Thanks IB.
We cancelled our tank build day last weekend because I was at our farm finalising its defences against the Weerite fire.
We were lucky that is all I can say, no amount of preparation can stop a fire in that heat and wind if it is on line with your house, it is simply like a blowtorch and will get into any crack.
The fire near us went between two houses, took some sheds and silage, then leapt over the highway and continued past our farm a kilometer away and into open ground.
A slightly different start location or wind direction and it would have had us. Our farmhouse is an all timber 1906 Victorian, and is dry as tinder after 10 years of drought (the doors open well though, that's a plus!) It was started by overloaded powerlines.
They reckon 300 + will be the final death toll with over 1000 houses gone already. Add that to the 35 lost a month ago and the fact we are only in the middle of the fire season and you get the picture.
Although the fire near us is technically under control, the ground itself is on fire. There is peat in the ground and they don't expect it to be truly our for another month or so. The last fire we had here, two years ago, kept sprouting up out of the ground a long way away after quite a few weeks.
The weather has been kinder the last few days but is expected to go back into the 30's next week. It's the wind though that is the problem with low humidity.