Local Fire

In the evening last Wednesday I noticed a very strange light outside. Further investigation revealed that there was a fire nearby. No firetrucks were apparent so I rang the fire brigade. As I was on the phone a siren could be heard in the distance so I wasn't the only person concerned.

Yu-Jin and I went to investigate. Turned out that the fire was deep inside a reserve and we weren't going to walk into there. It wasn't easily accessible at all.

Firetruck dashing into the smoke haze.

It's not Mississippi but something is burning.

The birdlife doesn't appear to be too bothered by the fire.


A couple of firetrucks, that were too large to get into the reserve, were waiting nearby. We decided to look at one of the trucks when the driver told Yu-Jin to jump in. He had a good look around and then had a few questions regarding the instruments.

Firetruck in a hurry.

The newest recruit for the fire brigade.

Yu-Jin in the firetruck.


Going around the truck we looked at the jaws of life, the breathing apparatus and the hose and valves. Yu-Jin asked where the fireman's axe was and was told that they don't use them anymore. Well, very rarely. Buildings these days have steel doors or security screens and the axe isn't much chop, if you'll pardon the pun. It was great to have the opportunity to ask a fireman any question that we wanted to and we learnt quite a bit in the process. We were told that 99/100 fires are lit. And when I said that we hadn't had a fire in the area recently the fireman said, "Except for yesterday." Apparently a fire had been lit in the same place the day before and I hadn't even noticed!