Friday 19th June 2020
I was picking tomatoes with my friends Kai and Daisy in the vegetable garden when we smelled smoke. We climbed a tall tree and saw a giant cloud of smoke. We went inside for lunch and when we came back outside the sky was orange and the sun a red ball...
Ten minutes later burnt leaves and ash were raining down. My Dad went up to the track to see where the fire was and it was just on the other side of the road!
We took our cat, Skip, and shoved him in his cat carrier and evacuated to my friends' house, where we all stayed the night. Skip had to sleep shut in the bathroom because of my friends' dog Ozzy.
In the morning the fire had mostly died down. We went back home: a lot of the surrounding area was burnt, but luckily our house and land was fine.
We later discovered that the fire was caused by a strimmer spark landing in dry grass 10 km away up the valley. The fire burned through 2200 hectares. We were lucky but 30 families lost their homes to the fire.
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| View from our garden |
Ten minutes later burnt leaves and ash were raining down. My Dad went up to the track to see where the fire was and it was just on the other side of the road!
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| View from our track |
We took our cat, Skip, and shoved him in his cat carrier and evacuated to my friends' house, where we all stayed the night. Skip had to sleep shut in the bathroom because of my friends' dog Ozzy.
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| My friend Kai looking out from his balcony |
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| View from the top of our friends' road |
In the morning the fire had mostly died down. We went back home: a lot of the surrounding area was burnt, but luckily our house and land was fine.
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| Burnt land across the road from our house |
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| Burnt out truck |
Wow! It looks quite terrifying Frankie. Glad you all escaped...I'd better be careful using my strimmer in the fields here, as it's bone dry. Like a desert. We had to take 20 cows to the abattoir on Friday as there is no grass to eat...
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