Looks like I spoke too soon.
I came home from working in Traralgon on Saturday evening, only to be greeted by huge plumes of smoke coming off the hills behind my home town.
I managed to get a couple of photos before I had to go back to work. These were taken at about 4.30pm:
By the time it got to 6pm, we had to turn our lights on, because it was so dark outside. We were covered by the smoke and ash from another fire happening about 60km away from us.
Basically, we got caught up in the middle of two different bushfires:
- the Churchill one, which never actually hit Churchill, but started in the Strzelecki Ranges behind the town, and spread rapidly south-east toward the coast, and
- the fire that started in Kinglake and swept across the region north-east of Melbourne, which was far bigger than the Churchill fire.
I had about an hour between shifts to decide what to do. My sister and her boyfriend were busy setting up the house for protection (incidentally, the safest place to be in a bushfire) and I scrambled around, gathering up backup disks and USB sticks - and wondering why the HELL I'd bothered collecting so much useless crap over the years! (I think it's cleanup time...)
We were listening to ABC FM for the latest fire news, but they told us that the local transmitter was in range of the flames, and that their signal may cut out. At about 8.30 we lost them, and also all of our local TV stations. I don't know if they have been restored yet.
The shop I work at was still open during the emergency, and we had customers coming in and buying all sorts of panic-related things, but mostly they were buying cigarettes. Yes, in times of crisis people latch on to the only coping mechanisms they have!
Outside, a cloud of smoke and ash set over the Valley, and by 6.30pm it was near impossible to see further than a kilometre. The whole sky turned a deep blood-red, then a dark ash grey. Small black particles and burnt leaves fell from the larger bushfire, all across the town. People came in to the shop covered in sooty black marks.
Then it rained - but only a little bit, and it left more streaky mess over the buildings and cars.
My co-worker and I didn't know what else we should do. Were we meant to close the shop? Evacuate? Get out the fire hoses? We didn't have a very good view from our position, and had to rely on everyone who came in to tell us what it was like outside.
We were trying to cope with this, while we had customers coming in and buying sliced ham! icy poles! soft drinks! I saw people wearing loose summer wear; some people were only wearing shorts! (When you're under threat of fire, you're supposed to cover your body with long-sleeved shirts and trousers, to protect your extremities from burning.)
Luckily, my boss was also in the town, and had a better view of proceedings - he said that he'd let us know if we had to stay or go.
The day had been very hot, but a cool change was expected late that evening. It came, and it was very cool by the time we finished work. The only problem was that the wind changed direction, and the fires turned north-east toward Traralgon. Fortunately, the conditions were better suited for the CFA to control that side after that point.
Eventually, the fires came under control, though some of them are still burning as I write this. And although our area ultimately made it through the crisis undamaged, many parts of Victoria were not so lucky.
I believe the death toll currently stands at about 130 people. One of them was a retired news reader for one of the major TV stations. Many of the others were people who left it too late to leave their houses, and were found inside their burnt-out vehicles.
This fire has been labelled as worse than the infamous Ash Wednesday fires in 1983.
The next day, our shop was very busy again, but this time it was customers using our carwash to clean their vehicles. There were people queueing up to use it two cars back, and both bays were used non-stop from start of trade until about 7pm. I left it until Monday to do mine:
It makes me very angry and upset to see all of this happening around where I live. So many people have suffered needlessly.
I want to do more to help, and hopefully some time this week I will.
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