Comments on: Great Australian Bushfire Stories – a book review

By: rashelle

rashelle — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:39:16 +0000

i liked the story, i thought that it was great. anyway c ya

By: Gaida

Gaida — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:54:15 +0000

They are devastating and our brave firefighters do an amazing job under difficult circumstances. Open Day at the local fire station is always well attended and always informative.

I remember as a child when my gran lived in the blue mts & the pine trees caught fire across the road. Thankfully our local firemen saved her house.

Fires are definitely unpredictable and a sudden change of wind is all that is needed or the careless dropped cigarette butt. Your descriptions from Ian’s book sound like it’s definitely a graphic read.

We all need to be prepared for the upcoming bushfire season. Only wish our neighbours felt the same way…. I had an old couple living on one side who piled their grass clippings etc up against the wooden fence right next to my sunroom. A real tinderbox… just waiting to go up as is the favourite brush box fence.

By: clutterbells

clutterbells — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:06:42 +0000

I am amazed about how quickly it has dried up this spring. We have had hardly any rain for over a month. The reserve next to Ryan’s Joey Scout Hall is completely brown. A few weeks ago it was green. There is just no residual moisture in the soil either.

We went to the Fire Station with the Joey Scouts last month. They emphasised a fire plan for your house. It seems more and more, we will need them for our neighbourhoods too.

By: Cellobella

Cellobella — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:26:44 +0000

That does sound scary – and it happens so quickly!

You know, you can read any number of Fire Services publications on what you need and possibly like me, you almost immediately forget what they’ve said. The thing I found reading this book is that the stories stay with me – and the precautions the people took do too.

In part, that’s why this book is worth the read.

By: Prizetastic

Prizetastic — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:29:11 +0000

One of the scariest days in my life was after we’d been camping down the back paddock with just a few mates…. they all left to go to work hubby included, leaving me and the 2 kiddies there……

Well, there had been some logs burning to try and get rid of some rubbish and none of the guys had put it out properly before they left….. so here I am on the phone to my friend discussing whether I’d go to town and visit her when I look down the back and there is smoke everywhere!!

The worst part was that the grass was really long and dry and it was windy Hubby was working half an hour away so I called our mate who had just left (and was supposed to be going to work) and he came back to help me… I had to sit the kids in the car at the gate while we tried to bash out the flames with wet sacks…… talk about scary, grass fires are hot and we didn’t want it to spread to the neighbours.

In the end we had to call the bush fire brigade, thank god for them There really wasn’t any property in danger but I guess things could have turned for the worst, it was heading tothe house but probably would have just burnt out, I can just remember feeling SO vulnerable and scared….

Fire safety is SO important, we learnt our lesson for sure!!