Dawn over the fireground

Not a good shot, what with the site being in cloud, but my only image of a week deployed on night shift. I went up to a peak above the fire at dawn to swap out a radio repeater for another older model.

The place was covered in Alpaca poo, and Alpacas. At least they did not spit at us!

[heliphoto]

Interesting shot Dale - it's nice to see a remote repeater not put in by helicopter (of course those are the only ones I usually see). Cool setup too - those little trailers. Is that cloud cover putting a damper on your fires or is it just a marine layer or something which burns off in the afternoon?

Photographicaly speaking - yeah, not too exciting, but thanks for posting, I'm getting that mid-winter missing fire season itch. Let's see some flames!

[Dale]

Originally Posted by gawan

Good or bad, can't decide, but I really love the background in that landscape! You should take one without any man made objects, although in this image they contribute a documentary type of photo!

It's bad, pretty awful really. The landscape beyond was more interesting, being in one part burnt black, the other sunlit through a gap in the cloud.

Originally Posted by heliphoto

Interesting shot Dale - it's nice to see a remote repeater not put in by helicopter (of course those are the only ones I usually see). Cool setup too - those little trailers. Is that cloud cover putting a damper on your fires or is it just a marine layer or something which burns off in the afternoon?

Photographicaly speaking - yeah, not too exciting, but thanks for posting, I'm getting that mid-winter missing fire season itch. Let's see some flames!

Thanks Josh, I took the shot after four days of night shift feeling sleep deprived. Not my best by light years! We wake today to the forecast worst fire weather day in history here. Most of the State has forecast maxima of over 44 deg, RH below 8% and winds of 50- 100 kmh. FDI are listed in the range of 100 - 190!!!

I'm on two days mandatory rest after night shift, back on tonight at 18:00. We have a couple of going fires, one which broke containment lines over night, now heading for the main power supplies for Melbourne.

If the power stays on, I'll post up fire shots as the day progresses to ease your itch!

[roentarre]

This image lurks with a lot of danger. Bush fire is an experience I have experienced when I was in high school. It is just frightening to even look at a scene like this.

Your firefighting effort in the area is truely appreciated. So much free time in doing the good things.

[kunik]

I did some work on some fires back in when I lived in Canada. I hadn't thought about it in a long time 'til I read this post. here's some of mine...

Division Delta Fire Boss


Skidders are used to clear trails and transport small amounts of water around for crews.


I was driving an "emergency transport vehicle' (ETV) - the civilian one. An interesting thing about the military vehicle beside me is that the medic from that vehicle was with the first group of Canadians to get blown up by a road side bomb in Afghanistan a year later.


Bell 212's are used to bucket hard to reach hot spots. My crew was at the bottom of this gulley working with hand tools when the helicopters came in for assistance.



It was the summer of 2003 and we had a record fire season so the military deployed for assistance. Having these ETV's around for the hard to reach areas was pretty cool.


Sorry... I just realized I sorta hijacked your thread. I hope you don't mind

[Dale]

Not at all.

They are good shots!

I'm at home with hoses out round my rural property, it is 43.2 deg RH 16% and gusting 60kmh at 2m. My wife has just called from the maternity hospital with the news that our second child would appear to be at T minus a day or so!!

No serious fires just yet, though one is posing a serious threat to a number of small towns to the east of Melbourne, and to major power supplies. With the weather as it is I cannot see how that fire will not run out into the rural townships.

[Dale]

Four serious fires so far, one big one is off and away running southward, having over run a number of small towns. A number of medium sizes towns now under threat.

And for Josh, it is now too windy for aircraft. The repeater site above now looks like being over run from fire lit by an arsonist within the last hour.

Fires now visible on radar

[Mallee Boy]

Goodluck Dale....looks like the next few hours are going to be critical. Stay safe.....and hope all goes well for the wife & baby too.

Cheers
Grant

[xjjohnno]

46.4C max for Melbourne, that's the all time high here.
Here's a sky pic and what should be a blue sky but for the smoke and airborne dust.

[RichardS]

Originally Posted by Dale

Four serious fires so far, one big one is off and away running southward, having over run a number of small towns. A number of medium sizes towns now under threat.

And for Josh, it is now too windy for aircraft. The repeater site above now looks like being over run from fire lit by an arsonist within the last hour.

Bummer! Idiots!

Originally Posted by Dale

Fires now visible on radar

I get a logon screen. Have you got an emergency services account that lets you see products not freely available?

47.9 (118.2F) max in Avalon. That is HOT.

I just went outside for a short walk around the garden to see what this sort of temp feels like. The closest I can come to it is getting too close to an open oven door.

The sky does not look good. I can see cumulus to the NNE from here (Camberwell).

[heliphoto]

Originally Posted by Dale

Not at all.

They are good shots!

I'm at home with hoses out round my rural property, it is 43.2 deg RH 16% and gusting 60kmh at 2m. My wife has just called from the maternity hospital with the news that our second child would appear to be at T minus a day or so!!

No serious fires just yet, though one is posing a serious threat to a number of small towns to the east of Melbourne, and to major power supplies. With the weather as it is I cannot see how that fire will not run out into the rural townships.

Originally Posted by Dale

Four serious fires so far, one big one is off and away running southward, having over run a number of small towns. A number of medium sizes towns now under threat.

And for Josh, it is now too windy for aircraft. The repeater site above now looks like being over run from fire lit by an arsonist within the last hour.

Fires now visible on radar

Good luck with your property, and everyone's. Good thing the hospitals have generators, sounds like your wife may need it if the power goes down.

It's always a relief when the winds get too strong to fly - it's the worst right below that threshold as we get beat around pretty good...

It's too bad you've got arsonists down there too .

Your radar link didn't work (access denied for me)... Is this close? Stay safe!

[Jimbo]

Hang in there Dale. I think the hottest I have been in was 46 C in Kelowna BC. One year there were large fires very close to downtown Kelowna [Central BC] and over 100 homes were lost. The images at night were unbelieveable. Again, good luck. JIM

[Dale]

Sorry all re radar link, it was secure access for fire.

Josh (heliphoto) has the right one.

Thanks for the good wishes, we are quite safe at my place. The front has hit dropping the temp on my Davis weather station from 47 to 32 deg.

That front will be very bad news to the fires going in the east.

Back on standby at 18:00. Wonder where I'll go? More fires showing up with a couple more towns under direct threat

[RichardS]

This was taken about 10 minutes ago and shows a cumulus cloud building to the NE - NNE. The danger with these clouds is that they can do the thunder and lightning business and get even more stimulated when a cool change comes through. We do not need lightning in that area as it can start bushfires. Fingers crossed.

The colours of the sky are as I see them from my (home) office window. The gaps between the clouds should be blue, but there's some smoke or haze or something in the atmosphere.

DA 50-200 @F8 1/800 ISO 100. Not that that really matters with a snapshot like this

Attachment 27648

[RichardS]

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Hang in there Dale. I think the hottest I have been in was 46 C in Kelowna BC. One year there were large fires very close to downtown Kelowna [Central BC] and over 100 homes were lost. The images at night were unbelieveable. Again, good luck. JIM

Small world and all that. I have a friend who lives in Kelowna. It looks like a beautiful place. I'm trying to channel Big White in the hope that it will get the temp down a bit