I was cooling off on the veranda when just on dark I heard the fire siren and then a police siren on the road above our house. A few minutes later Don came out to say a neighbour had rung to tell us that there was a big fire at the end of our road. Don jumped in the ute and roared off to see what was going on. Meanwhile Mark checked the CFS site and discovered that the fire was a vehicle fire. Don came back and said the fire was at the end of our property - about 300 metres away down the hill and the CFS were in attendance, then he roared off again.
I ran up to the road to find a group of neighbours there watching the CFS fire trucks deal with the fire.
We watched in the dark amid much speculation as to the origin of the fire and, as the danger was past, much laughter as the theories became sillier and sillier.
We learnt the next day that the old fellow down the road was driving down the hill when his car slipped off the road, then as he tried to get back onto the road, it rolled into the ditch on the side of the road and caught fire. Luckily he was only 50 metres from home and his son, hearing the revving of the engine came out to see what was going on and was able to get the old boy out safely. There was a 50 metre patch of paddock burnt - luckily it had been closely mown and the fire ran along the verge for a distance, but was quickly contained by the CFS who only had a couple of kms to come to the fire.
Could have been a tragedy and we have one very lucky old neighbour.
Liz Needle
Wow. Having been to Aus, and seen the devastation across NWS near Bendigo, I can appreciate how scared you must have felt. So, so glad it wasn't worse. Though I can guess that you're probably still on high alert.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to respond to your kind comment on my blog (FlourishingPalms), but you are a no-reply commenter. (You might want to consider changing that status in your profile.) Thanks for visiting me!