Frightening Afternoon.

[Pinkbits]

Yesterday at around 3.30 pm whilst doing deliveries i had a very eventful 40 or so minutes.
Firstly travelling along Maroondah hwy city bound, stopped at the lights at Deep creek rd it was very windy, a car had just passed me travelling in the opposite direction when this large dead tree blew over blocking the 3 outbound lanes.
Fortunately the next lot of traffic had been stopped at the lights so no damage to any one, travelling along Mitcham rd toward Donvale, i passed a church or hall and saw people standing around what was left of the flagpole, it had snapped off just above the base.

Thirdly, still heading towards Donvale, just after Park rd where the road crosses over the Eastern fwy extension i saw smoke and large flames, i quickly got onto 000 to call the fire brigade whilst switching on the hazard lights to do a u turn.
After i was initially connected by the operator the phone rang and rang, i would estimate about 30 rings with the operator cutting in twice and telling me it "should not be too much longer", i thought this is an emergency ffs.
After finally pulling up and grabbing my phone and giving location details, i cannot work out why they have to repeatedly ask for the nearest intersection as i had explained quite clearly where it was.

As i ran to fire which was just off the footpath, the residents were using buckets of water to try and extinguish the flames. I yelled out if there was a hose anywhere and was told there was'nt one long enough, (these residents were from houses 2 or 3 doors up), so i turned around to the closest house and jumped the fence (not thinking at the time about the possibility of an angry dog!) found a hose and threw it over the fence and turned it on.
At this point the fire had taken to the timber sound barrier and the flames were about 10-12 feet high, whilst we had water the hose just was'nt quite long enough to be fully effective, apart from that, with about 5 of us working together we had it contained just as 2 fire trucks arrived.
The local residents were very grateful for the help, i just said to them that if i was in the same situation that i would like someone to do the same for me, but the best feeling was being told by the fire brigade controller of what a great job we had done.
I then left, wet,sweaty, eyes watery and smelling of smoke. I now know what our fire fighters have to put up with, and i was only there for approx 20 min.