Great compass work - Spring Creek Fire - 15 December

I know I already complimented James W on his 15km compass bearing on the Spring Creek fire a week ago, but I just downloaded some photos from my camera - I'd forgotten that I took some shots of the fire from the Gatton-Esk Road when I was trying to locate it.

This is what the fire looked like from 3km away (using some zoom), seeing it against the darker hills behind.  James was taking his bearing from the top of the range further to the right of this photo and five times as far away.

Taking a bearing on it from 15+ km away without that dark background and getting it spot on is a great bit of compass work.

Smoke in the Spring Creek, Adare, Vinegar Hill and Ringwood areas - Saturday 15 December

The smoke in the Spring Creek, Adare, Vinegar Hill and Ringwood areas today (Saturday 15 December) is coming from a controlled burn at the Spring Creek jail.  The Gatton Springdale Rural Fire Brigade was in attendance at 10.00am this morning.

There was a fire in the Spring Creek jail land last weekend, though on that occasion some of the Smokspotters lost a lot of time in identifying the location.  This was because:

• the cross bearings we obtained on the wide front of smoke suggested that it was in either the eastern edge of the Lockyer National Park or in the land owned by the jail;
• the Queensland Rural Fire Service Current Bushfire Incidents web page showed a permitted burn with fire crews in attendance at the junction of Millers Road and the Gatton-Esk Road (the jail is at the other end of Millers Road).  This was approximately 5 km from where we had identified the fire location (were our bearings wrong?);
• when we were unable to contact the Grantham Rural Brigade First Officer we contacted the Deputy, who had not been informed any controlled burn in that area (though from our bearings the fire was in, or on the edge of, the Grantham Rural Fire Brigade area);
• we then spent more time trying to find Smokespotters who could give us a better bearing on the smoke, but without being able to improve the location.

In the end it was decided that the fire was either in the jail land (in which case it was under control) or in the edge of the Lockyer National Park, so a message was left for the QPWS Duty Officer to contact one of the Coordinators. He/she didn't.

It was not until the next morning, when the smoke was still thick in the area, that the source was identified as the jail lands.

Today the Current Bushfire Incidents web page again showed a Permitted Burn at the corner of Millers Road and the Gatton-Esk Road.

The X shows the approximate location as identified by Smokespotter bearings (see image below for a more accurate location), the XX shows the location of the nearest point of the fire to the indicated location.

Here's a picture of the situation this morning (Saturday 15 October) plotted on a Google Earth base - you can click on the image to see a larger version, but unless you open it in a new window you won't be able to see the text at the same time:

The area outlined in yellow is where the fire was burning.  Our bearings (red lines) were within one km of the nearest fire - not bad considering that James W's bearing was taken over a distance of 15km (the other was only 6km) and the smoke was "smeared out" by a northeasterly wind.  The expensive bearing compasses we use are well worth the money.  In fact the projection of James' bearing was right on the fire.  It was my bearing over 6km that was off the mark; I'll blame the wind.

The place pin on the right shows where the Queensland Rural Fire Service's Current Bushfire Incidents map located the permitted burn - over 3km from the nearest point of the burnt area.

I've made efforts in the past to have the Smokespotter Coordinators notified when there is going to be a planned burn on the jail lands because of both their proximity to the Lockyer National Park and the unreliability of the Permitted Burn locations on the Current Bushfire Incidents web page (which means that we waste Smokespotters' time in trying to fix the location of sighted smoke).  Clearly I haven't yet found the key person who will see that this happens, but I'll keep trying.

Smoke in the Vinegar Hill, Adare, Ringwood area

The smoke in the Vinegar Hill, Adare, Ringwood area appears to be likely to be coming from a Permitted Burn in Millers Road, Adare that can be seen on the Current Bushfire Incidents map on the Rural Fire Service website.

Why are there sometimes discrepancies between Fire Danger Rating maps and BOM Fire Weather forecasts

I've done a bit of digging around to try to sort out some discrepancies we have seen over the last few days between the Forest and Grass Fire Danger Ratings maps which are available on the Queensland Rural Fire Service web site and the Fire Danger Ratings included in Bureau of Meteorology District Forecasts.

BOM Fire Danger Ratings (which apply to quite wide areas compared to the QFRS FDR map zones) have sometimes been higher than the mapped ratings within the same area in Southeast Queensland (and apparently across wider areas of the State).

As I understand it, the QRFS FDR maps are constructed on the basis of BOM data, using a computer program to produce the ratings.  There is no human intervention in the production of these ratings, which is what you would expect because the Fire Danger Ratings are in fact what is called the McArthur Fire Danger Indices (Forest and Grassland), and these indices are calculated using a standard formula.  The purpose of the indices (Ratings) is to provide a relative measure of the difficulty of suppression for a standard fuel type.

While these indices generally work well enough in practice, the reality is that not all variables can be included.  For example the calculation assumes a fuel load arranged as a standard continuous pasture.

The BOM FDRs are apparently produced on the basis of the same data set (I have no confirmation of this), but with a degree of human intervention that takes into account actual fire behaviour as reported by fire fighters in particular districts.  This allows for adjustment based on variables which are not allowed for in the calculation of the McArthur indices, such as for example, continuity of fuel.

This produces a more "refined" FDR, but not currently at the detailed scale that is available in the Fire Danger Rating maps.

