SSO Fire Problem

[theodog]

We have just heard that Siding Spring Observatory is being evac'ed.

Lets hope they can save it.:prey:

The mind goes back to Canberra 2003.

[Ric]

Here is the latest info for that fire.

Major Fire Updates


Emergency Warning - Wambelong Fire, Warrumbungle (Coonamble LGA) 13/01/13 16:50

Posted: 13/01/2013
An emergency warning is in place for a large fire which is burning uncontrolled in the Warrumbungle National Park to the West of Coonabarabran.

Current Situation
The bush fire is currently burning north of Timor Road towards Siding Spring Observatory.
About a dozen isolated properties at Mt Woorut, including Siding Spring Observatory, are under threat.
Police are evacuating the area. Firefighters and waterbombing aircraft are on scene.
An Emergency Alert telephone warning message has been sent to people in the area. The message has been sent through mobile phone towers, meaning people outside the immediate warning area may have received this message.
If you have received this message but are not in the Siding Spring area, continue to monitor the situation.
Advice
If you are in the area around the Siding Spring Observatory, leave immediately if the path is clear along Timor Road in an easterly direction towards Coonabaraban.
A southerly change is forecast to affect the area in the next hour. This may push smoke and embers towards Bugaldie. People in the Bugaldie area should continue to monitor the situtation.
Other Information
If your life is at risk, call Triple Zero (000) immediately.
Continue to stay up to date with the bush fire situation by checking www.rfs.nsw.gov.au (http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/), listening to your local radio or by calling NSW RFS Bush Fire Information Line on 1800 679 737.
If you live in the area but are away from home, it may not be safe to return to your property.
For information on road closures check http://livetraffic.rta.nsw.gov.au (http://livetraffic.rta.nsw.gov.au/). Roads may be closed without notice.

[CapturingTheNight]

Live Cam http://150.203.153.131/~hatuser/wth/cam_d.html

Fingers crossed and I hope everyone stays safe.

[xstream]

Doesn't look all that good.
Fingers crossed here too!

[theodog]

We can't see the mountain from where we are now. Every now and then a helicopter or fixed wing darts into and out of the smoke.

[Forgey]

Doesn't look good, fingers crossed.

[Ric]

Another image courtesy of the RFS media

It looks very nasty

http://ow.ly/i/1mEIb/original

[spacezebra]

Looks like Donna Burton has been evacuated from her property at Coona. Not great at the moment.

[gary]

They are asking people to go to the bowling club at Coona.

[dvj]

My remote observing partner who is one of the managers' at the AAT says they are under evacuation orders. Our imaiging equipment has been pulled from the remote observatory on his property which is only a few kilometers down the road toward Coona. I have no other word on the fire.

jg

[SpaceNoob]

Damn this looks bad. :( Hope everyone is safe.

[theodog]

We now have burnt gumleaves dropping from the sky.
We are 30 km E of SSO.

[OICURMT]

Updates every few seconds... you can see what appears to be smoke / clouds rolling over the observatory.
http://site.aao.gov.au/AATdatabase/met.html
http://site.aao.gov.au/skycam/weather-large.html

[dvj]

Here is a screen capture just made from the all sky camera at iTelescopes.net on Siding Springs mountain.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3691/latestimagea.png


Dramatic to say the least. I think that's the AAT dome in the lower right corner. Sun is saturating the sensor.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/886/ssofire.png
jg

[Omaroo]

Word is that the fire has gone "around" the observatory. Don't know how the other buildings are, but fingers crossed for all of them. Hope that this is fact.

UPDATE: NSW RFS Media ‏@rfsmedia
Wambelong Fire (Warrumbungles) 2 properties on Timor Rd have been destroyed. Parts of observatory damaged. Will fully assess tomorrow.

[mozzie]

lets hope the sso and all surrounding properties and telescopes are all going to be all right.i hope this wasn't a .......... light fire.

[gary]

My goodness. Makes the huge multi-story AAT dome and the water tower next
to it look diminutive.

[gary]

I can see they have evacuated all the way down to Steve Lees and the Motel.

