They're doing a hazard reduction burn on 23 Hectares of bush today - which is excellent because that will help prevent a dangerous bushfire later in the summer - but the wind is coming from the WNW, so those of us who are downwind of it are coughing our lungs out.
Can confirm first-hand that it's really big now. I hope they have air assets available this early in the season 😬
Note: It won't get to us because there's are a lot of built-up area in between. The smoke's very bad, but.
Interesting. The smoke from the fire is the only thing showing up on the weather radar.
Fortunately, they appear to have their Hueys available, but they typically send the bigger helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft over to North America to help there while we're in winter, so I don't know if they're back yet 🤞
The fire as seen from Long Reef/Dee Why Beach
Photo credit: Andrew Quilty
This, here, is the thing that worries me about it.
If we want to have green areas in the city, a few houses are gonna be threatened by fires every now and then.
But they've been building a bunch of these retirement villages up that way for a couple of decades now, and this fire is heading in their direction.
Yeah, it ain't great. Those places make people sell their houses to pay for living there, and if they burn I don't know what protections they have.
It'll vary, but I know for a fact some of the operators are less than thorough about insurance because they believe they have higher protection 😬
Yes. While I'd like to make my living from music, I can't, and therefore make it from doing contract work for financial advisors, so I've looked into these places.
They are actually pretty cool, lifestyle-wise, but the operators - some of whom would shock people - can be terribly unscrupulous and then turn around and rely on 'faith' to both excuse themselves and beg the government from whom they already get tax-free status for help when stuff goes awry 🤷♂️
@DyDave Oof! I hate companies who do this to the elderly. It's just wrong however you look at it.
Me too. The thing is, a surprising number of the companies that do it are actually owned by some otherwise respected entities that most of us happily tolerate.
Some of us might even throw a few coins into their charity can occasionally without realising that some sketchy stuff is going on 🤷♂️
@DyDave "Don't worry about insurance, God will protect you." is a sales pitch that'd have me running away faster than Usain Bolt, and I actually *believe* in him!