So, I guess the "take home message" is that you should check the BOM website - in our case their Southeast Coast Forecasts, via the Updated weather Ipswich & Fire Danger link in the right hand column of this web page, and always ask FireComm whether it is safe to burn when you notify them of your intention to light up a permitted burn.

You can find more information on the McArthur fire danger indices on the web.  For a fairly simple account you can read this presentation from the Bushfire CRC, or for more detail this paper from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research which compares the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index approach with the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index.

If you have some "inside knowledge" of how the system works and can improve on my attempt at explanation please feel free to contact me so I can share the information with readers of this blog.

Fire Danger Rating - Wednesday 5 December

This morning, after I updated the LVR fire danger rating map, I was puzzling over the fact that the highest rating in our area was "Very High", with most of the Lockyer Valley Region as "High".  This just didn't seem to be consistent with all the media references last night to Fire Weather warnings for today.  In fact I had much the same concerns when I uploaded yesterday's fire danger rating map - the ratings just weren't consistent with either what I was hearing on the media, or with the weather we were experiencing here, which was obviously very dangerous from a fire point of view.

I opened the Bureau of Meteorology's weather forecast page for the Southeast Coast, knowing that they give fire danger ratings. (The BOM link ("Updated weather Ipswich & Fire Danger") is in the column on the right hand side of this blog .

While the BOM doesn't give a separate fire danger rating for the Lockyer Valley Region, they do give ratings for the overall Southeast Coast District and separate ratings for areas within Southeast Coast, including Ipswich.  Our weather forecasts aren't usually too different to those for Ipswich, so presumably the fire danger rating won't be very different either.

Overall, BOM's forecast for the Southeast Coast District (issued at 4.45am this morning) has the Fire Danger as: "Very High to Severe", and for Ipswich it is "Severe".  Gold Coast is "Very High" and Sunshine Coast is "Severe".

These ratings are at odds with the current Rural Fire Service's Forest Fire Danger Ratings map for the area, which shows no areas of Severe rating at all.  Here's the current Forest Fire Danger Rating Map from the RFS web site, downloaded early this morning.  No "Severe" ratings anywhere.

 

Just to be sure, I checked the RFS Grassland Fire Danger Ratings to make sure that they were not "Severe".  In fact they are, in general, more benign than the Forest ratings.

In future, when there are media reports of high fire danger in SEQ, I'll be checking the BOM site as well as the RFS site.

An almost unnoticed fire at Vinegar Hill

Fire in Lilydale Creek Vinegar Hill, less than an hour after it started and half an hour after we saw it

It is almost spooky reading back over my last post on the origins of smoke in the Hills - and in particular my comments about the fire conditions on the morning of Friday 16th when I was writing.

Less than an hour after I finished that post I was helping one of our neighbours deal with what was probably the worst bushfire I've experienced.  Temperatures were in the high 30s, humidity was in the low 20s, the wind gusts were strong enough to drive a 4m high flame completely horizontal along the ground, and there was a lot of dry vegetation in areas that had not burned for years.

I won't go into the details here - there's a post on it on our blog - but it was also remarkable for the fact that it almost certainly started from a burned log or dead tree that had been quietly smouldering for around three weeks since the late October fire that burned out 5,000 ha of the southern Hills, and had survived more than 60mm of rain in that time.  This is very similar to the fire a couple of months ago in the section of Lockyer National Park west of Seventeen Mile Road that re-ignited after a period of weeks (and after a similar amount of rain had fallen).

Two days later, after more than 100mm of rain, areas of this fire were still smoking.

Only one of the Smokespotters reported this smoke, probably because the strong wind was holding the smoke down in the gullies and dispersing it before it could rise, but also because the location is on the southern side of the Hills (overlooking Gatton) and is hidden from many Smokespotters by the major ridge along which Seventeen Mile Road runs.

Where's all the smoke coming from?

I'm sure that a lot of people have been asking over the last few days where all the smoke is coming from.

A few days ago, with no sign of any smoke columns to our north, we were getting very fresh smelling smoke on the strong northerly winds.  Today there is a general smoke haze, but it is clearly thicker to the north.

Here's the answer.

Firewatch website at 11.14am this morning

Bear in mind that these are fires that are/were large enough to be registered by the satellite (usually of the order of 1 sq km) and were there when a satellite passed overhead.  The Firewatch web site is an excellent place for checking on large, relatively long-burning fires in your vicinity.  There's a link to it on this site under the Rural Fire Locations tab at the top of the page.

The northerly wind today is blowing a lot of smoke into our area from fires much further north.  There aren't many fires visible anywhere near the Helidon Hills on the Firewatch site.

Firewatch view of areas to our north

The screen shot above has the same legend as above, and was captured at about the same time.  It uses a combination background of Google Earth and map features - harder to look at than the plain background in the first shot, but much easier to locate fires in relation to local features.

The orange spots well to the east of Crows Nest National Park are either in the eastern edge of the Deongwar State Forest, or just outside the State Forest.

Remember that sites like Firewatch and Sentinel do not pick up smaller fires, or fires that may have started recently.

In particular, please do not be lulled into a false sense of security because much of the Hills south of Seventeen Mile Road burned in late October.  There is still something like 30,000 ha of bush in the Hills that did not burn in that fire.

REPORT ANY SMOKE IN THE HILLS TO ONE OF THE SMOKESPOTTER COORDINATORS.

