ULConnect and the hall will attempt to be available on UHF radio channel 17 during emergencies and from 10:00 – 10:30 on the last Sunday of each month (not Dec) for testing.
Where are the fires and what will they do?
The RFS Fires Near Me website and the Hazards near me app are the official source of fire information. I suggest you use the app as you can set your location and a watch zone where hazards will be notified. ULConnect and the Fire Map on the hall website are based on the same live information. Unfortunately the official pages are missing a lot of important information, so you need to go to several places to get a comprehensive view. ULConnect tries to present all the useful info that I can access in one place, but only for the immediate area. That information is:-
- Any active fire events and their burnt extent if available.
- Current fire danger ratings and fire bans
- The current wind speed and direction and the next wind change.
- Any hotspots (infrared satellite detection of hot areas that can show large fires)
There are a number of useful websites with information on bushfires. Unfortunately none are perfect, so you need to use several together to get a comprehensive view. Simply put you want to know where the fires are, combined with the wind forecast to estimate what direction they might go, and the humidity and temperature to guess how fierce they might be.
The best is probably bushfire.io, which while a bit complex shows fires, their extent, hotspots and current forecast wind direction. Its a commercial site that offers free access at the moment. There seems no immediate benefit in getting a login or monthly subscription.
The Met Bureau has a weather forecast for Upper Lansdowne. Its more detailed than the normal forecast and gives a wind direction every 3 hours so don’t just check the current direction – I find it very useful. I also use the weather radar to estimate when forecast rain might arrive.
Hotspots shows a satellite based map of infrared heat which, while it doesn’t show small fires, gives a good indication of the area currently burning (where the RFS just shows the burnt extent). this is important to estimate which is the active fire front of a big fire.
Please note the number of times words like estimate or even guess were used. Trying to decide where a fire might spread is not accurate, so always guess to be on the safe side.
The RFS has a Bush Fire Information Line – 1800 679 737 – they are helpful but bear in mind they are probably using the same information as above. The RFS Taree District Office phone no is 1300 643 262.
The ABC Radio Mid North Coast on FM 95.5 is the best source of local emergency information.
The RFS Lansdowne Brigade has a Facebook page, and the Upper Lansdowne to Lansdowne Community Facebook Group might have information, though you need to apply to join.
Other Organisations
NSW SES is on 132 500
Midcoast Council is on 02 7955 7777. Their website is here. They have an emergency dashboard but it may not be up to date