Inferno

[RockRat]

Yesterday morning about 8am wandered out to the verandah as i could
smell smoke and saw the fire in the distance on the hills above
Goonoowigall, just out of Inverell. I thought that's heading towards
my mates place on rifle range road, i gave him a call , he answered,
out of breath , said he has fire on his place and is trying to put out spot
fires, offered my help. He had the RFS there, said he would be okay.
I watched the smoke intensify , saw two water bomber helicopters
through my scope dropping water on his place.
After, about 3pm, i rang him again, he lost his house, his workshop,
all his woodworking tools, he is furniture restorer .
Feel for him.

Still burning last night.

 

[goody2shoes]

That is very sad....

I feel sorry for your friend... :flowers:

Goody :|

 

[Jaros]

It's a very bad year all over Australia.

 

[Manpa]

Sadly, a tale being heard far to often this year.
I hope your mate and his family are safe.
Stay safe Rockrat.

 

[RM Outback]

Sad to hear this and feel for your mate and everyone affected by these fires :flowers:

 

[LONEWOLF]

Im sorry to hear this Rock Rat... He would be devastated... Something you never get over... He will need lots of support and good mates around... :brokenh: :flowers:

I had friends at Torrington that lost their house and everything last month.. They have now moved back to Brisbane and have vowed never to return... They were so lucky that they survived with what he has told me... :argh:

LW...

 

[nucopia]

Thats very sad for your mate and many others who have lost property in the fires ..

 

[shakergt]

Never good to hear that a home has been lost. As a volley it is the second worst feeling seeing a house burn and knowing you are not able to do anything about it

 

[Dihusky]

Tragedy, worst still when you've lost your income, hope he can pull through and rebuild.

 

[jethro]

THat really sucks, especially as the RFS were on the job. It must have been a really hard place to defend. Or the conditions were really bad, These bloody fires will probably burn until april I reckon.

 

[CreviceSucker]

Massive heartbreaker

It tells you how bad it must have been when he had RFS there but they still couldnt save it 8.(

 

[Ded Driver]

that's terrible news Rockrat. hope your mate (& family?) are all ok

 

[DanielMaranello]

Very sad.

Daniel.

 

[RockRat]

Thanks guys and girls,
Spoken to my mate, said on the day of the fire while they were busy on
the ground the chopper pilot radioed in and told them to get out now,
a fire ball is coming towards you, so high tail it out of there.
He said he has never experienced heat like that. Today he was allowed in
and the guy wires holding up his wind turbine had a sheet of roofing gal
welded onto them about 20 feet up.
today he said , oh, i'll just go and do a few things, then it hit him,
with what. Starting to sink in its all gone.
He had a 8 ton molding machine, (does weather boards) he can't
workout why that's laying at 45 degrees.
Thanks to his wife he had insurance, as knowing him
he wouldn't have had it.
I guess things look a bit better now.

 

[shakergt]

 

[diggit]

Sorry to hear your pal lost his house, glad its insured which eases the sting a little bit I guess. Hope they pull through ok.

 

[Moneybox]

It might not have been the case here but it annoys me to see new bush areas opened up to housing where the blocks are too small not allowing sufficient clearing for firebreaks around buildings. It makes all those new properties potential death traps right from the outset.

 

[CreviceSucker]

We have been lucky so far , the fires came within 600 metres to the east of us on Thursday - Sunday , 4 km to the north and 2 km to the west , there was 4 waterbombing choppers going berserk from dawn to dusk .

The fires came back at us 6 - 7 times but between the water bombers and last minute changes in wind direction ( so far ) we didnt lose anything.

Pity about the ~ 100 homes that have been lost around us

The funny thing I noticed is after 4 days of the Erickson sky crane and other choppers flying over our heads all day , I found when I went to sleep I could still hear them reverberating in my mind as I slept even though they had parked up overnight, I kept waking up with the sound in my mind but when I woke up there was just silence ..