It's so grassy out there which will make it a real challenge.

[Terry B]

According to the Rfs website 2 properties have been destroyed and some damage to the SSO.
See
http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_more_info.cfm?CON_ID=19738&CAT_ID=684

[GeoffW1]

Super scary photo, fingers crossed

[tonybarry]

I saw the pic on the SMH page.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/sky-falls-in-on-top-observatory-20130113-2cnnz.html

Very bad. Hope the scope survives, and nobody gets hurt.

Regards,
TB

[grantch]

Wow! Surprised they allow so much bushland around it, but then, you never really expect this to happen :(

[g__day]

Hope the fire misses everyone and everything important at the SSO

[mithrandir]

SSO is in a National Park. Getting a hazard reduction burn there is near to impossible.

Did you ever visit Mt Stromlo before the Canberra bushfires? Pine plantations all they way up the mountain to the observatories.

[tonybarry]

From OICURMT's post,

http://site.aao.gov.au/AATdatabase/met.html

The 24-hr sensor data from the AAO (first block of three graphs) tells a real story. Outside air temperature over 100 degrees at 4:30pm, inside temperature rose about ten degrees, mirror stayed constant.

We still have a telescope. Great bit of engineering. Not many places could survive that.

Regards,
Tony Barry

[rogerg]

Watching this very closely hoping for the best. I think every observatory in Asutralia is in a vulnerable position with regards to fire just because of the nature of the location requirements.

Fingers crossed.

[tornado33]

I wonder what other areas of the SSO site have been damaged. The AAT dome is huge so to affect it at at means a pretty big fire. I wonder where the outside air sensor is positioned, low to the ground or right on top of the dome?

[SpaceNoob]

Looks really bad now...

[h0ughy]

hope the damage isnt bad. i feel for those that have lost their property?

[h0ughy]

out of interest where did you get those views - i am amazed that the power is still on and the telecommunications is still working

[gary]

Just been talking to a friend who works for the AAO.

The place was evacuated so nobody should be up there at the observatory but
he suggested that if the webcams and meteorological telemetry was still
streaming it meant that the generators had probably kicked in OK and were powering
them.

Judging by the Faukes Telescope South webcam images posted above, looks as if there are spot fires
around the astronomer's lodges.

[theodog]

I used to live in this house, with Rob McNaught next door.:sadeyes:

After the Canberra fires they did a lot to reduce fire hazards and fire proof the buildings etc.

Burning off (hazard reduction)in the National Park.... will never happen!:rolleyes:
-won't have to now eh!
It was just a bomb waiting for nature to light it.

I wonder where the opponents to reduction burning are now.:mad2:
I hope they are patting out the kangaroos.

[strongmanmike]

Jesus!!

The brand new iTelescope.Net facility is just now having their grand opening up there too, fuuuuu....

:sadeyes:

We can't lose both Stromlo and SSO :help:

Mike

[mithrandir]

Request from RFS. Please do not view any of the SSO webcams. Limited bandwidth is making it hard for them to keep tabs on the situation.

I've deleted the image. It was one of the ones in Chris' post.

[Scorpius51]

I think that's SkyMapper, not AAT.

[SpaceNoob]

Image was via CAS mailing list. - no webcam bandwidth was harmed in this post.

Hope all is well, fingers crossed that the most important stuff survives the inferno.

[mithrandir]

I got it forwarded from ASNSW.
Brian Schmidt sounds pretty gloomy.

[gary]

The last two weeks certainly have been a dramatic start to the year.

Elsewhere, Tibooburra routinely scores a mention on the daily weather reports as
often having had the maximum temperature in NSW on any given day.

Apparently today it was 47.9C there, the highest in 103 years of records.

We were very lucky to get the rain here in Sydney today.

Unfortunately the rain cells on the RADAAR seemed to have missed Coona.

