I knew that bushfire danger was one of the downsides of living in the Blue Mountains, but I didn't expect to be worrying about it in my very first summer here. There have been fires burning in unpopulated areas of the mountains for about a week now. Now it's hot and dry and windy and the fires are moving closer to towns. Most recently, I heard that there are two new spotfires not far from Linden, which is the neighbouring town to Faulconbridge, where I live.
I'll be taking the day off tomorrow, so that I'll be close by - just in case. My main worry is that even if the main fire doesn't get really close, there's still a chance of an ember attack.
Hopefully it will be fairly quiet and the winds will change (for the better) and things will be fine.
4:30 pm update: It looks as if the particular spotfire I was most worried about has been waterbombed and contained. That's a relief for the time being, but until the winds change, there's a chance other spotfires will develop.