Update 28 October - and thanks

We had 1.5mm of rain overnight as light falls over a long period, quite low temperatures, and high Relative Humidity, with very little wind.

This morning there was still smoke arising from a few places in the Hills east of the Outlook Crescent properties, though that has lessened during the day.

A QPWS fire crew came by this morning doing a final check on the containment lines in our area.  No fire activity to report.

When I drove back at midday from a meeting over at Stockyard Creek there was no one at the Command Centre on the corner of Sandy Creek Road and Fords Road, and it was all locked up.

So it does seem that this fire event in the part of the Hills around Wallers Road is over.

No recent news about the fire in the Ergon-Long property / Whipbird drive area, but I assume that is under control too.  Will let you know if I hear differently.

　

Time for some thanks.  On behalf of the Helidon Hills Smokespotters group and the Helidon Hills community:

• thanks to all those who provided information updates to KP and I for sharing via the email lists and the Smoksepotters web site.  Your assistance has been very much appreciated.

• thanks to the Incident Controllers at the Fire Command Centre who found time in their busy and stressful days to provide situation summaries with which the Smokespotters group could keep the community up-to-date.  Your trust and cooperation has been very much appreciated.

• thanks to Peter Cavendish and Dean Payne for your cooperation and assistance, both in relation to our property and to the sharing of information to be passed on to the community.

• thanks to KP (my co-Coordinator) for taking care of things at the Ravensbourne end of the Hills where you had your own fire to deal with.

Words cannot express the gratitude Hanneke and I feel toward the fire crews who worked cooperatively with us to identify ways to back burn from our house and access track with minimum impact.  We are in awe of the many Parks and Rural fire crews who on another day worked nearly to the point of exhaustion to stop a fire that had got into an unburned area with a very high fuel load.  We were amazed that you could stop that fire under those conditions.  Thanks too to those friends who offered to come and help us out.

Gordon