I am sorry if the last episode was a bit “heavy”.

But I just want you all to reach at least my age. Mind you you’ll never be as good lookin` as me! Wrinkles and all!!

“A little piece of glass.”

Imagine a grass covered bush track. Along comes a man driving his old car and a little piece of glass falls down onto the track from the car. Everything seems okay. Bump, bumpity bump goes the car on it`s way. The sun rises. It is becoming really hot! There’s no wind yet.

The sun shines on the glass and creates a “hot” spot. A breeze is starting to blow now, and it huffs and puffs the dry grass in the “hot” spot! PHUFFFFFFFFFFFF! All of a sudden the really dry grass starts to burn. Oi, Oi, here’s trouble!!

The breeze is very strong now and the fire quickly spreads. The bark on the trees is alight now! And it is climbing upwards! And now the trees themselves are alight.

The wind is really really strong now! The eucalyptus oil in the trees leaves turns into a flammable gas now!! And explodes! Boooooooom! All the trees are well alight.

By the time any body can see any smoke from the fire it is crackling and roaring along at about 130mph!! The nearest fire station is 40 miles away! The fire siren sounds. The butcher and the baker and the milkman stop what they are doing and run to the fire shed. On with their gear and off they go!

The fire by now is “topping”. The gases from the gum trees are joining together and travelling at fantastic speeds, burning everything they come into contact with!

Imagine a fire reaching from Portsmouth to Southampton to Hindhead to Arundel!! That is how big it is by now.

The first fire truck arrives, and immediately requests assistance. Bull dozers to make fire breaks, fixed wing water bombers, helicopters, tankers, they are all on the way. The poor old firemen, covered in soot, eyes and noses running, coughing, think, Bloomin` eck!!

They can't even drink the water they are using on the fire as it has a chemical added to it to make it wetter! Work that one out!……. It is just like shampoo, and makes the water sticky!

They are just praying for rain. They are not only squirting the fire with water, but having to look up in case a tree limb may drop on them, and also keep lookout behind them in case the fire jumps them. `Blimey! They are busy, eh?

Four days it burns, then a change in the wind direction, and a little rain helps them control it.

By now they have used most of the water from dams and ponds. The rivers are even looking a bit lower! And the ol' chook up in the big house is having a “blue” over the firemen emptying her new swimming pool!! Of course the firemen put it out you silly duffers!! Oz= Worried Mates!

A LITTLE PIECE OF GLASS!