At our place in Vinegar Hill it feels like at least a very high Fire Danger day, but the Forest Fire Danger Rating on the RFS site for today has not been updated from what was posted last night, and the rating still shows as High.  I checked on the WeatherZone site for current conditions in Gatton at 11.50am, and that also shows a current High rating.

However it has climbed from a 20 rating half an hour ago, and is nearing 25, which is the upper limit of the High rating.  Bear in mind thought that these WeatherZone ratings are indicative and are calculated using a formula that assumes a worst case drought factor.

Well done Smokespotters

Below are some of the expressions of appreciation for the work of the Smokespotters group during the recent fire in the southern part of the Helidon Hills.

It is important to remember that the Smokespotters group is far more than the two Coordinators.  There are Smokespotters ready to take bearings on smoke at 20 locations in and around the Hills (soon to be 21, we recruited a new Smokespotter  as a result of the fire), and some who regularly travel on roads with a good view of the Hills.  Without people watching for smoke and reporting bearings the group could not function.

In the interests of transparency and full disclosure I have to tell you that some of these come from Smokespotters who live in the Hills - not surprising, since the motivation to become a Smokespotter sometimes comes partly from wanting to know when there is a fire that may threaten ones own property.

Here are the messages, some of them edited for brevity or because they were part of more personal communications:

Just a brief note to say thanks to the Smokespotters group. This group has quickly become an important element in the life of people living in the forests of the Helidon Hills region.  They provide a focal point for enquiries about fire matters, early warning of outbreaks, a co-ordination of activities and of course training of their members.

The  members live in the region, and know the local conditions.... The Smokespotters Group ... need the support and backing of all concerned with fire protection in this area, particularly local and regional authorities.

A wonderful effort by the group during the recent late October fires was an admirable demonstration of their capacities, and validation of the need for such an organisation.

+++++

Very much appreciate your efforts with all your concise information sharing.

+++++

Very big congratulations to you all you smokespotters for your response, great teamwork and communication.  It was a huge help to know what was happening under that horrific cloud of smoke in the Helidon Hills

The reports kept us up to date with and meant we could be ready to support without blindly trying to find out what was happening nor wandering around trying to help.

The maps, details of burns and firefighters and the sectioning off to reports for the different areas was terrific -

Awesome organisation and community over there

+++++

We co-own a property in the Helidon Hills off Seventeen Mile Road not far from Wallers Road, with a hut and a large shed on a cleared high section of land, but we do not reside there. The purpose of the land is to it return to the wildlife and have flora and fauna restored and protected. Adjoining the Lockyer National Park, our property known as Gattonview Nature Refuge provides a corridor for wild life, some of which are  vulnerable species including Koala, Glossy Black- Cockatoo, and Koala Fern.

As a result, we in Gatton, are always very concerned when we see smoke appearing

on the skyline above Helidon Hills.

We recently found out about Helidon Smokespotters Group ... who kept us well informed on the progress of the fire during this present distressing event. Although there was nothing we could do to save the bushland, we knew the Firefighters  were back burning around the buildings and that was reassuring.

We totally support the work.

   

+++++

Thanks to you and all of your smoke-spotting colleagues for providing such a marvellous and potentially life saving service.

In speaking to RFB/QPWS members during the current Helidon Hills fires, they are extremely impressed at being provided with accurate location and timely information about fire outbreaks.

The additional benefit of emails about Fire Authority strategies and outcomes, almost as they occur, is of great assistance to those of us who are landholders/residents of the Helidon Hills.

+++++

We would like to express our support and gratification to the coordinators and participants of the organization known throughout the community as “The Helidon Hills Smokespotters Group”.

Just recently, we (at our home and property) were made aware of a fire, undetected by us, close to our boundary.  The Smokespotter Coordinator was able to notify us of the situation and it was readily attended to by the Rural Fire Service volunteers and QPWS.

... we would request / recommend that this organization be supported in whatever means possible. Its continued and effective operation will be of immense benefit to the community as a whole.

+++++

Thanks for your comprehensive fire reports, they couldn’t be better ....

+++++

Thanks for the info .... it has been good to be able to answer people when they ask why all the smoke down here, and to put their minds at ease, as some of the days its been as bad as standing on the fire line.

Update 28 October - and thanks

We had 1.5mm of rain overnight as light falls over a long period, quite low temperatures, and high Relative Humidity, with very little wind.

This morning there was still smoke arising from a few places in the Hills east of the Outlook Crescent properties, though that has lessened during the day.

A QPWS fire crew came by this morning doing a final check on the containment lines in our area.  No fire activity to report.

When I drove back at midday from a meeting over at Stockyard Creek there was no one at the Command Centre on the corner of Sandy Creek Road and Fords Road, and it was all locked up.

So it does seem that this fire event in the part of the Hills around Wallers Road is over.

No recent news about the fire in the Ergon-Long property / Whipbird drive area, but I assume that is under control too.  Will let you know if I hear differently.

　

Time for some thanks.  On behalf of the Helidon Hills Smokespotters group and the Helidon Hills community:

• thanks to all those who provided information updates to KP and I for sharing via the email lists and the Smoksepotters web site.  Your assistance has been very much appreciated.

• thanks to the Incident Controllers at the Fire Command Centre who found time in their busy and stressful days to provide situation summaries with which the Smokespotters group could keep the community up-to-date.  Your trust and cooperation has been very much appreciated.

