Scary

BigAl · March 24, 2007

I've just gotten back from a week in a game reserve about 200km from where I live. During the week we were there, the controlled burns that the park's staff were doing, got away from them. On our last night there the fire almost took out the resort we were staying in.

The fire comes over the hill to the west...

...and across the plains to the north...

...the flames were huge at times...

...but the cavalry arrived...

Fortunately, between the ground firefighters and the chopper, the resort was not damaged.

But the burnt trees will still smoulder for days

I really feel sorry for the small animals, birds and insects that were destroyed by the fire...

A few more pics here:
http://bigal-sa.smugmug.com/gallery/2618609#138168079

Lord Vetinari · March 24, 2007

Excellent sequence Al- assume they had the ability to evacuate the resort if it had got worse ?
Brian V.

Skippy · March 24, 2007

BigAl wrote:

I've just gotten back from a week in a game reserve about 200km from where I live. During the week we were there, the controlled burns that the park's staff were doing, got away from them. On our last night there the fire almost took out the resort we were staying in.
The fire comes over the hill to the west...
...and across the plains to the north...
...the flames were huge at times...
...but the cavalry arrived...
Fortunately, between the ground firefighters and the chopper, the resort was not damaged.
But the burnt trees will still smoulder for days
I really feel sorry for the small animals, birds and insects that were destroyed by the fire...
A few more pics here:
http://bigal-sa.smugmug.com/gallery/2618609#138168079

You were lucky

yep it doesn't take much for things to get out of control, just the wind shifting can cause kaos.
Glad the firefighters and the chopper pilot got things under control
Good capture on your part Al, scary though I'm sure, to see a wall of fire coming towards you is not something I want to experience.

Glad your okay

.......... Skippy
.

BigAl · March 24, 2007

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Excellent sequence Al- assume they had the ability to evacuate the resort if it had got worse ?
Brian V.

Thanks Brian. Actually, they didn't. There's only one access road to the east and that was in the U made by the fire, directly behind was another hill about twice the size of that shown in the first pic, which fortunately didn't burn. They had two choppers, the military one fighting the fire (could probably take ten people) and a private one herding the elephants away from the blaze. So... if they didn't get it stopped I probably wouldn't be writing this now

BigAl · March 24, 2007

Skippy wrote:

You were lucky yep it doesn't take much for things to get out of control, just the wind shifting can cause kaos.
Glad the firefighters and the chopper pilot got things under control
Good capture on your part Al, scary though I'm sure, to see a wall of fire coming towards you is not something I want to experience.

Glad your okay .......... Skippy
.

Thanks Skippy. It was scary, the heat and the smoke was not pleasant, even though they got it stopped about 200m from where I was. It got right up to the resort boundary in several places. The folks in those bungalows must have been really worried. :eek1

The thing that P'ed me off was that the park staff weren't controlling their burn before the wind flared up. They just let it go...

gus · March 24, 2007

Good to see you safe mate...burn offs at home always ment one thing...very poisonous snakes everywhere & rather pissed off.

I bet those grass roofs burn...i slept under many in bots & zim & i always thought of them as the ultimate fuel.

BigAl · March 26, 2007

gus wrote:

Good to see you safe mate...burn offs at home always ment one thing...very poisonous snakes everywhere & rather pissed off.

I bet those grass roofs burn...i slept under many in bots & zim & i always thought of them as the ultimate fuel.

Thanks Gus! Didn't see too many snakes, but there were zillions of grasshoppers. The swallows really enjoyed those.

The thatched roofs are supposed to be treated not to take flame, but I certainly would not want to be anywhere near one if a fire got too close...

Bob&Glennie · March 26, 2007

I think this is a very good job of photo-reporting. The pictures tell the story and I especailly like #5 with the chopper just barely visible.

Bob

ShepsMom · March 26, 2007

So, you didn't drop your camera and ran to help out?

Great shots, it is scary, i can feel the heat!

BigAl · March 27, 2007

Bob&Glennie wrote:

I think this is a very good job of photo-reporting. The pictures tell the story and I especailly like #5 with the chopper just barely visible.

Bob

Thanks for the kind words Bob!

BigAl · March 28, 2007

ShepsMom wrote:

So, you didn't drop your camera and ran to help out? Great shots, it is scary, i can feel the heat!

No, kept the camera (I'm a documenter

). You really could feel the heat, especially when it got to about 100m from us. Thanks for looking!

BigAl · March 31, 2007

For those interested, you can get a pretty decent impression of where the fire came from on Google Earth. I took these photos pretty much from:
lat: -25.344269
lon: 27.056445

Ric Grupe · March 31, 2007

Kept life from being boring.....didn't it?

Of course the fire was an unfortunate event, but strangely these sort of events define our lives and endow us with a unique sense of being that we would not have had otherwise.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Awais Yaqub · March 31, 2007

Oh sad
But great PJ

BigAl · April 1, 2007

Ric Grupe wrote:

Kept life from being boring.....didn't it?

Of course the fire was an unfortunate event, but strangely these sort of events define our lives and endow us with a unique sense of being that we would not have had otherwise.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Thanks Ric. It was definitely not boring - just had to keep pressing that shutter button!

BigAl · April 2, 2007

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Oh sad
But great PJ

Thanks Awais - very sad, I always feel for the little things that can't get away... :cry

Scary

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