[seanliddelow]

"The fire is burning in a north and north westerly direction away from Timor Road and the Siding Spring Observatory" (http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_more_info.cfm?CON_ID=19738&CAT_ID=684)

I'm hoping this is true, as it would be a real loss for astronomy worldwide if the telescopes were lost. I hope everyone out there is ok at the moment.:sadeyes:

[gary]

Blog by AAO worker, Dr. Amanda Bauer (http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/abauer/), including photos and videos.
http://amandabauer.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/siding-spring-observatory-fires.html

[Astropleiades]

Wow, bad news! :(
This observatory must be saved... we can hope he won't be destroyed.

Astro-frendly,
Astropleiades

[iceman]

More updates this morning from Dr Amanda Bauer.

http://amandabauer.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/siding-spring-obs-fires-day-after.html

Incredible vision. I hope the telescopes survived. Glad everyone was evacuated safely.

[Scorpius51]

Hi folks

My day job is as an electronic engineer with Mt Stromlo Observatory. As many of you know, the SSO is our (the ANU's) principal observing facility, along with the AAO's 3.9m. It is 10 years this week since the fires destroyed most of our MSO facility. We will be having an All School (Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics) meeting at 1100 today to get an update on the situation at SSO.

Here's hoping ...
John

[Suzy]

:(
Paula (Forgey) post this on facebook-
See the link for the updates from Brian Schmidt & Rob McNaught and pics of the damage.

http://alankerlin.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/siding-springs-observatory-damaged-by.html?spref=fb

[grantch]

Story in SMH this morning, some amazing photos... scary how close!

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/it-looked-like-an-atom-bomb--telescope-saved-but-dangerous-bushfire-destroys-homes-20130114-2co8t.html

[gary]

Faulkes South video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26dyM-oK0uY&feature=share

[ausastronomer]

I seriously can't believe we have had another of the world's best astronomical research facilities damaged by fire for the sake of saving a few hundred of the 400 billion plus trees in the world.

Whilst I am all for conserving the environment and nature, it gets to a point where sometimes common sense has to prevail and I think it is ludicrous that a facility like this can be exposed to such fire risk for the sake of conserving a few hundred trees amongst 10's of thousands, or more, in that National Park. The trees are replaceable, the facility isn't. This was a case of when it was going to suffer fire damage, not if.

Cheers,
John B

[gary]

New photos from air and ground on RFS Facebook page this morning
(need to log in)

http://www.facebook.com/nswrfs#!/nswrfs

At first glance, it may not be too bad.

[Omaroo]

Absolutely. Ludicrous. Frankly, stupid.

[gary]

Astronomer's lodge and director's residence destroyed.

Some will not immediately mourn the loss of the lodge because it was not the
most comfortable place to have to stay.

[Omaroo]

It's amazing that anything came out the other side after that. Trees should be lopped short out to a 200m radius I think. This is too important to lose just for the sake of a few thousand of the zillions of trees on this continent. Damned ludicrous that this facility is considered expendable. Re-zone the immediate area to standard crown land and protect it for goodness' sake.

[rustigsmed]

Firstly, i feel for the people who have lost their homes.

Secondly, if the fire prevention works are deemed inadequate, particularly after what happened to Stromlo, someone needs to be held accountable. It's inexcusable to fail to adequately safeguard such an important, expensive international asset. Waiting to discover how effective the fire prevention measures were and whether more should've reasonably been expected will be interesting.

Cheers

[Omaroo]

My thoughts too Gary. Many will be thinking "nice new accommodation coming up".

[rogerg]

Seems from what I am seeing that the lessons learned from Stromlo and steps taken to make the AAO site safer is what has saved so many of the buildings. There's always a balance and if they only lose a few supporting buildings when the site was completely evacuated left to servive on it's own as the fire passed, I think that's quite a good outcome and they should be thanked for their forward planning. I wouldn't judge how prepared or unprepared they were at this stage, seems unfair.

[grantch]

You can see from some of the photos that those buildings with a reasonable concrete/bitumen zone around them seemed to do ok, whereas others had the fire go right up to them as the grass trees seems to literally go right up to the walls :(

[acropolite]

I'm with Chris on clearing and properly maintaining around dwellings etc. National Park or not Safety has to be the number one priority.

