18 January 2003 firestorm - Mount Stromlo stories Agris and Leslie Kalnajs The Kalnajs are Mount Stromlo residents and Agris is an RSAA Senior Fellow at Mount Stromlo Observatory

Since Friday we had been watching the smoke in Namadgi National Park, and the other plume to the west north west associated with McIntyre Hut, with some apprehension. The latter seemed more threatening as the wind was blowing from that direction.

 

Saturday morning we saw the first tangible signs of the fire: pieces of burnt leaves scattered all over the mountain. Graham Blackman came by after 10am to tell us the site was closed and that all staff should leave, though the residents could stay. By mid-morning we saw our neighbour, Jon Smillie, on his roof cleaning the gutters and blocking the down-pipes. We followed his example.

 

The fire front to the west north west was still on the other side of the Murrumbidgee river at 1 pm but it was not clear whether or not it would reach Mt Stromlo during the afternoon. I tried to use the internet to discover where the fire fronts were, but the response was glacially slow and I gave up. Leslie was making a pot of pasta salad at the time.

 

At 2:40pm we put on cotton clothing. Shortly thereafter, Graham came by to tell us that it was time to go. We collected our passports, photo album, three pictures, wrapped them in an oriental rug and put them in the car. We could now see black smoke in the direction of the 30", moving rapidly from west to east. It was clear that the fire was just over the ridge. An ACT policeman came and told us to leave at once. He carried out the pot of pasta salad, made sure that our car was running and pointed downhill, and went on to the next house.

 

The trip down the mountain was uneventful. We could see the smoke behind Mt Stromlo but no flames. Our first sight of fire was the burning pine trees to the east of Uriarra Road.

 

We drove to Mike Bessell's house but no one was there. The next stop was Freeman's house. Ken was pulling flammable liquids from under the house while John was on the roof, cleaning gutters and stuffing down-pipes. I joined him on the roof. It was getting darker and minutes later the pines on Narrabundah Hill burst into flames. Glowing cinders, swirling like wet snowflakes, set the lawn on fire. At first we tried to put out the flames with wet towels but made little headway. When a nearby house burst into flames it was time to leave. Along the way out from Duffy trees and houses were burning.

 

John Norris had called us Saturday morning and offered to take us in if we had to leave the mountain so we spent that night, and the following three, with the Norrises.

 

Early Sunday morning, Vince O'Connor, John, and I returned to Mt Stromlo. We had expected that we would be stopped but the road blocks were not manned. The trip up the mountain was eerie. The pines were burnt and the ground was covered with white ash. It reminded me of winter in Maine.

 

Houses 2 and 3 seemed unscathed. Then came the sorry sight of the smouldering ruins of house 7. It was a great relief to see that house 20 was still standing though the garage and garden were gone.

 

External fire damage to the house was relatively minor: half of the windowpanes had cracked; one large window on the south-east corner had fallen out; some curtains had fallen down because the plastic hooks had melted; and the paint on the south window frames had blistered.  Indoors there were ashes around the windows and doors, probably sucked in by vacuum generated by the passing firestorm.

 

We also walked through the Woolley and Duffield buildings and noted that, apart from broken windows, ashes, and minor water damage from overhead sprinklers, the buildings had survived well.

 

I retrieved my new digital camera and recorded what I saw from around the house, the oval between the Administration and Duffield buildings, and the 50" telescope. There was still a lot of smoke, which dispersed the sunlight.

 

On Wednesday, when water was restored, we returned to the mountain.