Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

A bushfire on Wireless Hill

Late morning yesterday my wife and I smelled bushfire smoke at our house. It was strong. There was a strong easterly blowing so we guessed a firebug had set alight Wireless Hill. As the smoke flies, it's only a couple of kilometres away, although here is a small rise in between.

We had been going out to check out camera tripods, but decided instead to check out the fire. Sure enough it was Wireless Hill, burning furiously in the northern slope. The ground firefighters were already on the job and some of helicopters had started dropping water.

We retreated to Tompkins Park, which is a sports ground on the riverside, adjacent to Wireless Hill. We had a pretty good view of the helicopter action even though we were downwind and copping a lot of smoke in our faces.

I think there were eventually four choppers at work. Initially they were buzzing off somewhere to the east to suck up more water, but a firetruck arrived at Tomkins Park and set up a self supporting plastic "pot" next to the cricket pitch. They connected it by a fire hose to a hydrant and filled it.

Each machine had one white helmeted pilot in the left seat. They hovered above the pot and dangled a flexible pipe with a high pressure pump attached to the end. They could obviously switch the pump on an off. The water was pumped up into a tank fixed to the underside of the chopper. The pilots had mirrors fixed at strategic locations so they could see what was going on below. Sometimes getting the pipe into the pot was tricky, especially when it started to develop a swing.

Soon the helicopters were coming and going as fast as they could. Sometimes they queued in mid-air, waiting for a brief suck of water before dashing off again into the smoke. Sometimes the smoke from the hill was so thick it appeared they were experiencing zero visibility.

I had my camera so I was able to take plenty of action photos of the pilots at work. I gained the impression they must have one of the most exciting jobs going - a bit on the dangerous side to spice things up.

I've only put two images on Panoramio. The first was taken in the early stages of the fire.

The second was taken in the aftermath when matters were under control. If this image is enlarged then fire crews can clearly be seen mopping up on the burnt out hillside.

However there were plenty of other pretty thrilling pictures and I've put a good selection of them in a folder on my Picasa site. Take a look at them. I think they speak for themselves.

© MMVIII Paul R. Weaver.

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by clicking them.

About the writer

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Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

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