• thanks to Peter Cavendish and Dean Payne for your cooperation and assistance, both in relation to our property and to the sharing of information to be passed on to the community.

• thanks to KP (my co-Coordinator) for taking care of things at the Ravensbourne end of the Hills where you had your own fire to deal with.

Words cannot express the gratitude Hanneke and I feel toward the fire crews who worked cooperatively with us to identify ways to back burn from our house and access track with minimum impact.  We are in awe of the many Parks and Rural fire crews who on another day worked nearly to the point of exhaustion to stop a fire that had got into an unburned area with a very high fuel load.  We were amazed that you could stop that fire under those conditions.  Thanks too to those friends who offered to come and help us out.

Gordon

Fire Update 1800h 27 October

Sandy Creek

The fire situation in the Sandy Creek area is under control.

Outlook Crescent - Vinegar Hill

A fire which burned down into a tributary of Lilydale Creek from the back of the Bilson property yesterday morning is now burning in thick lantana in Lilydale Creek on the Bilson / Claridge boundary and is being monitored by a fire crew.

There has been light rain in this area and temperatures have dropped considerably since 3.00pm.

1000+ page views in 58 days

The Smokespotters web site went up late on 31 August this year.  After the first few days the site was averaging 10 hits per day and gradually increased until the start of the current fire incidents. 

Since last Saturday (20 October), hits on the site have ranged from around 40 per day to more than 100.  This is a great outcome as it pretty clearly shows that the site is serving a useful purpose, both as a community information/liaison service during fire incidents, and in making people aware of fire issues.

If you have been accessing the web site, or receiving emails, for information during the current fire incident we would appreciate your views on:

• what you particularly appreciated about the Smokespotters web site during the fire, including the information that you found most useful;
• what additional kinds of information you would wanted to see on the site; and
• any other ways in which the web site can be made more useful during fire incidents.

Please send your comments (preferably under the headings of the dot points above) by email to gfclaridge[at]gmail.com and we will endeavour to improve the service prior to future fire incidents in the Helidon Hills.

Thank you

Gordon and KP (Smokespotters Coordinators)

Fire Update 1030h 27 October

Sandy Creek

This morning there were three fire crews at the Adsett property off Sandy Creek Road and more were on the way to help secure it.

During the night fire crews back burned around the Garrard house, in addition to the back burn from Garrard Lane last night to meet the fire coming down from Seventeen Mile Road.

Forestry Road - Pine Road

The 200m infill back burn from a containment line in the Pine Road area was completed successfully last night.

Outlook Crescent - Forestry Road

Fire crews monitored the situation during the night (the severe winds forecast did not eventuate) and a reconnaissance by a fire crew this morning found no issues around the houses in Outlook Crescent or on Forestry Road past Beech Road.

General Area

Fire crews will be monitoring the situation and mopping up today and possibly into tomorrow.

Can you help Smokespotters to raise some money?

The Helidon Hills Smokespotters is a completely volunteer community organisation.  In fact it is a network of individuals who share a common objective - have a look at the About and History tabs above for a good description of what we do and why.

The Coordinators can run up large phone bills during a fire event.  Even just identifying the location of a smoke sighting in a complex situation can coast about $20 in phone bills.  But none of the Smokespotters minds the expense involved, if it leads to a useful outcome for the community, the environment and the fire services.

However, each Smokespotter needs to be equipped with an expensive bearing compass, accurate to around 0.5 degrees, which costs over $200, and mobile smokespotters require GPS units in order to accurately identify the point from which they are taking a bearing on a smoke sighting from the roadside.

We currently have an application with the Lockyer Valley Regional Council for funds to allow us to buy more compasses and GPS units - both for outfitting some current Smokespotters, and for the additional Smokespotters we need to recruit to make the group more effective.

It would be fantastic to be able to supplement our application to the Council with your supportive comments on the contributions the group has made in the course of this bushfire event.  Those contributions range from making the first sightings and reports of the four fires which an arsonist set along Wallers Road, the first sighting and report of the lightning-caused fire in the Ergon-Long / Whipbird drive area, to the email and web updates that have been issued during these fire events.

If you are willing to help us, could you please send an email to gfclaridge[at]gmail.com with the subject line "Thanks Smokespotters" and your comments on how useful you have found the Smokespotter group's efforts.  We will compile these responses and submit them to the Council as an Appendix to our application for funds.

Thank you

Gordon and KP (Smokespotter Coordinators)
[replace the [at] in the email address with @]

Fire Update 6.00pm 26 October

　

Don't forget the weather change expected tonight - ABC TV news just announced it would hit Toowoomba at 10.00pm (have a look at previous update for details).

There will be ten fire crews on duty tonight. Crews will be mainly patrolling and strengthening containment lines.

Back burning will occur on Pine Road to link up two sections of containment line, over about a 200m front (already happening I think, I've just seen the flames on our skyline).

Back burning will also occur on Garrards Land at Sandy Creek, to make sure that access to the Deucker property can be maintained in the face of the approaching fire front during the night.

This fire event is expected to need management by fire crews for another 48 hours.

More than 5,000ha has been burned - a significant jump on what was expected due to the fire that was started in the large property at the end of Adare Road, behind the planned containment line.

when it comes to bushfires, we are all neighbours

Fire update Sandy Creek Road 12.43pm today

[From Judy D]  At 12.43pm today the fire was at the corner of Garrards Lane and the control line up to Wagners. It was burning steadily but it was expected that there will be flareups when it reaches the second creek crossing where there is thick bladey grass.

