A fire in the Howes Swamp area, approximately 60 kilometres north of Windsor, is being contained.

Current Situation

Crews are monitoring the Howes Swamp Fire which started approximately 8km north of Colo Heights. The fire started on Wednesday 23 October 2013 and burnt 13,340ha. 

Crews have continued to undertake backburning operations and mop up where required along the Putty Road.

Advice
Smoke may continue to be visible throughout the area. Residents should only contact Triple Zero (000) if they see an unattended fire.   
Road Closures 

Due to the danger of falling trees and the number of emergency vehicles located on and around the Putty Road, the road remains closed to through traffic from Colo Heights (opposite the service station) to Milbrodale (at the Grey Gum Cafe). 
 
Information for residents who live between the road closure at Colo Heights and the “Tari Springs” property: Residents of Colo Heights who live beyond the road closure at Colo Heights but do not live north of the “Tari Springs” property can (on display of their licence) access their property. 
 
Information for residents who live between the road closure at Putty and the “High Wollemi” property: Residents of the Putty area who live beyond the road closure at Putty but do not live south of the “High Wollemi” property can (on display of their licence) access their property. 
 
No vehicles are permitted to travel the Putty Road in the fire affected area. This area is between the “High Wollemi” property in Milbrodale to the “Tari Springs” property in Colo Heights. To help ensure the safety of fire crews, there will be regular police patrols of this road. 
 
The NSW RFS and RMS will reassess the requirement to keep the Putty Road closed on an on-going basis.

Information on fire activity – for Higher McDonald, Upper
McDonald and St Albans area
Issued at 1100hrs 28 October, 2013
Situation
The Howes Swamp Fire which started approximately 8km north of Colo Heights is burning on
both sides of the Putty Road and has burnt 11,993ha.
The eastern most point of the bush fire is burning in the area of Mellong, approximately 10km
north-west of the Higher McDonald area.
It is planned to contain the fire to the west of the McDonald River and an existing containment
line that runs north/south to the Gorricks Fire Trail and north of the Gorricks and Womerah
Range Fire Trails that run east/west to the Putty Road.
Properties in the Higher McDonald, Upper Macdonald and St. Albans area are likely to
experience a lot of smoke due to our backburning operations.
Advice
• Monitor conditions in your area as the situation can change.
• Follow your Bush Fire Survival Plan. If you do not have a Bush Fire Survival Plan, ensure
you know what you will do if fire impacts your area.
• Should you choose to stay with your property and defend it, you need to ensure that you
and your property are well prepared.
• Be aware that if conditions deteriorate, some areas may become isolated and may lose
power. You may not be able to leave for a number of days.
• The safest option is to be well away from the fire.
Information
• If your life is at risk, call Triple Zero (000) immediately.
• Continue to stay up to date with the bush fire situation by checking www.rfs.nsw.gov.au,
listening to your local radio station or by calling the NSW RFS Bush Fire Information Line
on 1800 679 737.
• The Putty Road remains closed to all but local traffic at Colo Heights and Milbrodale.
• Motorists and travellers are advised to check www.livetraffic.com or www.131500.com.au
before travelling.
Authorised by Incident Controller Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers on behalf of the
Commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service.

Advice - Howes Swamp Fire 26/10/13 19:23
A fire continues to burn approximately 60 kilometres north of Windsor in the Howes Swamp area.

Current Situation
The fire is burning on both sides of the Putty Road.

Advice
Fire crews continue to identify broad containment lines for this fire. Throughout the day fire fighters have undertaken backburning operations where possible to slow the fires progress. The strategies for this fire involve an extensive amount of backburning which have and will continue to result in a large number of fire crews and machinery working along the Putty Road as well as fire and smoke directly impacting the area..

Road Closures 
The Putty Road will remain closed between Colo Heights and Milbrodale Road (Milbrodale), until further notice to ensure the safety of firefighters and machinery working along the road side.

For the latest traffic information, visist www.livetraffic.com.au or call 132 701

Other information

• If your life is at risk, call Triple Zero (000) immediately
• Continue to stay up to date with the bush fire situation by checking www.rfs.nsw.gov.au, listening to your local radio station or by calling the NSW RFS Bush Fire Information Line on 1800 679 737
• Information about disaster welfare assistance, advice for pets and animals and donations is availablehere.

The next update will be issued by 11.00pm Saturday 26 October or if the situation changes.

The  following is a summary of the update we received from Richard Colbourne NPWS Planning Cordinator for the fires in our immediate area. Some of you will have met him before on past HR and Bike tours. Richard has been involved in our valley for many years and knows us very well!
 
The  following is a summary of the information on fire activity - for Higher Macdonald, Upper Macdonald and St Albans 
 
Situation
The Howes Swamp Fire is burning in the Colo area, north of Mellong on both sides on the Putty Rd.  It started on the western side of Putty Road after a lightning strike on the night of Tuesday 22nd October. The fire has burnt approximately 1220 ha and is moving in an easterly direction.
 
