Category: Bush fires

About a week ago near 7.30 pm, I looked out the back window and saw red on the hill. Then I saw a bunch of smoke. I yelled to my bf to come look at the fires on the hill.

He looked on his phone and had received a warning from the RFS about an ash attack for our suburb.

We went outside to try and photograph the fire but my phone camera is crappy old so it was just blurry.

I walked across the road and called out to a neighbour and told her about the fire. Then the wind changed direction and started coming over here and the fire was hidden in smoke and the mountain had disappeared. We could only see 2 house up the street before the smoke covered them.

The smoke has been around for so long that some people are, I guess, used to it and it doesn’t affect them. Either that or they think they are invincible and don’t think it will hurt them. They walk around in it and on Christmas night, the dead shits up the road were blasting extremely loud music from their car and we could hear it in our house for over an hour. The house is about 8 houses away, so its not close.

I’m confused as to why other people aren’t hiding in their houses, hoarding carton milk, large water containers, and tins of shredded chicken. I guess they have no health issues from the smoke, like a full, blocked nose that no amount of blowing can empty. My nose has been painful and had a burning feeling inside for weeks now. It normally only happened in the past if I walked past cigarette smoke, but lately it has been everyday.

We also painted a room of the house, so those fumes would have added to it.

I have tried different types of nasal sprays, but only ones with saline and eucalyptus oil because I’m afraid of the chemicals in the ones that make me drowsy. I really want to be able to drive, but I can’t if I’m drowsy and drugged.

Just another set of problems that I wasn’t aware would happen and had no plan for, so more shit I’m forced to deal with.

© ASD and me 2019.

I can’t stand this stupid smoke. I’m getting more and more stressed. This past week I’ve been up and down the stress level ladder so many times I’m physically and mentally exhausted. I’ve been looking for ways to distract myself from the smoke and I can’t really go outside.

Friday 13th December

I scrubbed the oven and removed a lot of strange brown stains and large piles of gunk. I also took the back off and scrubbed that till my hands were red and my shoulder hurt. I cleaned the counter top and was exhausted after that.

Saturday

I found hidden piles of paper and sorted them and threw some out. I gave some to bf to sort, old bills from 2014, I don’t know how we still had those, we went through everything before we moved here.

Now I still have piles of stuff, that turned into 1 large pile again for when the cleaner came.

I also found old song lyrics I wrote when was in high school, then in college at 19. I studied radio broadcasting then music for 6 months. Then after numerous failures, I gave up my dreams for a “real” job in retail or an office.

I found old novels that I wasted 10 years trying to get published, then gave up and stored my dreams away.

I still have piles of self help books I want to go through, its just trying to find the energy in this heat and smoke. We’ve almost ran out of food to cook, but am avoiding going outside. We’ll need to go out soon, I can see the dust on my kitchen shelves.

I watched the Elf movie on Netflix because the Internet was working normally. We’ve had some issues because Internet and bushfires don’t mix.

Sunday

I’ve been stressing so much abut the fire and the useless community visitor that I gave myself heart burn. I had forgotten what lava felt like.

I tried to remove dye from clothing using vinegar and bicarb. I forgot to plug the bath and all the vinegar ran out. I didn’t find this out until hours later.

I tried to bleach the clothing , but the smell burned my nostrils and filled my house. I had to open a window and the smoke took no time to enter. I guess I found something worse than the smell of smoke and destruction.

Monday

When I woke up, the sky was clear. Hooray! I was so happy I celebrated by opening 2 windows. (Whoa, calm down there, don’t get to excited). I was so giddy, I did some washing and bf hung it out.

After lunch, I was looking at the clear sky out the back window, celebrating having a clear lungs and being able to breathe, when I looked to the left and saw a small amount of smoke coming from the left over other mountains. I had been fooled by the blue sky into thinking it would be safe to clean the oven, but when I saw the new smoke, I was sad again. Also exhausted because the oven was in bits and covered in cleaner, which stank, so I couldn’t close the window until everything was cleaned. It took me over an hour to clean everything, then rinse, then I just put the parts back in the oven wet then closed the window.

I was so tired and done with cleaning the house, I sat on the floor and watched tv. After we quickly drove to Hungry Jacks yesterday for dinner and they forgot to put chicken nuggets in the bag, then came home and had minimal time outside walking from the car to the front door, but the smoke still invaded my senses and followed us into the house while the door was opened.

Tuesday

Smoke still covers out yard and we can’t see more than 2 houses down.

I’m running out of things to clean. I’ve already cleaned out the fridge, oven, counter tops, bathroom, vacuumed and picked up the kitchen floor rug and the loungeroom floor rug. Am running out of things to clean to distract me from the smoke.

Hopefully the wind will change again, then we will get some fresh air, then can go shopping.

Wednesday till Friday December 20th

Still the same. The winds blows and smoke moves slightly, but its still here. We still have 2 and a half months left of summer, so I guess we have to get used to it.

ASD and me 2019

Woke up this morning and bf told me to look out the back windows. The smoke had come up the side of the mountain and swallowed everything. It was in our backyard and our kitchen was hazy. The smoke burned my nose more and felt like my nostrils were full and harder to blow.

Even with smoke everywhere, some people still act like nothing is happening, even though there’s a fire at the next train station. I heard a loud noise out the front, so I looked. There was a man on the roof cleaning and preparing to paint. I think a local man started a roof painting business since I’ve seen some houses with his sign on the fence.

I guess he has to work and he has booked jobs, but surely smoke being everywhere would be a good reason to cancel?

I keep thinking about the worse things that could happen. I keep crying and trying to distract myself by watching YouTube, but it only helps for a little while. Then I need to breathe and am reminded.

I feel so trapped. The major highway has been closed, so that means we can’t leave and drive to Sydney. I don’t trust the train because that will stop too and we’ve been on a train where we had to wait almost an hour and people were arguing and I thought there would be violence.

I feel more helpless and useless than ever. My eyes hurt from the smoke as well. We blocked up windows with sticky tape and put towels under doors to try and stop the smoke coming in and also turn on the air con to get some fresh air. I haven’t left the house for 2 days because of the smoke and I didn’t go to my art group today because I was afraid of driving and choking. I’m going to watch tv and read to try and take my mind off everything.

I really hope the RFS can stop the fires or control them enough so it doesn’t come to my house. I hate living here now. No view is worth this much stress, anxiety and health issues.

©ASD and me 2019.

I have said before I don’t like were I live, but I don’t want my house to burn down; then I would be homeless . I don’t know how much my insurance will cover, even though we pay large fees every month.

I have been so stressed with everything happening, and now the fire on top, I just want to scream everyday. The only thing that gives me hope is the fire fighters. If it wasn’t for them, I think my house and most of the houses in NSW would be ash.

Bf and me drove back from my parents house on Friday and didn’t take the highway, we took a different route, and drove past lots of blackened trees. I saw a sign some one had made and hung from a tree that read Thank you RFS. I thought that was so nice of someone to do that. I hope the fire fighters see it. I was thinking before, if some came to my door and asked for help or for water, of course I’ll help them. I have emergency provisions and am happy to share them with the people who are saving my life.

I can’t fight the fire myself, so I’m so very grateful that the RFS exist.

I’m saying this because some ignorant crazy woman went on the news and said that the firemen are going home after the fires and abusing their wives. She had no statistics, or proof or anything to backup up her statements. I really don’t know why you would slag off people who are tying to save everyone, but I guess she wanted the attention. If she really thought this was happening, tell the Police, don’t defame them on live national tv.

I know the RFS probably won’t read this, but I just want them to know that I’m so grateful beyond words for all their help.

©ASD and me 2019.