Update 1430h 26 October

The main thing to report is the weather forecast (for Crows Nest, the nearest location with an up-to-date forecast and similar conditions to the Helidon Hills).

Maximum temperature is predicted to reach 33 degC this afternoon, Relative Humidity 35-45% dropping to 20-30% by 1500h.

Winds are expected to become W-NW at 25km/h with gusts to 35km/h.  At 11.00pm a SW change will come through with winds of 35-40km/h and gusts of 40-50km/h.

The fire team is currently watching the situation in relation to three houses in Sandy Creek (Adsett, Garrard, and Deucker) - fire moving in from the NW; and 21 in the Vinegar Hill area (vicinity of Beech Rd, Outlook Crescent, Forestry Road and Pine Road) - fire moving in from the W coming from Wallers Road.

Apart from those areas fire crews are mainly engaged in mopping up operations.

The Incident Controller will be flying over the area later this afternoon and I will try to get an update on the situation after 5.00pm.

Update 1830h 25 October

Seventeen Mile Road - Sandy Creek Road area

There will be a back burn tonight off Seventeen Mile Road from around its intersection with Goldmine Road  down to the containment line just past the large quarry on the left, and this will be continued down the containment line that runs from there down to Garrards Lane off Sandy Creek Road.

　

East and Southeast of Vinegar Hill (the hill, not the locality) and Outlook Crescent / Forestry Road area

The back burn that was planned for tonight from easternmost section of the containment line that starts in the Bracefield property (off Forestry Road / Pine Road) and goes north and northwest then northeast to meet with Redbank Creek Road is now in doubt.

This containment line was chosen because it avoids burning areas to the southeast of this line, including a significant area of private bushland on a large property at the end of Adare Road (on the lower right in the screen shot below).  However a fire was lit on that property today and is currently not under control.  Until it is clear whether that fire can be brought under control, no decision will be made as to whether to do the planned back burn.

Back burns are planned for this evening from the Brain and Jennings properties off Outlook Crescent.  Both properties have a common boundary with the Lockyer National Park and are potentially in the path of the wildfire burning east from Wallers Road.

Gatton Weather Forecast for 26 October

The weather forecast for Gatton for Friday 26 October is for a maximum temperature of 37 degC, Relative Humidity of 34% and wind from the WNW and NNW at 8-10km/h. (Some web sites are showing the predicted maximum as 33 degC).

Today, Wednesday 25 October there were reports of many instances of extinguished fires spontaneously re-igniting due to low humidity and high temperatures.  Today's temperature was predicted to be 30 degC and Relative Humidity only slightly higher than is predicted for tomorrow

Update 25 October 10.00am - delayed

Sorry for the delay - I was given this briefing at 10.00am, but when I arrived home from Sandy Creek, I showed two of the Parks firefighters where we would need a back burn against the wildfire coming down from Wallers Road.  We were looking around the area where this will be done when Hanneke discovered that fires which had burned themselves out last night had re-ignited.  She got a back-pack and started to deal with this while I worked with the Parks guys to work out the approach to the back burn - hopefully scheduled for this evening.

When they left I joined Hanneke in dealing with the newly resurrected fires.  However, received a phone call to say that when the Parks guys were driving out they discovered that a fire which had escaped across a fire break into a block that had deliberately not been burned for about 20 years - and was extinguished last night - had re-ignited and was burning furiously.

　

I left them to deal with that and call in reinforcements, and spent two hours working with Hanneke to get the re-ignited fires under control (which we did eventually), though then another fire from last night which had been crawling along a higher ridge became much more active and moved down to where we were working.  Leaving Hanneke to monitor the situation I made my way to the other outbreak, in the unburned area - which by this time had become quite a large fire, with several fire units in attendance.  I started helping out with that where I could, and suddenly it was 4.00pm  So here's the rather old news, though still (I hope) relevant.

Sandy Creek - Seventeen Mile Road Area

The firecrews did a bac kburn along Seventeen Mile Road past Henk Hagendoorn's place, then further on down past the Goldmine Road intersection.

It is planned to continue the back burn tonight (after 1800h) down the southern eastern side of Seventeen Mile Road to past the quarry where it will meet up with a back burn from a containment line that drops down to Garrard Lane.

East and Southeast of Vinegar Hill (the hill, not the locality) and Outlook Crescent / Forestry Road area

Fire crews will work throughout the day on strengthening the containment line that starts in the Bracefield property (off Forestry Road / Pine Road) and goes north and northwest then northeast to meet with Redbank Creek Road.  The first half of this road was used as a containment line for the back burn last night that burned west to meet the back burn from the Claridge property and the Blackboy Ridge orchard.  (The Claridge property was also used as the containment line for a back burn toward the west to meet the wildfire coming down from Wallers Road.

The bulldozed track from Wallers Road to Beech Road is secure today after last night's back burn.

Fire crews are hoping to get to the Jennings and Brain properties this afternoon to discuss a back burn tonight.

Ravensbourne - Ergon-Long property - Whipbird Drive area

A lot happened on the Ravensbourne fire fronts yesterday. The 'cavalry' arrived: police, fire crews, massive earth moving equipment, bulldozers, helicopters. Rural fire crews advised us that they would be aiming at containing the fire to stop it progressing up the hill to the Pascoe and Johnson/Neilson properties.

