| CURRENT WEATHER: "Bulletin issued at 14:02 HKT 02/Nov/2006
PLEASE BE REMINDED THAT:
THE TROPICAL CYCLONE SIGNAL NO. 1 HAS BEEN ISSUED.
THE FIRE DANGER WARNING IS RED AND THE FIRE RISK IS EXTREME."
Every few minutes this morning a helicopter has flown over my office, just a few hundred metres above. There's 3 of them, I think, carrying water from the nearby reservoir and then dropping the water on a fire that's been raging for over a day up on the hills.
I remember yesterday at about noon while walking outside that there was a lot of smoke in the air. The people I spoke to all seemed to think someone was burning something, but then at 10pm flames were spotted coming over the brow of the hill. From the direction of the wind and smoke, it looked like the fire was being blown towards us. A little disconcerting.
So I was surprised when I checked the observatory website and the only mention of fire was that the "fire danger warning is red and the fire risk is extreme."
The HK newspapers, Google, various blog searches weren't much more helpful. Considering it has been going for more than 24 hours I'm a bit surprised. At least after this post the internet will have some record of this 'forgotten disaster'!
I was relieved to see something was being done with the helicopters this morning. Although after going at it for 6 hours you think they would have started using the sea water (1km away) rather than head all the way to the reservoir (4km). Of course, its good to be concerned about the effect of dropping sea water on a vegetation, but what if the consequences of that decision mean that so much more of the vegetation is lost? Food (water?) for thought.
UPDATE: The fire seems to be out now, as the air is clearing and the helicopters have stopped. |
