Fire.....

Two of my ten year smoke alarms are on the blink.  Keep beeping every day - shouldn't be run out yet as they have only been installed five years!  But I have a great fear of fires, so want to be safe in the home, especially when I am asleep. 

My fear stems back to my teenage years.   My father had bought a small holding - a weekend hobby!   There was around 300 acres of shrub, gullies, rocks, hard bare clay.  He had fenced off and cleared about ten acres where the "house" stood.  If you could call it a house.  The previous owner had used it to shear his sheep in.  Well this was to be our "home" at weekends, so Mum made it comfy as possible for us. 

Over the next few years, Dad spent time improving the ten acres.  He raised some sheep, he planted seed, built a chicken run and a shearing shed and made this "house" into a more habitable weekender.   We had two dogs to help to round up the sheep from the rough terrains and creek beds.

This property was situated about a mile from the main road (gravel in those days and not far from Bungonia Gorge, it was reached down a small track winding through the bush.  The track was almost inaccessible in those days, with great gullies several inches deep where the water had eroded the track over the years.   There was no electricity until about a year later.

In front of this house was the perimeter fence to the ten acres and beyond this fence was "the bush".  Lots and lots of trees, dead wood, dried leaves, dried grass, gullies and rocks.  One day, something in that bush triggered a fire - it could have been a piece of glass and the hot sun, nobody knows.  It was not of the human kind, as there was only our family around. 

First we noticed flames in amongst the brush - and by the time we dipped anything we could find into the water tank and ran about hundred yards and through the fence, the fire was taking hold.  We had no hoses, nor did we have telephones to call for help,  just buckets of water and something to whip the flames.  We spent ages trying to put out the fire.  Our clothes were black with soot, and our hair was singed.

Luckily it did not spread too far and after a long time was under control.  That evening my brother and I were off to a dance in the local hall - the first thing our friends commented on was the state of our hair.  We certainly had something to talk about that evening. 

It was very frightening and from that day onwards I have been terrified of fire.  Even the smallest fire in the garden I get the shakes.  I am ready to throw a bucket of water on it, before it is even started!