Regarding the constant burning of bush in Hazard Reduction Burns, there is some evidence to suggest that hazard reduction burns actually increase the fuel load, in areas where such burns aren't carried out the understory vegetation is much more sparse and fires less prevalent and of lower intensity. I heard a program on the ABC where they talked about vegetation counts on two adjacent properties, one of which had been burned regularly, the other had not been burned for decades, the understory count for the regularly burned property was from memory ten times more dense than the unburned property.

Repeated burning enriches the soul and rejuvinates and envigorates the understory vegetation, low intensity burns often leave vegetation "cured" i.e. dead but not burned, perfect fuel for the next bushfire.

It's also not unusual for hazard reduction burns to get out of control and be the problem rather than the cure.

Also the practice of burning for plantation regeneration masqueraded as hazard reduction is rife, particularly in my state, it's little wonder that people are averse to being smoked out.

I'm not necessarily saying that hazard reduction burns are a waste of time, but there needs to be some serious unbiassed science performed before knee jerk "set it on fire because it might catch fire" strategies are used.

[ausastronomer]

You are kidding right? Losing a few buildings and millions of dollars worth of equipment at one of the world's leading astronomical research facilities is a good outcome? IMO it's not a good outcome at all, as it could have been totally avoided, but wasn't because of stupidity and some stupid greenie laws.

It has nothing to do with how prepared or unprepared anyone was. The AAO and it's staff do everything within their power to make the facility as fireproof as possible within the constraints of the law. The problem is the stupid laws prevent any of the trees on the Mountain and near the facility being cut down. The trees within the proximity of the facility which posed any form of fire risk to the facility should have been chopped to the ground when it was built, failing that, at least after the loss of Stromlo.

Cheers
John B

[icytailmark]

5 buildings were destroyed or damaged in the fire. Unsure if main scope is damaged yet.

[Scorpius51]

We have just been informed at the Mt Stromlo RSAA meeting that the major damage so far has been the loss of the lodge, director's residence, and one of the staff residences. It appears that all the telescopes have survived the fire, with perhaps some minor damage to some support facilities, such as the main office, workshop and the AAO visitor's centre.

It is too early to say whether there has been damage due to heat, smoke, ash, etc, in any of the telescopes, but there appears to be life in the on-line monitoring systems in some of the telescope buildings. However, we will not know until there is a comprehensive on-site and on-line investigation and assessment.

It will be at least 2 weeks before normal access will be possible, maybe more. There are still spot fires, so it's not over yet - but it appears that the worst is over. Restoration/maintenance of power and water is essential.

[gary]

Hi Roger,

Indeed, in talking to one colleague at the AAO, they had taken the lessons of
Stromlo to heart and lots of forward planning and preparation were in place.

When Dunham and Gascoigne investigated the site in 1957, they had to go
down a little country road, pass through a dozen gates and then climb up
to the top of the ridge through the scrub. Once the site was selected in the early
1960's, the sealed road was constructed at very considerable expense.

Since the site was in the bush, fire planning was considered during its construction
from the start. The area is buffeted by strong winds and during testing, the wind
gusts were so strong that instruments would be blown over. On the south west
side, the site is essentially on top of a cliff overlooking the park.

There is no doubt that the amenity provided by its spectacular views over the
neighboring park would have been in the back of the minds of some involved in
the original site selection process back in the late 50's and early 60's. It happens
to arguably have the best lookout view in the entire region.

There were other places in Australia considered that had better seeing, but the
fact that Coonabarabran was a nearby major service center was a key factor as well.

The AAT itself is raised 21m off the ground to minimize ground effects.
Wind, dust and lady beetles make their way in through the aperture.

Before Siding Springs was selected, Mt Kaputar was originally considered.
It is hard to imagine what a challenge it would have been building it atop Mt
Kaputar and then keeping it safe in the event of the inevitable fires.

[icytailmark]

fingers crossed the equipment isnt too damaged. Did they do any back burning around the complex?

[grantch]

Normally being National Park, you can't.

I wonder how airtight those domes are. You can image a lot of smoke soot etc trying to find its way in.

