It has been almost a year since the fires that roared through our area forced us to evacuate (and burned down many houses). Today I drove through the worst effected area on my way to the vet, I can see the bush is struggling to heal and grow strong again, but it is going to take more than a few years.

The green is trying to take over again, but the blackened skeletons of dead trees still poke through the green carpet and the sun beats down on paths that were previously shaded year round by those trees.

One of my friends attended the fire that burned all this land, she rang me the next day to share her grief. What she told me still brings me nightmares in the middle of the night; she had to drive a vehicle through burned and burning ground, watching animals stagger into the road edge and die. Everyone in this area is scarred from last year’s fires, especially those who lost their homes and those who no longer feel safe living here. Many have moved away.

Those fires can happen again; there is still fuel on the ground, despite the hot burn last year. The soil is twice as hot this year because the shade is gone now. The extended dry of a drought never really broken has baked the flush of growth that comes after a fire and all it needs is for someone to drop a match on one of the numerous hot, dry, windy days we have in Spring, Summer and Autumn, then we will be on fire again.