Warrumbungle Pilliga Fires

The first post for the new year. As I write, a huge bushfire that began in the Warrumbungle National Park has been burning its way north. This is one shot from ABC News coverage of the fire. As you can see from the photo, this is a very hot fire. There have been some amazing scenes recorded of fire storms.  This next shot, again from the same ABC News Story shows the fire moving through the thick scrub.

Back in 2006 in Pilliga Fires, I talked about the changing pattern of fires in the area. As it happens, I was re-reading Eric Roll's A million Wild Acres just before Christmas.

Now have a look at that road. In a hot fire of this type there is no where for animals to go. Kangaroos gathered on roads and tracks to escape the fire and were literally baked to death.

Once the fires are over, I will revisit that earlier discussion. 

Postscript:

Gordon Smith sent me links to two very interesting blog posts providing insights to the impact of the fires on the observatory at Siding Springs. They are:

• siding spring observatory fires
• siding spring obs. fires: day after

Meantime, regular commenter kvd sent me a link to this photo by Narrabri resident Mark Barrow reproduced in the Sydney Morning Herald. As kvd said: Can't get this picture out of my head. The small object in the foreground is a house. That would fit my definition of catastrophic. The SMH story is worth reading.