As fires approach, a nervous wait

THE bushfires visible from his NSW home are, for now, just "a spectacular sight". But The Australian's Ean Higgins knows things can change very quickly.

Yarrabin fire

THE ute is loaded up with a few irreplaceable paintings, photographs, journalist awards, blankets, a chainsaw, a water container, and my contact book. I have checked and re-checked the escape route on the map against the available information.

I've got my cotton overclothes, helmet and solid boots by the door.

The fire pump is sprinkling what is normally an impressive blanket of water over the house, but looking at the fire down the valley, it's really just a drop in the ocean of what would be required.

One of the baths is full of water.

I'm in touch with the local fire service and neighbours, listening to the radio, and watching the Rural Fire Service website which shows my rural property to be roughly in the middle between the two red “emergency warning” diamond-shaped trouble points on the NSW far south coast.

The Yarrabin fire in the Numeralla area is to the north of where I am, east of Nimmitabel; the 1020 Warrigal Road fire to the south and east.

Both are described as “out of control”.

I've done the fire courses, and though in retrospect I could have done more, I'm pretty much doing the right thing in terms of having a bushfire plan and acting on it.

But having covered bushfires as a reporter with detached interest, it's nothing like actually watching the real thing, and how fast things can move and change.

I have a good view down the Numeralla Valley and part of the Kybeyan valley, and it's been a pretty spectacular sight.

At about 8.30am the Yarrabin fire was described as being controlled, and produced only a slight haze on the horizon. By 9.30am it was a Hiroshima-like mushroom cloud.

Residents of Carlaminda, about 20 km north of here, were told on radio it was too late to leave.

The fire went straight from the blue “advice” category on the RFS website to the red “emergency warning” category, jumping over the intermediate “watch and wait” stage.

Similarly, you could have blinked in the time between the warning that Kybeyan Valley could be hit as the Yarrabin fire moved east, and the warning that it was too late for residents to leave; the instruction is to “seek protection from the radiant heat”.

One thing about the Monaro, like most country areas, is that news moves much faster on the grapevine than the radio and the net.

One of my local friends, who volunteers in the fire service, had been fighting the Yarrabin fire overnight. He rang me before 7am saying that while it was mostly contained, it could break out when the heat and wind came up, and go right down the Kybeyan Valley. Which, it appears, is exactly what's happening.

Another friend who is the local deputy Rural Fire Service head rang me later in the day to ask me how I was and how it was where I am. He said my plan is fine. I'm going to keep him informed of the fire from where I am; as he put it, “be my eyes in that direction”.

So far, the winds appear likely to take the fire to the east, rather than south, which will mean my place will be OK.

But if I see flames, rather than just smoke, top the horizon, I'll ring my RFS mate.

Then, it's going to be whether to jump in the ute, or stay in the house.

I'll act on his advice.