Fire in Compartment 5

Compartment 5 had been a good stand of Pinus nigra but thinking changed about the crop and it was decided that a full rotation was unprofitable. The area was clear-felled for the production of fence posts which was a lucrative market then.

In preparation for the next crop, the slash was heaped (windrowed) with great care to avoid soil being mixed in which would cause the fire to burn more slowly and remain burning for a long time. Charlie James had done the windrowing with his D4.

Weather conditions were good when the burn-off started and the heaps burnt cleanly. It was on the forest boundary and while it could be termed a 'slash burn', it was safe enough and the burn-off went well. As usual we monitored the area that night without problem.

A few days later we began planting and there was still the odd bit of slash that could be burnt and Doug Turner asked if he could light it. I agreed.

A 'tool' I often used was to rely on a burnt area to act as a firebreak - once burnt the fuel is consumed..............

That night, Jim Wilson rang me at about eleven o'clock that night to say there was a fire on the forest. There was a howling Southwest wind blowing! Now a Southwest wind is generally cold - often very cold but it brings low humidity. Fires burn best in low humidity!

I went outside and sure enough there was a great glow in the forest about the area of Compartment 5.

I called Bob Shaw and he picked me up to go and have a look at the fire. We found that it was the duff burning a second time, and the sparks carried by the strong wind kept igniting new areas!

The only danger point really was below a high rock bluff to the Northeast and below that there was a crop of 15 year old Cupressus macrocarpa. I went down there to take a look and saw that live sparks were landing in the trees, but luckily there was no wind down there, so they did not ignite anything.

In my rush I had not put on my boots, I wore my slippers, and the track was muddy down there - I lost both my slippers and never saw them again.

Bob went into the township to scramble the workers and I ducked home for my boots and readied the fire equipment - hooking the trailers to the trucks and warming the motors. I knew there was a great pond in Matheson's paddock - we had built it for firefighting purposes. I decided to set the Hale pump there because it could pump more volume than the Wajax. Use a by-pass and it would feed two fire hoses. Hales are a trick to prime, you close off the exhaust and fiddle around until a stream of water shoots out the pipe below it - then you turn on the feeder tap/valve. The inlet has to watched too because it could suck mud or float and suck air.

I decided I had better man the pump to make sure of a water supply. Two hose crews could pinch off each face of fire and another crew could relay water using the Wajax trailers filled from the creek below. I had no shelter where I worked and it was bitterly cold - the wind cut through my Swandri. I had a hand held radio so was able to talk to the teams and help direct them. Albert was in the office and I kept him recording what was going on. Actually we had omitted to inform District Office people or Conservancy - so no backup was on the way.

At about 3:00am I called Albert to ring Charlie James as his D4 was handy and there was enough light for him to operate to make firebreaks - bulldozers are good to have at fires!

I also asked him to organise Mags to ring around the wives to organise food for the 'troops'.

I was feeling frozen and called Colin over to operate the Hale - well watch it and make sure it didn't run out of fuel. I had tipped the last of the fuel into the tank and thought to warm up in the truck as I drove down to HQ to pick up more.

A bit dangerous that! I was so cold, and the truck so warm that twice, I nearly fell asleep as I drove down South Rodge Road! The warmth of the truck made my eyelids soooo heavy!

Good old Albert though - he had the fuel ready and a hot cup of coffee, which he demanded I drink. He had some sandwiches and made me eat one of those! Thus fortified, I went back to battle!

I had a small meeting with Bob, Herbie, Bert and Colin - old, experienced buggers and wise with it. Colin suggested that the wind might drop just before sunrise which would be a big help. We decided to be ready with water and hoses for when the wind dropped. It did and we hit the fire with all we had - we had had a long night!

Luckily, the wind did not build up again, and Charlie had made most of the boundaries safe with firebreaks - he's a good guy in a crisis too!

We had the fire out and it had not escaped into other areas. The pond was almost drained and I guess we all were at that. I sent everyone home except Colin. He and I sat there in the morning sun, drinking coffee and eating leftovers of the food the wives had prepared. We were watching just in case.

All was well again.