We had searing heat of 42°C and winds of up to 125 km /h and bushfires raged on all sides of the town. Everything in the house is covered with a fine film of black soot. I've just used 2 buskets of water and the vacuum cleaner to do my bedroom and I can still smell the smoke and dust.
We went to Wagga today around lunch time and on the way out of town noticed a huge grass fire that was racing across between the two main roads. A fire truck was there on his radio so I just thought everything would be okay and the fire-fighters would put the fire out. Not long after we went to visit Nanna in the hospital (it was her 87th birthday), I got a phone call from a friend asking if I was okay because he'd heard that Junee was burning, and homes had already lost. I rang my neighbour to discover they were evacuating homes only a few blocks from us. Because of the heat and the smoke we stayed at Lauren's for the afternoon (she has wonderful air-conditioning), and around 4pm decided to head back home.
Mum and Reg are off on the rodeo circuit and Reg rang me from Tumbarumba a little concerned about his house, which he'd heard was surrounded by bushfires. This got me a little alarmed and when we got to Junee the police had the road blocked and we had to keep going and come in to town from the other direction. Fires were raging in paddocks and the grassland on either side of the road was black and smouldering. When we got to near the sports fields we were again turned around by police roadblocks. Fires were racing across the soccer ground and threatening homes in Junee.
In all, 5 homes were destroyed and one man was rushed to Sydney with burns to 60% of his body. Helicopters and planes circled the town until 7 pm, dropping water bombs and fire retardant. At around 8 I drove up to Mum's to check that their house was okay. Trees and fences were still burning on either side of the road, two blocks from where we live. In Mum's street, the first house had no grass, just blackened ground that was smoking. I was to water mum's garden tonight, but with the wind raging and turmoil all around I felt I had a good excuse to not bother. There was enough cleaning to be done at my own house.
Note: The photo was taken by Junee Shire Council's Cadet Engineer who is a great photographer. You can view more photos of the fire on the Junee Shire Website. For more from the photographer, visit Blue Mountains Photography.
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