I ended up in the Engelbrook reserve, off Wattle Ave. It was fairly steep terrain, a heavy fuel load, and very very dry...that was until the bomber hit us. Three times directly, six times next to us.
Things were going ok when we lit a small back burn...it burnt hot, but was controlled. (Pic attached)
Then I discovered the fire that had snuck up from the bottom...burning very hot. (pic attached)
And then we found the fire had jumped the track we were using to back burn from, and then things got interesting....we called for bombers due to the break out, went scrub bashing in a hurry to try and catch the break outs...
While it might not have looked too big & nasty on the news, they left the area about 15 minutes before it all went crazy... my guys were on channel 10 news (thanks Matt!), as they extinguished the back burn (but that is another story).
This fire certainly had potential to take off and destroy nearby properties, and to trap firefighters - but crews worked really hard, and did very well to contain it.... Luckily, we had very little wind, so at least something was in our favour!!
Pip