Dangerous wildfire in the Lightning Ridge NSW opal fields

[grubstake]

Glengarry residents told 'too late to leave' as NSW fires impacts homes, property

People in the Glengarry area of north west NSW have been told it is too late to leave and Grawin residents have been told to evacuate towards Lightning Ridge as firefighters and water-bombers work to contain the bushfire.

www.abc.net.au

 

[mbasko]

Not good. Hopefully all make it through ok.

 

[grubstake]

My mate in Glengarry tells me it was looking very bad at the time of the above article, but constant work by firies on the ground and water-bombing aircraft, combined with the wind dropping off, prevented the firefront sweeping right through the Glengarry/Grawin area on Wednesday evening.

It was a close-run thing, with the firefront only a couple of kilometres away and he'd heard that half a dozen or so of the more distant lease camps were burnt out and lost everything. Unfortunately, the severe thunderstorms that likely started the blaze didn't go away, so the danger level still remained high on Thursday evening when we spoke.

 

[davsgold]

exactly, I have a good mate that is out there, his camp and gear got through unharmed, but he spent a good amount of time helping stop the fire

about 27,000ha in total according to this map

 

[grubstake]

Huge outbreak of lightning at Lightning Ridge

They named the small outback NSW town of Lightning Ridge for a reason, and you'd better believe that reason was the weather. Local legend has it that some travellers in the 1800s were passing through the region when they came across the bodies of a farmer, his dog, and 200 sheep, all of which...

www.weatherzone.com.au

 

[Syndyne]

Bit of a rough old time out there on the ridges. We copped the smoke pretty bad in town here from it too over several days on and off. Had to seal up the doors etc. as it was rough to breath in.

A large, high precip. severe storm came right across the seam opal fields area about 2pm on Sunday and totally doused the remaining fires. I watched it happen from the top of the Four Mile ridge here as I was photographing the storm. Great to see, though a little sooner would've been nice.