Nightmare!

So...I doubt we will be going to sleep tonight.As you know we are in the midst of the worst drought in memory in these parts and today there was an extreme fire warning because of strong winds. I was at the Book Cave in town and just after lunch we heard the sirens from the Fire Station and saw smoke out to the west of Stanthorpe.

I took these pictures from the Book Cave. We kept an eye on the fire on the Queensland Fire website and saw it moving closer to Stanthorpe. I left the Book Cave at 5.00pm but we headed back into town at 6.00 pm to go to a Trivia Night at the Art Gallery next to the Book Cave.It is dark here by 6.00 and we could see the glow of the fire as we headed towards town. When we got to town we could see the forested hills just to the west of the town were ablaze and Stanthorpe had no power. It seems that an electrical sub station has been lost in the fire and the power is out across the whole area even back here at Glen Aplin.The Trivia Night was cancelled so we headed back home but made a short detour along the road from the Book Cave towards where the fire was and were shocked to see huge flames right at the edge of town. The main Highway has been closed south and north of Stanthorpe and since getting back home have heard that it has jumped the highway and there are rumours of houses in the town burning.The wind has picked up again in the last hour or so which will not help one bit. We at least have power as we are off grid and have solar batteries.The wind is blowing away from us so we are fine but if the direction changes in the night it will be another story. The fire is about 15 kilometers north of us but there is nothing but lots of dry firewood between us and it if it starts to head our way.We shall stay awake tonight to keep an eye on it.