A containment line was graded the entire distance of Wackerling road, from Wallers Rd just near the Ravenbsourne National Park through to Seventeen Mile Rd. The backburning done by Private Forestry Management along the northern boundary of the Ergon block 1 was linked to the Eastern boundary of Ken Pascoe's,   continued up to the northern side of Whipbird Drive until Wackerling and then across it to the north to the National Park. A rough indication of the back burning line is indicated in  red, although this is not an official document, just my observations.

As a result all fire fronts have been back burned and risk of uncontrollable wildfire has been significantly reduced in this area for now. 

Properties on the Northern side of Whipbird Drive had the fire come closest. Several places were successfully defended, it is not yet known how others fared, at least two evacuations was 'voluntarily' enacted.

Fire Update 0831h 25 October

Sorry about the lack of posts lately - partly a lack of information coming in, but mostly that we had to prepare for a major burn around the properties in the corner of Vinegar Hill near just west of Wallers Road (Beech Road, Outlook Crescent, Forestry Road, and Pine Road).  

Events moved too quickly to be able to send out emails or put in in this blog, and the group of landowners involved was so small that it was quicker to communicate by phone.

The priority in this sector yesterday afternoon was to deal with the fire where it was very close to the bulldozed containment line between Wallers Road and Beech Road.  Once the fire crews had organised for backburning this area, attention shifted to planning the backburn from the properties off Outlook Crescent and then down Forestry Road.  This burn started in the late evening from our place (as the highest in the area), and then proceeded around the boundaries to the south and north.

I'm expecting reports on what has happened in the Ergon-Long / Whipbird Drive area on northern Seventeen Mile Road, and Sandy Creek Road in the next couple of hours.

Fire Update 0720h 24 October - Sandy Creek area

Sandy Creek area

[from Judy D. 0630h]
At midnight there was a red glow on the big hill on our north boundary which proved to be a fire lit all along from the eastern side of that ridge. The [Wallers Road] fire had no time to come right round, and it had not come across [Sandy Creek Road], it was deliberately lit and approaching our NE corner. We had no notification that this would be happening, but being slightly suspicious on these occasions due to long experience, a weather eye was kept. The fire was mostly small and creeping and easily extinguished where it was within reach, and the rest will be done when it is low enough. So the western ridge is now alight.

Fire Update 0630h 24 October

Southern Wallers Road / Vinegar Hill area

There was no wind for most of the night and that combined with low temperatures and high humidity meant that the fire hardly moved downhill.  A local temperature inversion seems to be holding the smoke down in the gullies where it "flows" downhill and makes it seem that the fire has moved much further than it really has.  By 4.00am there were no points of flame visible, where there had been a few at midnight and a lot just after sunset.

At the time of writing there is still no wind in the Vinegar Hill area.  The forecast for Gatton is for a maximum temperature of 24 degC and ESE winds of 21-24 km/h with Relative Humidity of 46-48%.  Current conditions are 14 degC, no wind, and 66% Relative Humidity.

Sandy Creek Road area

[from Judy D at 7.30pm last night]  Most of the day [23rd] the fire has crept in the gullies on the east side of Sandy Creek. At one stage there was a heavy cloud of smoke at the end of the road when a house was surrounded but undamaged. The fire then moved SE along the foot of the spur until about 5pm when the wind dropped a little and a backburn was lit from the control line right round the foot of the spur presumably to meet up with the fire coming the other way. Mostly the fire has been small, slow and very smoky. There are a few patches of fire still visible, but it seems to have settled down.

Update on fires 1516h 23 October

Ergon-Long property and Whipbird Drive

Northern extremity of fire has reached the far side northern side of Whipbird Drive [see Google Earth screen shot in earlier post] and is progressing towards the Esk Hampton Road.

Backburning of Ergon Lot 1 progressing vigourously.

According to Peter Ralph (Ravensbourne/Perserverance Rural Fire Brigade First Officer), via James Walcroft, a large fire is heading towardsThree Mile Rd., Crow's Nest, from the National Park.

All firefighting units at Cressbrook have have redeployed to Crow's Nest.

Sandy Creek Road

No new information available apart from a RFS/QPWS control centre being set up at junction of Sandy Creek Road and Fords Road.  I'll try for an update later.  If anyone has any solid information that needs to be made known to others in the area please feel free to send me an email (see email list message with this information, including my email address).

Southern Wallers Road / Vinegar Hill area

The fire front does not appear to have changed substantially apart from moving further east (against the wind, which continues to be strongly East and Southeast, and is forecast to remain the same into tomorrow), and to the north up the main Lilydale Creek valley.

QPWS will review the situation again this evening and again in the morning, with a view to doing a back burn late tomorrow, unless an unexpected change in the situation necessitates an earlier start.

Update Ergon-Long block and Whipbird Drive - northern part of 17 Mile Road

Just received this from KP 12.00 midday 23 October, no time to edit, apart from a couple of clarifications.

just heard from Gary Clarke [fire crew - Private Forestry Services Queensland contracted to Ergon], they are still back burning along the top end of portion 1 [outlined in red - the Ergon-Long block - known locally as Eagle Rock, but there is come confusion because the same name is used for another Ergon block], it's burning steadily, once that's completed (i gather some time later today) they are going to let the rest of the portion go to meet up with the other blocks that were burned off a couple of months ago.

