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

Fire Update 1800h 27 October

Sandy Creek

The fire situation in the Sandy Creek area is under control.

Outlook Crescent - Vinegar Hill

A fire which burned down into a tributary of Lilydale Creek from the back of the Bilson property yesterday morning is now burning in thick lantana in Lilydale Creek on the Bilson / Claridge boundary and is being monitored by a fire crew.

There has been light rain in this area and temperatures have dropped considerably since 3.00pm.

1000+ page views in 58 days

The Smokespotters web site went up late on 31 August this year.  After the first few days the site was averaging 10 hits per day and gradually increased until the start of the current fire incidents. 

Since last Saturday (20 October), hits on the site have ranged from around 40 per day to more than 100.  This is a great outcome as it pretty clearly shows that the site is serving a useful purpose, both as a community information/liaison service during fire incidents, and in making people aware of fire issues.

If you have been accessing the web site, or receiving emails, for information during the current fire incident we would appreciate your views on:

• what you particularly appreciated about the Smokespotters web site during the fire, including the information that you found most useful;
• what additional kinds of information you would wanted to see on the site; and
• any other ways in which the web site can be made more useful during fire incidents.

Please send your comments (preferably under the headings of the dot points above) by email to gfclaridge[at]gmail.com and we will endeavour to improve the service prior to future fire incidents in the Helidon Hills.

Thank you

Gordon and KP (Smokespotters Coordinators)

Fire Update 1030h 27 October

Sandy Creek

This morning there were three fire crews at the Adsett property off Sandy Creek Road and more were on the way to help secure it.

During the night fire crews back burned around the Garrard house, in addition to the back burn from Garrard Lane last night to meet the fire coming down from Seventeen Mile Road.

Forestry Road - Pine Road

The 200m infill back burn from a containment line in the Pine Road area was completed successfully last night.

Outlook Crescent - Forestry Road

Fire crews monitored the situation during the night (the severe winds forecast did not eventuate) and a reconnaissance by a fire crew this morning found no issues around the houses in Outlook Crescent or on Forestry Road past Beech Road.

General Area

Fire crews will be monitoring the situation and mopping up today and possibly into tomorrow.

Can you help Smokespotters to raise some money?

The Helidon Hills Smokespotters is a completely volunteer community organisation.  In fact it is a network of individuals who share a common objective - have a look at the About and History tabs above for a good description of what we do and why.

The Coordinators can run up large phone bills during a fire event.  Even just identifying the location of a smoke sighting in a complex situation can coast about $20 in phone bills.  But none of the Smokespotters minds the expense involved, if it leads to a useful outcome for the community, the environment and the fire services.

However, each Smokespotter needs to be equipped with an expensive bearing compass, accurate to around 0.5 degrees, which costs over $200, and mobile smokespotters require GPS units in order to accurately identify the point from which they are taking a bearing on a smoke sighting from the roadside.

We currently have an application with the Lockyer Valley Regional Council for funds to allow us to buy more compasses and GPS units - both for outfitting some current Smokespotters, and for the additional Smokespotters we need to recruit to make the group more effective.

It would be fantastic to be able to supplement our application to the Council with your supportive comments on the contributions the group has made in the course of this bushfire event.  Those contributions range from making the first sightings and reports of the four fires which an arsonist set along Wallers Road, the first sighting and report of the lightning-caused fire in the Ergon-Long / Whipbird drive area, to the email and web updates that have been issued during these fire events.

If you are willing to help us, could you please send an email to gfclaridge[at]gmail.com with the subject line "Thanks Smokespotters" and your comments on how useful you have found the Smokespotter group's efforts.  We will compile these responses and submit them to the Council as an Appendix to our application for funds.

Thank you

Gordon and KP (Smokespotter Coordinators)
[replace the [at] in the email address with @]

Fire Update 6.00pm 26 October

　

Don't forget the weather change expected tonight - ABC TV news just announced it would hit Toowoomba at 10.00pm (have a look at previous update for details).

There will be ten fire crews on duty tonight. Crews will be mainly patrolling and strengthening containment lines.

Back burning will occur on Pine Road to link up two sections of containment line, over about a 200m front (already happening I think, I've just seen the flames on our skyline).

Back burning will also occur on Garrards Land at Sandy Creek, to make sure that access to the Deucker property can be maintained in the face of the approaching fire front during the night.

This fire event is expected to need management by fire crews for another 48 hours.

More than 5,000ha has been burned - a significant jump on what was expected due to the fire that was started in the large property at the end of Adare Road, behind the planned containment line.

when it comes to bushfires, we are all neighbours

Fire update Sandy Creek Road 12.43pm today

[From Judy D]  At 12.43pm today the fire was at the corner of Garrards Lane and the control line up to Wagners. It was burning steadily but it was expected that there will be flareups when it reaches the second creek crossing where there is thick bladey grass.