Wind and fire

I was woken this morning around 1.26am by the sound of a massive gust of wind. There were a couple more over the next couple of hours, so it was with a bit of trepidation that I looked out the door around 9am.

Luckily, there appeared to be no damage to either my place nor those of my neighbours. However, later in the day I saw this (four blocks from my house):



In other news, we heard about a fire north of us (Redhill area) - we decide to take a drive up there to watch the helitankers.

On the way back we were listening to a news report that said a fire had broken out in our suburb.

We were expecting visitors so we headed back to our place and down the main access road into our suburb. Quite close to our place we found the road blocked by four ambulances, two fire engines and a variety of police vehicles. We then turned round and headed home where we rang our visitors and provided alternative access information.

The fire was only about 6kms from our house but it was heading north north east away from us - which was good for us, but not so good for other people. Apparently, at this point, it is believed that 35 houses have been lost :( There are no reports of loss of life, hope it stays that way.

The fire is still burning out of control and the wind is gusting up to 60kph, so my thoughts and prayers are with those people in its path and the firefighters and volunteers fighting it.

A news report on the fire can be found here.

[UPDATE] Apparently this fire was started accidentally by someone doing grinding.[/UPDATE]