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James and Ken [local property owners who have been working on controlling this fire for the last three days] are with David Ralph and Geoff Eudi (?sic?) from the Ravensbourne/ Perseverance rural fire brigade at the property of Mick Reedy down the end of Whipbird Drive [Whipbird Drive is the road that goes in an arc across the top of the screen shot]. 

 Ken said he thinks the fire will head from there up to the Esk Hampton Rd.

The rest of the local crews are all over at Cressbrook, the road between Ravensbourne and Cressbrook has been closed.

Update for Vinegar Hill area - Lilydale Creek Catchment

I've just been up on the hill behind our house with a compass and binoculars and have tried to map out where the fire front is at present.

Please bear in mind that this is only "apparent" - a lot of the front is behind ridges and is only inferred from the smoke, and sometimes it is not clear whether it is behind one ridge or two.

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For scale, the horizontal (E-W boundary running across the bottom third of the shot is 2.1km.  I am reasonably sure of the position of the front where it crosses the topmost bearing, and of the position in the mouth of the valley of the next tributary south, and of the position where the front meets the southernmost bearing. Most of the rest is conjecture.

Where earlier I had thought that the wind was becoming erratic and worried that it might be going to swing SW or W, it has now come back to blowing strongly, if intermittently, from the east, so is pushing the fire away from houses in the area at present.  However you should watch the wind carefully.  In yesterday's strong W and SW winds the fire front was sometimes moving at 1km per hour.  I'd estimate at present that the front is moving into the wind at something over 100m per hour - and much faster where it goes up slopes out of the wind.

The last I heard from QPWS (about 9.30am I think) was that the fire-fighting focus has been on the Sandy Creek Road area, which is downwind from the fire on parts of Wallers Road, and that that area has had priority for the very scarce fire crew/vehicle resources - there are a lot of other fires around SEQ.  No crews were available then for the southern Wallers Road / Vinegar Hill area, but were being actively sought from QFRS.

The fire in the Sandy Creek area was threatening houses on the southern side of Sandy Creek Road about one hour ago, and there were bulldozers working behind the houses to make containment lines.  The top bearing above was not only the limit, so far as I could see, of the fire in the main Lilydale Creek valley, but was also pointing directly to a very strong plume of smoke from the other side of Wallers Road, possibly in the Sandy Creek area.

Fire Update am 23 October

This is a summary of the situation around 1.30am last night, provided this morning by QPWS fire crew member

The fires along Wallers Road are now either continuous or nearly continuous for the length of Wallers Road from Seventeen Mile Road to near the jump-up in the south and are burning away from Wallers Road on both sides.  

The fire in the middle/southern part of Wallers Road has burned some way down into Sandy Creek and the strength of the W/SW winds yesterday prevented a dozer from opening up a containment line to stop it.

On the other (eastern) side of southern Wallers Road the fire moved only slowly east over most of the front, with some tongues moving more quickly (including one west of Outlook Crescent).

The containment line from the southern end of Wallers Road to Beech Road was opened up with a dozer in the afternoon and the fire is north of that line.

At the top of Wallers Road / Seventeen Mile Road the road edge from the Birthing Valley (controlled burn earlier this year on Birthing Valley) side of Gormans/Logans/Redbank Gully Road to Seventeen Mile Road intersection then along Seventeen Mile Road to below the Burkett property has been back burned.  The back burn along Seventeen Mile Road was done to stop the strong SE wind from pushing the fire across Seventeen Mile Road.

Property protection back burns commenced at the Bussey/Baker property as this was considered the most at risk and also because of its position in relation to the fire and other properties.  The burn around the buildings was continued on both sides of their access road back to Seventeen Mile Road.  

Back burns around other properties started in the west with the Burkett property and are now complete between there and Wallers Road.

There will be a meeting of fire crews this morning to scope out tactics, particularly in relation to the southern end of Wallers Road and Sandy Creek.  I hope to receive a briefing after that meeting - however I have to spend time preparing my property as the fire is around 1.5km away, so there may be some delays in preparing updates for the blog and email lists.

Fires update 1750h 22 October

Weather

The change in wind direction and speed (together with higher Relative Humidity) originally forecast for 10.00pm tonight was revised to occur at 7.00pm and in fact started to kick in in the southern Helidon Hills around 4.00pm.  Winds there are generally South East and not as strong as the Westerly and South Westerly winds have been earlier.

Southern Wallers Road Fire

This update is based on our own observations of the fires, and also on a briefing from the Murphys Creek RFB team who dropped in here around 530pm.  The W / SW winds activated the more southerly pair of fires which have now combined with the third fire further north (just out of this screen shot below) and moved east into the tributary valleys of Lilydale Creek, generally around 500m, but more in places, from Wallers Road. This fire is also burning further south, as well as west toward Fords Road. For scale, the horizontal boundary just below the middle of the the screen shot is 2.1km long.

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The SE change late this afternoon has significantly slowed the eastward movement of this fire, but because of the dryness of the understorey vegetation the fire has been burning upwind at around 100m per hour.

Most or all of the properties in the Vinegar Hill locality around Forestry Road and its side roads have been visited by RFS crews during the day to assess fire-fighting resources and to provide information to landowners.  Some bulldozing of old containment lines is occurring east and west of the Forestry Road /Beech Road area, and into the Hills to the northeast of there.

