The Desert Park on fire.

[desertbirds]

Seriously stressful, at times frightening day at work. Mid morning we had to evacuate the park with a large fire bearing down on us. The fire ripped along the back of the range and burnt large areas of the park. its an absolute miracle that we were able to keep the fire out of the core area and it came literally metres away from aviaries,roo yards ect.A few of us got sent to that area and watched the approaching fire, it was windy and we could hear the roar coming, big mob of Spinifex pigeons wizzed by and it was all go for about an hour. Several radios shouting "we need water" , "get out now" "get out of there", me included. Bl--dy scary and will take a few rums to calm down tonight. If you drew a line around everything thats critical at the park, thats the bits that fire crews mananged to save, i think we had 10 fire units and two fire trucks out there.What a day big day tomorrow fixing the electric fence !

[jusdeb]

They are very scary things and very unpredictable . Ive seen grown men reduced to tears from sheer terror during the fires in the Blue Mountains . Once again I say so long as there are no casualties .

Have a few rums and thank goodness its passed . We are a land of extremes hey ..last year floods this year fires.

[rip64]

DB, enjoy that rum, you definetly earned it. Hope the wind drops off and tomorrow is a great day for you and yours.
Take care
Brian

[Myzomela]

Desertbirds,

Glad to hear you are OK and that the park missed the worst of the fires.

I hope that's the last of the fires for you!!

Good luck with the cleanup.

[Diane]

Close encounter there for sure Al least no one was hurt.

[wagga]

OMG that was too close for comfort.

[mackstaa]

Wow that would of made the heart rate go, especially after seeing how fast Black Saturday ripped through towns devastating the lot.
Brave thing to do is to stay fighting knowing what could happen, well done on the save Desertbirds

[desertbirds]

Wasnt exactly a little grass fire. The chief fire fighter came out today and thanked the park staff, admitting they were seriously stretched yesterday. Fortunately we dont have the forest type situation of the blue mountains but none the less it was very windy and it really got going in the mulga scrub.Our free range area that houses bilbies,mala, stick nest rats,bandicoots ect had a fair area burnt but no critters were hurt. The spinnies returned back to the ampitheatre today so all is well and i got the main fence up and going just after lunch.
Love this pic, it shows the problem we face with buffel grass, our native grasses have a piddly little flame compared to Buffel. Buffel burns much more intensely and enables the fire to get higher up into the vegetation, its also great that buffel loves a good burn and regenerates quicker than our native grasses.

[Jayburd]

my god, I'm so glad you're ok... also glad no animals were killed.
seriously scary stuff.

[jusdeb]

Those flames look capable of throwing fire balls ...no wonder you were stressed .