very much. Thank you for sharing the story. This photo is wonderful. Fav
@caterina Hi Caterina - thanks for your response - it has been very horrible up here and people are understandably apprehensive about it happening again - it's going to be a long, hot, unpredictable summer! This was an IR photo and it seemed to show the situation really well....
@etienne Hi Etienne - yes this is an IR photo - it did seem to show the situation really well. We are all keeping our fingers crossed - they have predicted dry thunder storms for today - that means lightning with no rain - very bad in tinder dry conditions. Thanks for your interest.
@jgpittenger Hi Jane - it has been terrible - the locals are all quite fearful that it will happen again - it's going to be such a long, hot, dry Summer! The IR camera is panning out well though - I think I will probably end up using it quite a lot as many of its final images are not so obviously IR but do have an interesting tone etc.
@joysabin Hi Joy - thanks so much for you good wishes. If we could just get some rain it would make a big difference. The Rural fire fighters are on call again today - dry thunderstorms have been predicted!
@rosie00 Hi Lesley- it has been pretty bad here but unfortunately the Govn keeps denying that it's climate change and wouldn't really attack the issue. But our Prime Minister can give $150,000,000 to the USA to help NASA!!! Sorry about the rant - we only heard about that yesterday - it's quite absurd :)!