[icytailmark]

i live near the royal national park in sydney and they do back burning every year.

[SpaceNoob]

Now would be a good time to cut some stuff down; just for safety of course.... you know... those trees could have serious structural integrity issues and would be an OH&S risk after those fires :rolleyes:

[theodog]

No, I would have thought reduction measures over the last 2-3 winters -above average rainfall in the area- would be a good time.:shrug:

I know people out here have been concerned about the fuel in "The Park" for some time.
Spot over comes from elsewhere!

The SSO site was as well prepared as IT could be.
I would say "Well done to the people involved in this after Stromlo". This is probably why so much survived.
However, Does SSO still have its Fire Brigade? It had one in the early 00's.

The observatory is now relatively safe. There are many people homeless now including some of our astro-colleques I believe.

[AstroJason]

The Australian just posted this story and time lapse footage of the fire approaching

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/bushfires/furious-bushfire-strikes-siding-spring-observatory/story-fngw0i02-1226553143005

[Terry B]

News 24 now reports that 28 properties have been destroyed. This includes Rob McNaughts home according to a report earlier today.

[gary]

Hi Terry,

Rob reported yesterday that he and Tanya evacuated with their dogs and that the
fire passed through their property.

So if it transpires that they lost the house, that is sad to hear.

As many of the other staff have houses near the Observatory, then a lot of them
will be personally affected.

Rob came across yesterday as very confident that the AAT would come out fine.


I note on the RFS web site some scrub grass fires under control up your way at
Thunderbolts Mtn and Kings Gap.

[gary]

ABC News 24 video report from helicopter -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-14/western-nsw-fire-burning-out-of-control/4463876

[WadeH]

Well done to all who were involved in controlling this bushfire and helping to save the structures that make up this wonderful complex.
Have a look at the images at this site https://www.facebook.com/nswrfs . Viewed through my eyes as a 10 year WA VFS member, it looks as though the out buildings were mostly lost by ember attack and not direct flame, typical of older designs. The grassed and paved areas seemed to have done their job well, and even the tree'd areas. You will always get a more intense and fast fire running up hill which is evedent in these images. The clearing on this site obviously appears to have been sufficient (WA FESA recomendations is 20m around structures)
Again well done all and to the staff, I hope you are up and running before to long.
RIP to the Victorian DSE firefighter who died in Tasmania :(

[gary]

ANU Press Release from 13:00 today -
http://news.anu.edu.au/2013/01/08/fire-risk-information-for-anu-staff-and-students/

[gary]

Hi Wade,

Looking at the couple of seconds of video on ABC News 24, it appears as if the fire has
raced up the south-west side, which was to be expected, as that is the side the
fire originated from and that the steepness of the ridge itself may have acted
as a shield for the observatory site on the top. As seen in the dramatic photo yesterday,
a lot of the heat and smoke of the fire may have been directed nearly vertically
by the time it got to the top of the ridge. The trees at the top and on the
eastern side look relatively little affected.

Indeed, the structures that have been reported lost were mostly quite old and
it will probably transpire they succumbed to ember attack.

There is no way you would have wanted to be up there at the time with potentially
unsurvivable radiant energy if you were in the line of sight, but structures such
as the Lodge might have been defendable if one had been unlucky enough to
have been stuck in it. All of them had fire hoses that may have been sufficient
to put out ember attack spot fires if you had the misfortune to find yourself
faced with the challenge.

The building code has moved on and hopefully the replacements for buildings
such as the Lodge will also be a more comfortable and pleasant place for astronomers
and staff to rest. The Lodge wasn't something many looked forward to spending more
than a night in.


Sad to hear of the loss of life for the Victorian firefighter in Tasmania.

[icytailmark]

i bet some idiot started this fire.

[Shark Bait]

I have been listening for news on the radio. It will take some time to repair the damage after the assessment is completed. Lots of people have lost their homes in the areas burnt out by this bushfire.

[Terry B]

The fires near us aren't to bad. It is only about 22 deg today and rained last night.
Clearly lots of houses lost at Coona with lots of personal astro gear in them. There will be lots of rebuilding to do.

