Its spring, and its been unusually warm for this time of year. Already we have had a couple of hot days and the authorities have been warning that this year it will be particularly hard as a lot of bush has died off leaving lots of dry flammable material to burn. The area I live in the Dandenongs has also been highlighted as a high fire danger risk area, and yesterday as if to emphasise the danger I watched as a tractor cut a fire track through the bush behind the block, so if there was fire the fire trucks could use these tracks to get to the fire.
The fire season is particularly worrying for me, I am alone in the house most of the day, and I do not have a registered vehicle ( I have a car its just not registered yet). This will not stop me though, I have the battery charged on the car and if fire threatens I will use this to leave, I will not stay to protect the property, I figure that the contents of the house are replaceable I and my puppy dogs aren't.
The only problem I have deciding, is what I should take with me, being a knitter, my yarn is very precious to me and a lot of my patterns also and so with that in mind here is my list of items that I have prepacked in case of emergency
Spare clothes
Jewellery
dogs (scully and gypsy are not packed)
Lace weight yarn ( yes jojoland will come with me)
Knitting Needles
computer box
important papers (eg patterns and birth certs)
photos
Its a hard decision to make but it has to be done whilst living in the bush is a wonderful thing bush fires are fearsome foes and added to that is the stupid firebugs who take delight in setting such fires. In my opinion arsonists are mass murderers, the number of wildlife and livestock that perish in such fires unmeasured, but a life is a life whether it be animal or human and in my opinion, arsonists are one of the lowest life forms on the planet.
2 comments:
Aye, what a fearsome thing, indeed. You're right to be ready and organized to leave should you need to. It's startling to think of this, and I commend you for keeping your wits about you.
Huge hugs ....
Heheh I was checking out your spider photos (eew) and as a person who's just finished a thesis on the whole 'Stay or Go' response thing to bushfires, this post caught my eye... hope you don't mind me being nosy - or sounding like a know-it all either! After the year of torture on this subject I had to open it up and felt compelled to share!
It's good to see you've thought ahead and have already made your decision to leave =) ... many of the people in my study said they'd wait til the fire was there to decide, which is stressing, considering leaving late is the number 1 cause of death!
Suprisingly though, if your house is prepared (clear buffer around the house, no leaves in gutters, access to hoses etc) staying is quite safe for most fires - all you have to do is make sure there's a buffer around your house, wait til the fire passes (which is very quickly) and then go outside and put out the little spot-fires... the little spot fires are actually the number one things which burn houses down, so if you're there putting them out you get to save your whole house and contents - including ALL of your yarn!!
Not that I'm suggesting you change your decision, it's just something I found interesting to know... apologies again for the compulsion to share =)
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