Where there's smoke, there's fire

Meanderthals

Aka PhilD
Mar 16, 2012
837
1,356
93
Near Darwin
Finally got around to downsizing a video file from my dashcam that was taken while on the way home some months ago. Cam records in 3 minute sections and over 200Mb per section in HD. This bit of the video is about 19Mb.

If this link works I'd prefer that people note my comments prior to watching as otherwise a wrong impression of it being more dangerous that it really was might happen.

We saw the smoke from quite some distance away and were not that far ahead of following traffic, with one being a 3 trailer Road-train. The road in this area crosses a black soil wet season flood plain and we have spent enough years up here to pretty well know what the severity of any fires in this area would be like and that there is little probability of the fire itself blocking the road other than just by smoke. The road is raised above the plain with little opportunity to get off of the road to a safe area and the road shoulder isn't wide enough to fully clear the bitumen for most of it. Attempting a "U" turn just wasn't going to happen either. There was oncoming traffic at times so we were sure that the road wasn't closed off. There was also no chatter on the UHF. Not wanting to wear a Road-train driving over the top of us we pressed on. It's not unusual for unattended road side fires up this way in the Dry Season and generally you just have to deal with it. We were definitely not totally comfortable about it though and thought that the Fire Brigade should have been more concerned with the potential of a road accident than controlling the fire as it was well outside of the nearby town and going away from it. A bit further North we saw the Police headed towards it so they may have then blocked off the Highway.

http://vid670.photobucket.com/albums/vv62/phild12s131e/Fire LoRes1_zpsbpdmhvll.mp4

Edit: Seems to not work to watch online and needs downloading to view.
 
Last edited:

Bellbirdweb

Well-Known Member
Jan 24, 2014
1,921
2,746
113
Sydney
I'm surprised they didn't shut that road, I certainly would have if I was the crew leader.

Nothing like getting a fire truck barrelled by a truck coming though the smoke.
 

Dobbie

Well-Known Member
Jun 18, 2014
3,061
5,872
113
Dash cam works well!

Was it a pain or a challenge to download the footage?

We drove through similar on the way to Kakadu and were paranoid about gas bottles and jerry cans on the draw bar so stopped very quickly to make triple sure we'd shut them off tightly. Peace of mind, really, but something that crosses your mind.
 

crackacoldie

Well-Known Member
Jan 8, 2013
2,593
3,802
113
Newcastle NSW
Finally got around to downsizing a video file from my dashcam that was taken while on the way home some months ago. Cam records in 3 minute sections and over 200Mb per section in HD. This bit of the video is about 19Mb.

If this link works I'd prefer that people note my comments prior to watching as otherwise a wrong impression of it being more dangerous that it really was might happen.

We saw the smoke from quite some distance away and were not that far ahead of following traffic, with one being a 3 trailer Road-train. The road in this area crosses a black soil wet season flood plain and we have spent enough years up here to pretty well know what the severity of any fires in this area would be like and that there is little probability of the fire itself blocking the road other than just by smoke. The road is raised above the plain with little opportunity to get off of the road to a safe area and the road shoulder isn't wide enough to fully clear the bitumen for most of it. Attempting a "U" turn just wasn't going to happen either. There was oncoming traffic at times so we were sure that the road wasn't closed off. There was also no chatter on the UHF. Not wanting to wear a Road-train driving over the top of us we pressed on. It's not unusual for unattended road side fires up this way in the Dry Season and generally you just have to deal with it. We were definitely not totally comfortable about it though and thought that the Fire Brigade should have been more concerned with the potential of a road accident than controlling the fire as it was well outside of the nearby town and going away from it. A bit further North we saw the Police headed towards it so they may have then blocked off the Highway.

http://vid670.photobucket.com/albums/vv62/phild12s131e/Fire LoRes1_zpsbpdmhvll.mp4

Edit: Seems to not work to watch online and needs downloading to view.
I'm surprised they didn't shut that road, I certainly would have if I was the crew leader.

Nothing like getting a fire truck barrelled by a truck coming though the smoke.
Ditto
 

Meanderthals

Aka PhilD
Mar 16, 2012
837
1,356
93
Near Darwin
Dash cam works well!

Was it a pain or a challenge to download the footage?
It records to a 32Gb microSD in 3 minute sections and can keep about 7 hours before over writing the oldest files. Copying off the files for a full 7 hours or so does take a bit but then can go through and delete within its viewing program or just mass delete with the computer file manager. Device is a Blackvue model that records 3 files to each block for video, sound and GPS data and also within the program you can have the map displayed to see where you were. My main problem was that I mounted it on the drivers side of the rear vision mirror and it ends up with the image and screen text for location, date and speed being reversed and although within the program you can flip the image the writing is still then reversed. One program I was trying to use to reduce the picture resolution couldn't invert the image so I ended up with the built in Microsoft Moviemaker to do it but then had to experiment with various reductions to keep the file size small but still viewable.
 
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Bluey

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2014
2,651
3,817
113
Australia
Did you notice the rear trailer of the Road-train near the end? I wouldn't have taken it through a fire if it was a fuel tank.
Isnt that why there called suicide jockeys ???????? But yes you think he would have pulled up well before or maybe there told keep going is the best not to get stuck or stopped