News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 69

Well 12 days ago the worst fire weather Queensland has seen began. Conditions totally unprecedented here for fires. Then on the 12th day the rain arrived and was just enough to help crews contain some of the fires that were still uncontrolled.

Everyone was so happy to see it, feel it whether they were fighting fires, property owners in the affected areas or just Joe Blow walking down the street.

Some of the stats on these fires are amazing. Over the past 12 days Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) has attended 1,243 fires across the state with more than four million hectares of land burnt during this bushfire season.

We have had 55 aircraft working to support ground crews, dropping more than 12 million litres of water and fire suppressant.

More than 430 bushfire community warnings have been issued since the 22nd of November, and more than 50 Emergency Alert campaigns have been issued.

We have had assistance from every state and territory in Australia with 1161 people from interstate coming to help out.

Official figures havent been released yet but it appears although many cars, caravans and sheds were lost it seems like only a few homes were lost.

An absolutely amazing effort by our firefighters considering the conditions they had to deal with to save so many homes.Now as ex Tropical Owen lingers in the Coral Sea the east coast that was burning last week now has communities in the north of the state in danger of flooding and others dealing with wind and rain further down the coastline.

Crazy crazy weather!!

My home state of Queensland is experiencing something it has never had before…. Catastrophic fire weather. Although its our fire season, and weve had a lot of big fires in past years, this year has been the worst ever.

We have never had regions that have been put as Catastropic on our Fire Danger Rating. It is the highest category and has only ever been seen in southern states previously. The whole east coast is burning with over 130 large fires listed at the moment.

We see things like this overseas and down south but never here.A fire that started between Bundaberg and Gladstone has been burning for days and has seen many communities impacted and an emergency declaration declared meaning people have been ordered from their homes.

These people have been in emergency accommodation for days and still cannot get back into their homes. Reports have said there are at least 5 homes destroyed but the official number hasnt yet been given.

Our NSW counterparts sent up 100 firefighters on Tuesday, with NSW also sending up their big water bombers. A 737 arrived also on Wednesday and is based in Rockhampton. Yesterday a second large plane arrived also. Qld often sends crews down south, so now they are happy to repay the favour and help out. These big water bombers are working alongside our fixed wing and helicopters.

Other states have also sent firefighters to assist. Mate helping mate! Then yesterday to the west of Rockhampton another fire started with 8000 people evacuated from Gracemere and also a fire at Finch Hatton just out of Mackay where again the whole town was evacuated.

Weve had hot days that have smashed many records since records started being kept in most places and that along with the strong winds and the fuel loadings have created fire weather the likes of which we have never seen here before.

Today a huge fire broke out at Tinnenbar just south of where I live where again evacuations were put in place.

I was due to go and do a night shift on this fire tonight (Thursday) but I have got myself a good dose of bronchitis and laryngitis, so going into a very smoky environment is not a wise thing to do.

We have a few more days of this bad (fire) weather to go yet and still have many fires to contain before the mopping up begins.

Focus at this time is to save life and property as at the moment some of the fires simply cannot be stopped.

So if you are looking for the hottest place to be, Im pretty sure its Queensland at the moment!

Well sadly our cousin and her travel companion has had to say Goodbye to Australia after an amazing 3 weeks.

Flying from Vancouver to Sydney and then a connecting flight to Hervey Bay, it was wonderful to see hubbys cousin again, (her second trip to Oz) and meet her friend and neighbour from home.

They spent a few days here with us before we drove them to Brisbane where they stayed with my daughter and her partner for 2 days before heading down to the Gold Coast and catching up with hubbys two brothers and their wife and partner.

They wanted to experience backpacker living so stayed in a hostel for 3 nights, then bussed it down to Byron Bay.

They stayed in another hostel there, spent hours down on the beach and mixing it with the locals. Byron Bay is known for its hippy and surfing lifestyles.

They mixed it with the best of them, dancing on the beach at sunset and some long walks around town and along the beaches.

Time then to head back to Brisbane for two nights where they were taken out to spend the day at Lone Pine where they both fulfilled a lifetime ambition to nurse a koala.

They fed and patted kangaroos and dingoes and loved meeting the Aussie wildlife.

