IT was an all too familiar story playing out in the Blue Mountains late yesterday. A fierce fire, driven along by dry, hot winds, was blazing through the bush and closing in on homes.
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Panicked residents were facing an impossible choice: Stay and defend their home, or flee and leave it to the elements.
At the same time, Rural Fire Service crews across the state were nervously monitoring conditions across their own regions.
Recent hot weather has browned off much of the ground cover that grew in early spring and now it might take just a stray cigarette butt, a lightning strike or a single act of stupidity to spark an emergency.
And this is just the start of a vigil that seems to get longer every year.
Conditions are expected to ease across the weekend to help firefighters get on top of any fires still burning overnight but it will be just a matter of days before it heats up again.
Blue Mountains residents, in particular, are well used to the annual threat of bushfire and it’s the price they pay for living among some of the country’s most rugged – and beautiful – scenery.
It seems that every fire season now has the potential to be the worst on record as homes push further into previously uninhabited terrain and temperatures seem to be on a slow, inexorable climb.
And every season, hundreds of volunteer firefighters brace themselves for a call that could come at any time – during work, a child’s birthday party or in the middle of the night.
They fight a never-ending battle with the conditions, one where the terrible losses are mourned long after the many victories are forgotten.
Welcome to summer in Australia.