[Tamtarn]

So sad to hear Rob McNaught has lost his home, although thankful to hear everyone evacuated safely.
Barb

[xstream]

We shouldn't just assume the worst!
The RFS reports it was a lightening strike.

[mozzie]

the news also reported lightning strike...sorry to here the loss off property,must be absolutly gut wrenching....good to see no loss of life.

[gary]

Donna Burton on Facebook 3 hours ago -


Donna and Chris live close to the observatory.

[gary]

Has anyone heard from Steve Lee?

The Lees are far enough back down the Timor Rd away from Sidings Springs that
hopefully the fire didn't reach that far.

[clive milne]

130323

[OzRob]

Last night I went to bed thinking that the observatory that I use remotely in the same area (Timor Rd) was a pile of ashes. We were lucky and the fire didn't destroy it or any of the others on the same property. It will be out of action while the power and internet cables are re-run.

[gary]

Email from Lachlan MacDonald this morning.



I have received reports this morning of several observatory workers being among those
who lost their houses.

It was alarming to read in Lachlan's account that the fire had got down the Timor
Road at least as far as the Motel. That is quite a way.

Goodbye Timor Cottages where we stayed on occasion and spent many memorable
nights observing with friends.

if the Timor Cottages are gone then I can't imagine that the Craggiebungle Cottage
would have stood much of a chance.

Anxious to hear how Steve Lee and his family got on.

[theodog]

I caught up with Rob McN this morning in Coonabarabran town.
His partner and dogs are OK.:thumbsup:
Lost everything including his house.
He has a place to stay.
He said he didn't even know there was a fire untill a phone call to evacuate and to make sure you are prepared for fire early.

Steve's property were outside the fire zone I believe, but not certain.

[gary]

Thanks Jeff,

We had heard about Rob. Lucky they got out and good to hear they
have somewhere to stay.

Hopefully Steve and Pam were outside of the zone but I was shocked
to hear it had got as far as the Mountains Motel.

A group of us are coming up to Coona in March for the week.

Our thoughts are with everyone in the meantime.

As Dave Kriege reminded me, the stars will always be there. :thumbsup:

Gary Kopff
Mt Kuring-Gai

[Rodstar]

Hi all,

I have had a heavy heart today about the devastation. On page 3 of the Telegraph today there was an aerial photo of Timor Country Cottages where I have spent several wonderful holidays, and enjoyed observing on one memorable weekend with Andrew Murrell. I felt sick looking at the photo. On ABC news tonight Helen, whom many of us who stayed at the Cottages would have met, was briefly interviewed. She was understandably devastated. She mentioned that she and her husband Hugh had built the homes there, and that her daughter had been living in the front cottage.

The proprietors of the Mountain Motel were also interviewed on the ABC news, although the surrounding land has been badly scorched, their buildings have been saved. They were looking quite shocked.

Gary - I agree with you that it is hard to imagine that Craggibungle ,which I have also stayed at, could have survived, given that it sits in amongst the trees on high! It is quite a bit further down the Timor Road towards the NP than Timor Rock, so it must surely be lost. That is very sad, because it is such a gorgeous spot.

So glad to hear that everyone is safe. That is of course the main thing.

I will be staying at Pilliga in March (same week that Gary, John Bambury, Lachlan etc, and the visitors from the North will be in Coona). It will be interesting to see how things have come along by then.

[gary]

Hi Rod,

We just watched that too. As soon as we saw the Timor Rock we knew it would
be Helen and her daughter. What a terrible blow.

We will hook up at Coona.

[col]

Thanks to the wind shift, Steve Lee and family are all ok and the property is untouched.

[Rodstar]

Great news Col.

And Gary - looking forward to seeing you (and hopefully Mai) in March.

[deanm]

Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnPmi31h0iY&feature=youtube_gdata

Dean

[sally1jack]

I heard this morning that the Pilliga area is now under threat , hope all is well at pilliga

phil

[gary]

An understandably distraught John Shobbrook was interviewed on ABC TV tonight
after having been helicoptered into his Coonabarabran property.

