#fire ptsd

After a hellish year, things are starting to resemble literal hell here. This weekend, temperatures soared above 40 degrees celcius (over 100 degrees Farenheit), gale force winds from the central desert blew in at nearly 100km p/h (62 miles per hour) and then dozens of fires erupted all over the state, including one only 3 kilometres away from my house.

They had to deploy not one but 4 of our biggest water bombing helicopters and a dozen fire trucks to contain it. Their flight path was directly over our hosue so the walls and windows were shaking for a steady 2 hours as they flew back and forth between the fire and the nearest dam. We were loading up the car as we were told to prepare to evacuate, when finally the westerly wind stopped and the cool change from the south came in, and the fire was put under control.

It’s official that I have PTSD from last bushfire season, as I was a trembling, crying mess when I started hearing the sirens. It’s not even December yet.