Fire watching

I responded to an incident call on Friday afternoon. It was just about 1pm when the pager went off saying there had been a smoke sighting and could crews gather awaiting further instructions. I'd meant to put my PPE in the back of the car that morning but had forgotten so I had to drive all the way home (and wouldn't the roads be just CLOGGED with slow drivers???), get my kit then drive back in to Springwood and to our shed. Luckily the others waited for me.

We then headed back out here to the Winmalee shed (I could have met the others there) and sat there until after 6 when we were tasked to go and relieve Karen's brigade who were watching the fire from Faulconbridge Point. And there we sat, taking regular weather readings until after midnight when we were relieved by a Valley Heights crew. We'd whiled the time away by having dinner - those tightwads at Winmalee didn't think to feed us - we got the generator started and made ourselves toasted sandwiches and cuppas.

Pete L, Tracey and I got ourselves comfy on the rocks and played I Spy (two goes each and we were out of ideas) and The Prime Ministers Cat.

Pete McD. had been banging on about setting up his hammock all afternoon. I thought he was joking until I saw this :
I'd put my name down for the 6am crew on Saturday so was up and out again before 5:45 having got home after 1:30am. Again we were tasked to sit watching from Faulconbridge Point and taking weather readings every hour. I was armed with a book this time which I got a little bit read of and Holly played Uno with Craig. We were relieved some time after midday by Karen's lot again and headed home.

Shortly after we were back on the bitumen again and just outside Robbie's school we came across a car accident. A young girl had gone head first into a power pole and there was a live wire on the ground. No one was hurt luckily. We put witches hats on the road to keep people away from the power line and did traffic duty while waiting for the NSW Fire Brigade and the Police to come.

It was a hot, exhausting day and although we had a street party on and I was supposed to be going out with the school Mums, I just went to bed and tried to sleep.

The boys went with Jamie's friend Scott to their first concert last night - Lamb of God at Luna Park. They had a great time they said. They went down on the train but Ian went down in the car to bring them back, I didn't think it would be wise for them to be travelling home by themselves late at night.

Ishbel was supposed to be going to Carols by Candlelight with her friend Zanny but they had a bit of a falling out and she ended up coming home. She and I watched an episode of The Goodies before we both went to bed.