A tour round the city of Brisbane and Southbank and a trip up the river on the City Cat (water ferry).

Then back to Hervey Bay for the last week where they shopped till they dropped. They love our stores and how much cheaper things are, and discovered things that they dont have back home.

We drove them round various places to see and again back to our glorious beaches where they loved walking along the waters edge.

Then all too soon it was time to pack.

I was intrigued how they were going to get all their souvenirs (toy koalas, kangaroos, crystal engravings, and all the other stuff they brought) plus all the cant get back home items into their suitcases till I said I think they need the vacupak bags.

Well even with those it was a struggle to get the cases done up. So last night it was off to the airport to an overnight stay with my daughter in Brisbane, and fly out to Vancouver this morning.

So sad to say goodbye to them.

Fabulous to meet the cousin again and lovely to meet her friend who is now adopted family. A gift of a desert rose (that Ive been wanting for a while) will leave a lasting memory of their visit.

On the recent visit to Hervey Bay, Prince Harry and Meghan requested to meet two of our wonderful ambulance officers specifically.

You may remember hearing the story, as it went international, about our ambos who had picked up a patient and was taking her to palliative care, stopping and taking the lady out of the ambulance so that she could see the beautiful beach and views that she so dearly loved.

They not only got her out of the ambulance to look at the view, but got a sick bag and went down and got some sand and seawater so that the lady could put her hands in it and feel it one last time.

The story went viral, people made up a short videos (which I will point out had vision of somewhere not Australian) with the story.

Well it seems Harry and Meghan heard about the story and requested they meet these two wonderful Queensland Ambulance officers.

They went to Kingfisher Resort where the meet and greet was going to happen and both met the Royals and presented them one each, a cute little teddy dressed in QAS uniform.

It must have been an exciting time for both of our ambos to meet Harry and Meghan but although all our ambos are beautiful compassionate people, these two were most deserving of a little reward for what they did.

I think all of our ambos would do the same gestures for any of their patients, but this story has been embraced around the world.

We have a relative and her friend here from Canada for 3 weeks. As the relative had been to Hervey Bay a couple of years ago, she wanted to go back down and spend some time walking along our beautiful esplanade.

So off we went, looked in some shops then went across the road to the playground before heading down to the beach.

We have playgrounds and exercise equipment at various intervals along the seafront and I spotted something new called the Mouse Wheel.

Great, I thought, lets give it a go, cant be that hard to stand in this wheel.

All you have to do is get in the middle and walk which in turn would turn the wheel around.

Easy hey? Mice do it all the time. Well, I took two steps and off it went. Trying to stay centred but the overwhelming sensation to put my hands out in front of me on the wall in front.

Then down I went head first into the wheel, then the shoulder, then onto my knees and Im scrambling like a cat on a hot tin roof to get off the thing while its still spinning away, so I didnt hit the floor once but several times, as it took me up the wall and gravity came into play.

Thankfully hubby raced over and managed to stop the spinning. Wasnt very impressed as hubby and his cousin and her friend stood there laughing. At that point I was in a lot of pain and pretty shaken up and couldnt see the funny side of things.

Hubby managed to get me on my feet, and self evaluating myself, I figured I was going to be very sore the next day and I had a massive headache and graze to the top of my forehead.

Didnt bleed so only skin off. No broken bones. So glad no one was videoing my gallant effort, so yippee no You Tube video. Both hubbys cousin and her friend did have a go but with hubby holding the wheel so it couldnt take off on them.

They managed about two steps each and decided it wasnt a good idea. Then I thought about the piece of equipment being in a public place for anyone to useand have now put in a complaint to the Council as I believe it really isnt a safe piece of equipment.

There are no warning signs on how to and the gearing is way too loose. I think it should be geared so that if you walk slow then the wheel spins slow and the faster you walk then it will go faster, but not the loose free spin it has now.

A young boy about 11 or 12 also gave it a try and he was struggling to stay upright but then couldnt slow it down to get off and he was flung off the side of it.

I have a massive egg on my forehead, huge bruise on my shoulder and knees and aching body from where its twisted me in ways Ive not been twisted for many many years.

All that adds up to PAIN!!

So how do the mice do it……..or is the reason you see them running and running and running flat out because they cant stop their wheels?