Last night, I woke up to the phone ringing. It was about 11 pm. I rolled over and thought " who the hell could be calling me at this time of night? "
No doubt those bastards who ring and tell me that my internet is faulty or my phone is in need of assistance if I pay a zillion dollars.
I ignored it and went back to sleep. Not long after, the phone rang again. And again.
By this stage, I was so sick of hearing the phone ring that I got up, prepared to slang in to whoever it was.
It was my 87 year old Mum.
She told me that a bush fire was rather close to her and her neighbourhood and was told to leave and that her home was in imminent danger.
For me, it seemed that things were critical. It was extremely bad.
Mum chose to stay.
Her home was at risk. Her beloved pets were at risk.
But she would not leave her home and animals and abandon everything that her late husband loved . This defiant woman, this wonderful, brave woman , stayed and stared out that blaze and told me in the early hours " things were fine and not to worry. "
Over the next hours, I anguished.
Neighbours came over and offered her a chance to leave as they packed their cars and abandoned their homes. But Mum decided not to go.
She was a child of the Second World War, a child of the polio epidemic and a child of an era that we have no comprehension of... she simply decided to make do and mend, get on with it and do what ever needed to be done.
She went outside and hosed her garden to prevent embers igniting a new fire.
She had a concerned neighbour sleep in his car outside her home - not to be free of danger himself, but to make sure she had someone on standby.
I received emails and tweets and facebook comments from people worried about Mum and all night I have responded and thanked folk for their genuine and heartfelt concern.
THIS is what life is about: caring people who give a shit and step up in times of need.
We, normal, decent people, do not give a bugger about climate change activists, leftie lunatics or vegan voices. We care about decent people and looking after one another in times of need.
We care about the Firefighters. We care about the people who offered homes and couches and places of safety.
Is it not time to care about ordinary people and care about bringing back common sense burn offs and tell the lefties that we do not need them?
Here is what Mum said:
I am a resident of the area. Fortunately not where it has done damage but informed that we were in the path of the fire last evening. Everyone, took heed and some people mostly those with young children left and went to friends and parents. Those that stayed were mostly of the older generation.
The sky was filled with orange and red , the wind was blowing from the south and South west, smoke was filling the sky. It was a very scary sight. We all kept a very close eye on its progress. I believe 200 brave men were fighting with all their might, and they kept it under control. From what I can gather one house was lost and several others were damaged. Those of us that remained in the area kept awake and alert, but by 2. 30 am felt we were safe for the time being and went to bed.
By 6 am most of us were out and about again checking on what things looked like in the morning. Helicopters were flying and filling up with water from Lake Weyba and doing a fantastic job. Fire did not seem to progress to the areas they were concerned about. The smoke disappeared and everything looked back to normal.... the road is closed and there are places that I have not seen and also a number of people are still not free to return to their homes. I and my neighbours consider ourselves very fortunate and give credit to the fine job done by the Fire Fighters.
We have been informed that 3 Teenagers are responsible, if that is true , what can I say!. I have to say that if the burn offs and the precautions that used to be in place before the Greenies got control of so many things a lot of problems with bush fires might have been avoided or certainly not been as bad. We have to go back to the days when the people who are the Experts took care of their particular field .
Allowing people who have no experience to tell the Experts what they should do is utter madness. There are so many fields where we have bent to the wishes of these biased people and found to our horror that the consequences have been such a terrible mistake. I repeat it is time to allow our Experts in their field to tell us what should and should not be done.
As I have said we have been very lucky that the brave and relentless Fire Fighters have done such a good job that we are all safe. Just in the last half hour the wind has changed and the fire has gathered strength and a different area is now about to face the dangers. Thank you to the men who have worked so hard to keep us from disaster .
Well, there you go.
It is all about the wind, nature and nothing to do with climate change.
