Fiery photos

In all the furore of natural disasters, it is easy sometimes for the event to hit the headlines everywhere, but only till the next 'big thing' comes along. Also in this instant and constant stream of information it is easy for ephemeral and items of a transient nature to be forgotten or lose details. Thanks to modern technology, and the efforts of people like Lynton Brown, these events are recorded. The following is from the Karnak fire on 8.1.2013.

Apparently the fire started about 3pm from a disused windmill on a property at Karnak, 15km south-east of Goroke, and with the strong winds fanning the blaze quickly swept north-east through the Kalingur State Forest, into private farm land heading towards Gymbowen. 

Winds gusted up to 50kph during the late afternoon, and police were forced to construct road blocks on a number of roads. Later a helicopter with an FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) camera was used to check for hot-spots. This was the first time the new technology was utilised in the Wimmera. In the end, the fire burnt approximately 920 hectares of forest and grassland.

Sometimes there may be a commemorative book - 'Beyond the smoke : fire, destruction and images of hope' from the 2006 Grampians fire, and 'The Remlaw Fire : our stories from Black Saturday' the fire around Horsham in 2009. But the smaller outbreaks don't warrant the same coverage or notoriety and can fade into oblivion, remembered only by those directly affected.

Now, private and commercial photographs and videos form important historical artifacts, part of the story of this region. It is vital to archive these vinaigrettes, be it on your hard-drive, photo album, Flickr or Facebook, etc.