Strategies are being put in place to contain the fire by conduction back burning off existing fire trails further to the east of the fire. This will produce a large amount of smoke.
 
Properties along Putty road and isolated properties in the Upper Macdonald and Higher Macdonald are likely to experience a lot of smoke and some embers.
 
A TOTAL FIRE BAN is in force for the Greater Sydney area, which is our area, until further notice.
 
Road Closures
 
The Putty is closed from Sand Mine in the south to Kings Waterhole to the North. It will remain closed until safe. Local roads may be closed without notice due to safety and operational requirements.
For further information on road closures, please call the NSW RTA on 131 700 or check www.rta.nsw.gov.au
 
Advice
 
We urge residents to continue monitoring conditions in your area.
 
Check and follow your Bush Fire Survival Plan. If you do not have a Bush Fire Survival Plan, know what you will do if the fire threatens your property. Leaving early is your safest option. If you do decide to leave the valley please notify either Sherri or Siobhan contact details below:
 
sherrimcmahon@hotmail.com Tel: 02 4568 2013
siobhan1632@gmail.com Tel: 02 4568 2276
 
Continue to stay up to date with the bush fire situation by checking http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au and by listening to local radio or by calling the NSW RFS Bush Fire Information Line on 1800 679 737.  We will do our best to keep our local RFS website up to date with local information www.stalbansrfs.org, but please use the official RFS sites as your first port of call. If you need help getting to the website please feel free to give either Sherri or Siobhan call. We are happy to help.
 
If you need to report a new fire or require urgent assistance dial triple Zero (000)

 

Everyone,


Please be advised that the Rural Fire Service and NPWS have requested a St  Albans Community meeting tonight Thursday at 8 pm at the St Albans Fire Shed to  discuss the fire that has jumped the Putty Road at Howes Swamp.
Please pass the word around and come to the meeting to find out first hand  what is happening.


Don McKillop
Captain
St Albans RFS
 

As per my warning get ready have the water tanks full and the pumps on the creek ready to go......
A little too timely
The situation has eased today Monday after the horror day yesterday.  The temperatures soared into the high 30's, the winds roared and then came the fires.  A tree brought down power lines near the bridge near Webb's creek across power lines.  The power lines arced and within a short time we had fires running up Bicentennial Road, Up Webb's Creek, across the river, running up the Wiseman's Ferry Hill, and spot fires starting all over.
One house confirmed as lost, possibly several sheds, caravans and other structures.  We had a little respite last night with a couple of mm of rain and lower temperatures today.  We hope that we have go around most of it.  Crews are out tonight helping with the containment.  The fire is not out.  It is always horrible to see a house totally destroyed.   The St Albans community offers their heart felt sympathy to the owners.
 
Everyone, the weather is turning bad again Wed, Thur, with similar conditions to yesterday expected.  
Please everyone be prepared and get your property as prepared as you can.  As an aside, we the active fire fighters would like to thank the support crews who have made themselves available at the fire shed to replenish the truck when we come back exhausted, we appreciate your help.
 
Don and I would like to thank all the active fire fighters who have given up their time to make up crews not only on St Albans vehicles but have turned up and joined other vehicles.  And thanks to everyone else who helping out at the shed, from home etc. 
Thank you all.
This is what community means
Don and Sherri
St Albans

36 degrees and 35-50km/h winds predicted today.  A Fire Ban is in place for Greater Sydney including the Hawkesbury with a fire danger rating of Extreme.  For more information check out the interactive Total Fire Ban and Current Danger Rating Map on the NSW RFS website.

This is becoming a little too regular for our liking.  Another Total Fire Ban has been declared from midnight tonight Wednesday 16th October until midnight tomorrow night Thursday 17th October.  The weather that hit SA today is moving across and is expected to hit us  is from pm Thursday.  That is temperatures in the high 30's and high wind 70 to 100 km/hr.

No doubt our electricity will fail as usual so make sure you have a normal dial phone and not a cordless one.

Make sure your fire fighting pumps are set up and ready to use if needed, do not wait until it is needed.

Ensure things are secure that could blow around.  Don't park under trees.

And don't light any fires or use anything that gives off sparks.

Look after yourselves and your neighbours.  If you see smoke report it immediately.

St Albans will have crews on standby in case they are needed.

Hopefully this will be an over precaution and we will not be needed.

Cheers

Don and Sherri

The NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) has confirmed parts of the state, including Sydney, Illawarra/ Shoalhaven and the Hunter, will experience Extreme fire danger tomorrow.

NSW RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said hot, dry and windy conditions are forecast,  and there is the potential for some locations to reach Catastrophic if the weather deteriorates beyond what is forecast.

For the avoidance of doubt the Sydney area referred to by NSW RFS includes St Albans and the Hawkesbury area. For further information please click here: NSW RFS website. 

Report any fires immediately  – if you see a fire without a fire truck in attendance, call Triple  Zero (000) immediately.