A lucky escape

I woke early this morning and decided to go and catch the sunrise at Nobbys. It was strangely calm and still but a band of orange was on the horizon which I suspect was smoke. The sun rose red against the blue/grey clouds and then disappeared.

By mid morning the clouds had burned off and the temperature climbed rapidly. It reached 37C today here and with wind gusts of 70kph a fire flared at Heatherbrae and new fires started at Minmi closing the M1, and at Redhead and Dudley. The smoke around this afternoon has been so thick earlier this evening I could barely see more than a kilometre. It has cleared somewhat now and the fires have been downgraded. Thank goodness the Blue Mountain fires were kept under control and people and houses are safe. No houses have been damaged here is Newcastle. I feel like we have all had a lucky escape and a huge debt is owed to our firefighters.