Story by Julie Vulcan. After the fires have past, leaving a trail of devastation, we often forget what happened before, in the lead-up. This is a telling of that before, with all its signs, preparations, anxiety, frustration and emotion. It is more than a story, it is also an offering of lessons learnt, things that worked, and things I hold dear. Continue reading Reading the Signs: My Year with Fire

Story by Nicole Webster. Our first child was born on New Year’s Eve 2019. It was a time of mixed emotions for us as we welcomed our daughter into the world before we realised that we could not return to our old fibro home because it could not keep the smoke out. Continue reading Home, Smokey Home

Story by Anonymous. This story discusses the reaction of the Rural Fire Services’ Incident Management Teams (IMTs) to the Gospers Mountain Fire in 2019. Continue reading Duty Tells

Story by Kim Grace aka Amos O’Henry. Christmas 2019 saw large areas of the East Coast of Australia burning, including in the Blue Mountains. Kim Grace watched these fires with growing apprehension; he had seen it all before and just hoped that this time he would not lose everything. Continue reading Blue Mountains on Fire, 2019

Story by Elizabeth Morgan. What’s it like being the meat in a fire sandwich? I spent two months on the edge in the 2019-2020 summer as two megafires – in the Blue Mountains – Gospers Mountains to the north, Green Wattle Creek to the south – raced towards each other, the firefront sometimes gaining 12 kilometres a day. Continue reading Two Months On The Edge