Northern Wallers Road and west from Wallers Road along Seventeen Mile Road

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This update is based on information from one of the property owners in the area, and on information from the Murphys Creek crew mentioned above.  I am hoping for an update from QPWS crews this evening, but at the moment they are out of mobile contact.

The fire has progressed further south either side of Wallers Road and there is some concern that the SE change could blow it back toward these properties.  Back-burning from buildings commenced around mid-afternoon and the burn from the edges of the grassy surrounds of the buildings on the westernmost property was completed by late afternoon.  At 1830h the fire was moving slowly downhill away from buildings.

I will post more on this area when I hear, as well as an update on the Ergon-Long & Pascoe fire on northern Seventeen Mile Road in the next couple of hours.

Further to the 10.50am Update

The firefighters will concentrate their efforts in the area of the properties on Seventeen Mile Road west of Wallers Road today and until further notice.

There is no plan at this stage to light up any back burns in the southern Wallers Road, Ringwood or Vinegar Hill area today unless the situation changes substantially.

If you know of people who are concerned about the fires, please direct them to this blog.

Fire Update 10.50am 22 Oct

The latest situation with the fires:

Southern End of Wallers Road

No visible activity but probably some pockets of fire, however the situation with the Northern End fire eliminates any hope that this might bring.

Northern End of Wallers Road

The fire has started up again, just starting to run in the grass mid-morning.  Because of the extent and location of the fire front it is not possible to fight it.  In any case the weather forecast for this afternoon would be likely to make this impossible.  This fire can be expected to join up with the burned areas in the Southern End, even if they do not flare up again.

Ergon-Long and Pascoe Fire - Northern End of Seventeen Mile Road

Ergon has brought in fire-fighting teams from Private Forestry Services Queensland.  They did not do the light-up of the entire block on the Ergon-Long land last night because the rain dampened down the fire and precluded lighting up other areas. The team will continue today and tomorrow to burn this area to block the movement of the fire to the south and west.

The containment line to the east of the Pascoe block appears to have held during the night and is being monitored today

Weather Forecast

The weather forecast for Amberley is:
between 2 and 4pm this afternoon - 35 degC, 16% Relative Humidity, WSW wind at 35km/h
around 10pm tonight - 64% RH, SE wind at 35-50km/h

 

Update on fires - 6.00am Monday 22 October

On the southern side of the Hills (Vinegar Hill / Wallers Road area) we had a short sharp storm last night which dropped 3mm of rain and seems to have extinguished the fires on the southern end of Wallers Road.  No doubt there are still hot spots that could flare up today, but for now there is no sign of smoke rising from the area.

I will get updates on the other fires as soon as possible.

Fires in the Hills - latest information as of 7pm 21 October

Fire north of Ergon-Long property - northern end of Seventeen Mile Road - east of KP Neilson property

This fire was reported by a Smokespotter Coordinator (KP) last night, and was apparently the result of a lightning strike.  The fire seems to have been held in check to the east of the Pascoe property by local landowners for most of the day (more or less along the boundary shown by the yellow line in the screen shot below), though the very dry condition of the bush made things difficult.  The fire had entered the Ergon-Long property (bounded in red on the screen shot below) last night and was burning there during the day.

Late this afternoon a range of resources have arrived on the scene (Private Forestry Service Queensland, and Ravensbourne Rural Fire Brigade), and a good amount of manpower and machinery is now available there. These teams will combine to burn the Ergon-Long property tonight, from containment lines already in place around the property, to block the fire from moving any further to the east or south.

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Fire on Wallers Road south of the Wallers Road/Logans Road intersection, northern end of Wallers Road, just east of Seventeen Mile Road

This fire was reported by a Smokespotter (Kent S) at 1.00pm apparently soon after it was lit.  Both Smokespotter Coordinators were at KP's place helping to secure the house against possible ember attack and cooperated to work with Smokespotters to get a location on the fire (thanks to Kent S, and a local property owner Neal F), and to report it to the QPWS Duty Officer Southeast.

As a result a fire truck from Withcott Rural Fire Brigade was quickly on the scene, and commenced backburning along Logans Road to protect properties on the northern side of the road.  At this stage the fire was on the eastern side of Wallers Road.  One (possibly two) more Withcott vehicles arrived and joined in fighting the fire.  A QPWS fire crew arrived about an hour later and joined in the work.

At 5.10pm QPWS reported that the crews had been unable to keep the fire from crossing Wallers Road, and had now gone into property-protection mode, to liaise with the property owners immediately to the west of Wallers Road, along Seventeen Mile Road.  All resources which were not needed on this task were immediately diverted to the three other fires on Wallers Road (see below).

Very approximate area where this fire is burning:




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Fires on the southern end of Wallers Road

When Hanneke and I were returning home after working with KP and then checking on Tony Alden's house on Wallers road we saw smoke from three fires on the southern end of Wallers Road.  We got bearings from the northern end of Fords Road, Placid Hills and then from our place (one fire is on Wallers Road directly west of us, and two more are on Wallers Road to the southwest.  We reported these to QPWS Duty Officer Southeast and he passed the information on to the QPWS teams on the ground.  They then diverted resources to these fires.

The pink pins show were our bearings indicated the fires were around 4.00pm.  The corner of the property in the top left is the southeasternmost property in the screen shot above.

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