I live in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia near Joondalup. We are the most isolated city in the world. We also have a regular bushfire season – now.
Each and every volunteer, out there fighting in impossibly terrifying and horrendous conditions, is a hero – a Fire Angel!
We’ve had a few fires already in the last few days; one deliberately lit near my daughter’s house in Yangebup (she could see the huge flames from her suburban backyard), and one in the Hills area of Araluen threatening her father’s home.
To give you some idea of how big our Metro area is; it takes me 45 min straight down the freeway to visit my daughter on the other side of our city and another 45 to get back – when not in rush hour.
For the last three days up to 300 local and interstate volunteer fireman have battled a fire in Bullsbrook which is heading toward the Northern Suburbs of Clarkson & Butler – not far from us.
Currently this particular fire has burned its way through 6650 sparsely populated but farmed hectares, destroyed a couple of derelict homes and some outbuildings since Saturday morning and forced the removal of livestock. I heard one woman on TV tearfully say she’d had to leave her goats…
It flares up with the early morning Easterly or opposite Sea Breeze., constantly changing fire fronts, crossing containment lines and exploding trees. (More stories on the fire.)
Thankfully, it’s now been down-graded to a ‘Watch and Act’ according to FESA Alerts which means there are still 100 volunteers watching and acting on our behalf.
It’s been absolutely devastating but so far the ‘fire angels’ are making sure no human is seriously hurt.
I do worry about all the animals though…
Fire Angels
I read
on someone’s
post they saw flocks of
birds fly – fleeing the flames.
Be safe!
Frances Macaulay Forde © 2015
@FrancesMForde #POEM:FireAngels #Cinquains #Poetry #FireSeason #YanchepVolunteerFireBrigade #FireAngels
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