Sadly, the "hobbit" style house has been destroyed. Two observatory domes remain.

John's RV van also survived and it will become home for he and his wife for a while.

Video here -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-16/residents-of-fire-ravaged-properties-return-home/4467954

[Rodstar]

Hi Phil,

I think they are OK at Pilliga Pottery. This is the latest posting on their Facebook page (from 21 hours ago):

Still here! Quieter fire conditions (cooler weather and less wind) over the last couple of days have meant slower fire development, although both fires are still expanding and remain a real danger if conditions worsen. The whole team has been working like trojans to prepare the pottery and homestead ahead of expected hotter conditions towards the end of the week. Huge thanks to Anna, Nena, Yukari, Helene, Laura, Kai, Max, Ryan, and Jaap for their amazing efforts thus far! Massive thank you as well to Amy and Christian, who tore themselves away from us to swan off to New Zealand for an admittedly well-earned break - we miss them already! And a big shout out for the RFS and their volunteer support crew - true heroes operating under very difficult conditions (we include Johannes and Bernhard in this list, as they've been firefighting as well as helping out here). We'll keep you posted as we can. Cheers from the Pilliga Pottery Family (Maria, Regina, Johannes, Bernhard and Julie).

[gary]

An update posted on the RFS website yesterday afternoon, 17 Jan 2013, at 17:25
said the fire was burning close to rural properties in the Bingie Grumble Road and
Carrington Lane areas.

Carrington Lane is where Steve Lee's property is.

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_more_info.cfm?CON_ID=19738&CAT_ID=684

RFS report 51 properties have been lost as at this time.

[gary]

Andrew Murrell talked to Steve Lee last night on the telephone but the fire
was not in their immediate vicinity. They have evacuated twice so far but as at last
night the fire was SW of them but that was also the direction the wind is predicted to come
from today.

With the extreme temperatures that are taking place there today it will
be tough work for the 150 firefighters. RFS reports the fire is still out of control.

Steve has worked as an operator at the AAT for many years. Some will also remember Steve
for his discovery of Comet Lee in 1999.

Steve said it took just under 2 hours for the fire to come from the Observatory to them.
That's a distance of 14.25km as the crow flies. Steve reported that no one was
expecting it to move so fast.

The damage to Donna Burton's house is apparently limited to the outside porch.
As was reported earlier, the local fire brigade saw the house was under threat
and managed to put out the fire before it caused much damage. Apparently three
other houses were similarly saved.

One of Steve's colleagues who is also a night assistant was the last to leave
the AAT and took pictures as long as he could before evacuating.

Steve said he has some shots of the side of the AAT dome showing the
the Lodge in flames over its roof.

Steve confirmed that the temperature reached over 100C outside but the temperature in the AAT dome
didn’t rise much.

However, the concern is with the pressurized stairwell. They believe it may have drawn
in smoke from outside which could contain asbestos from the Lodge.

[gary]

Warrumbungle Shire Mayor’s Bushfire Appeal

http://www.warrumbungle.nsw.gov.au/News/Articles/Warrumbungle-Shire-Mayor-s-Bushfire-Appeal

[theodog]

The story so far.
This image has the RFS area burnt superimposed, at the same scale, over Sydney -for those that dont understand land areas.

Huge area:eyepop:.

[JohnG]

Pictures taken from PolAir 5 today.

Courtesy of the NSW Police Air Wing - PolAir 5

[iceman]

Amazing photos.

[Octane]

That second photograph -- wow! What a remarkable landscape.

Thanks for posting, John. :)

H

[Ric]

Looking at that terrain, you can understand why it was so difficult to control.

Thanks for the images John.

[col]

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[iceman]

That first one is unbelievable! Scary!

[col]

That's the first word I thought of too.

These are some images Steve took on a drive towards the park.

[col]

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[Ric]

Hi Col

Thanks for posting Steve's photos of the fire and aftermath. The panorama of the advancing front is something I have seen many times but never fails to make the hair on my neck stand up.

[theodog]

10 years ago.:scared: