Wallers Road Fire - Thursday morning 24 November

Late yesterday the Wallers Road fire was burning on only one front.  It had been stopped to the south and at Wallers Road and the only front still burning was to the north where it is entering a steep and deep gully.

This morning, seen from 4km away, there is only a very small amount of rising smoke from the fire area, significantly less than yesterday evening.

A break line has been put in, extending west from Wallers Road along the top of a ridge further north and that should contain the last fire front.

 

If you are a landowner in the Helidon Hills area and would like to receive updates on fires please contact smokespotters@gmail.com

Wallers Road Fire - third day Wednesday 23 November

 Good afternoon

The fire is in the Seventeen Mile locality, in the Lockyer National Park, between the northern part of Sandy Creek Road and Wallers Road. The localities of Rignwood and Vinegar Hill lie on the other (eastern) side of Wallers Road.

It has been burning since at least the afternoon of 21 November and until some time last night was being driven along by strong southwesterly winds and the steep slope up to Wallers Road.

There has been little or no wind so far today and there is now almost no rising smoke, certainly no columns, but still a lot of smoke in the area.

A bulldozer is currently tidying up the local firebreak in the Vinegar Hill area, which stood up rather well to the heavy rain and floods in February and May.

I will put out another update when I hear whether or not the fire has crossed Wallers Road.

Wallers Road Fire - second day Tuesday 22 November

We have just heard that as of around 2pm this afternoon the fire was still to the west of Wallers Road.

This is very good news as it means Wallers Road is a good accessible fire line for fighting the fire.  Let's hope that it is still to the west of the road when it cools down this evening and the fire may reduce enough for crews to get in and tackle it.

Two helicopter water bombers have been flying continuously for a few hours, flying out to replenish their water somewhere to the east.

The Helidon Hills Smokespotter group will continue to post here for the duration of this fire, so as to make any updates we get available to the widest possible range of local people.

If you have any updates on the situation please send to smokespotters@gmail.com

 The general purposes of this blog

The main purpose of the Helidon Hills Smokespotters blog is to provide a location where landowners can find key information relating to fire danger, fire weather (see relevant tabs above), and announcements regarding restrictions on fire in the Helidon Hills.

There is also information about the history and functions of the Smokespotter group - see relevant tabs above.

We do not post on this blog unless there is something important that people who are not on one of our mailing lists need to know.

Our mailing lists cover: enrolled smokespotters; people involved in fire fighting or the management of fire response, including staff of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and of the Lockyer Valley Regional Council Disaster Response unit; Fire Wardens in our area of coverage who have asked to be on that mailing list; and landowners in the area of coverage who want to receive information that will  inform them about matters such as the source of smoke they are seeing, or about developing situations when the is a major fire.

Landowners in the Helidon Hills and Ravensbourne (not technically our area of coverage, but we try to include that area where possible) can email one of the Coordinators and ask to be on the Landowners Mailing List.  

Individual Fire Wardens can ask to be included on that list.

Staff in relevant positions can ask to be on the Fire & QPWS & LVRC list and may be added after checking with their organisation.

If you find any broken links in this website please contact smokespotters@gmail.com