Worried for family

I forgot about the sparks sunseeker. When people leave their houses and don't stay to try and protect them that's often why they catch fire because later the sparks get in the roof. The friends who evacuated are probably thinking how lucky they are because the fire was stopped, but they could still lose their house because of sparks. Their house is out of the town on an isolated road. There was a picture of Birdwood I posted in my comments above, it's the eleventh picture down (counting the pic at the very top.) You can see how isolated it is and the trees and bushes are burnt. They are an English family who have only lived in Australia for seven years. They only bought their house last year, we helped them move and they said they love their house and won't be moving again. I do hope it is safe.

sunseeker there have been fires in New Zealand recently, close to where my daughter lives (although not close enough to be threatening) so I do understand your concern for your relatives. I'm glad your family is safe and hope that the fire is soon brought under control.

Seriously scary situation, cannot imagine what it must be like ....

Spoke to my nephew - his daughters boyfriend lives about half a mile away from their house and he was putting out fires on his own property caused by sparks being carried by the wind - he didn't leave when my nephew did.

The Adelaide Hills is one of the loveliest places and the people are very friendly. My family and I all lived there until a few years ago. DD and family still live there but they are thankfully overseas at the moment. Their house is in an area where they have been told to have their bushfire plans ready and are only a few miles from the areas being evacuated. One of DD's students who was feeding the cat and chooks while she is away went with her father and caught all six chooks and the cat and took them to their house.

Friends of our family nearly lost their house yesterday at Birdwood when the fire came to 900m away before being put out. They have a pet cow and chooks which they wouldn't have been able to take with them. I visited them at the end of November and noticed the land surrounding their house was very dry, we had very hot weather during Spring, more like Summer.

I hope your nephew's house stays safe sunseeker apparently it's been very windy and lighting strikes with no rain were predicted so they have no idea where the fires will go.

We have friends near there and other family elsewhere in Australia. I hope it is not going to be a bad season for bush fires and/or cyclones.

I hope your family will all be OK and they will not lose their house, sunseeker.

Thank goodness they are safe.

Its awful I know, as I have a lot of family in Australia. The main thing is that they are all safe and well. Its terrible that they may lose their posessions but at least they will have each other. Fingers crossed for them all!

I guess is in the lap of the Gods sunseeker, do hope that won't be the case for them, but at least the family are safe.