Bushfire Information

Where are the fires and what will they do?

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 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 RFS Fires Near Me website and the Hazards near me app are the official source that bushfire.io gets its fire information from. I suggest you use the app as you can set your location and an watch zone where hazards will be notified. The Fire Map on the hall website is based on the same live information.

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 using the same information as above.

The ABC Radio Mid North Coast 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 7955 7777. Their website is here. They have an emergency dashboard but it may not be up to date