The Jig is Up

It had to happen sooner or later. The Blue Mountains is reputed to be the most bush fire prone region in the country. Remarkably however, through all the fuss concerning Australian wild fires these past few weeks, the Blue Mountains had remained conspicuously unscathed.

A few days ago I posted a picture of the Grose Valley, bathed in smoke which odd weather conditions had dumped in our laps from far flung places. It was inevitable of course that we'd eventually have our own fire emergency ... and so it has come to pass.

A week or so ago, lightning had started a fire near the Jamison Valley landmark popularly known as "the ruined castle". Intensive water bombing (including the use of huge, dedicated fixed wing jet aircraft) seemed to have come close to shutting the blaze down but strong winds have since flared things up again. This picture  shows the fire approaching the top of Narrow Neck Ridge, which (given the wrong wind) could enable it to launch itself upon the beautiful Megalong. Time will tell.

Resembling a giant wasp, the lone aircraft is a Sigorsky S64 Sky Crane, (see 2nd extra) one of the largest water bombing helicopters available. It is headed to the highest and furthest extent of the flames where it will drop a load of water/flame retardant immediately ahead of the front to slow down its progress. In the first extra (from this morning) we can see the fire, still lower down the valley wall.