Mount Lofty Fire Tower facts for kids
The Mount Lofty Fire Tower is a tall tower located on Mount Lofty in the Adelaide Hills, near Adelaide, South Australia. It stands 34 meters (about 112 feet) high. From the top, you can see a huge area, sometimes even as far as Kangaroo Island!
This tower is super important. Its main job is to spot bushfires. During hot, dry summers, when fire danger is high, a special crew watches for smoke. When they see smoke, they figure out exactly where the fire is. Then, they tell the 'Adelaide Fire' Communications Centre. This center quickly sends the closest firefighters to put out the blaze.
Contents
History of the Tower
The Mount Lofty Fire Tower was built in 1980. It is located inside Cleland Conservation Park. At first, officers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service worked there.
In 1987, the Country Fire Service (CFS) took over. They hired three fire spotters. These people watched for fires for eight hours a day. They worked throughout the fire season, which runs from December 1st to April 30th. Each season, they usually reported almost 200 fire sightings!
By the mid-1990s, a group of volunteers started helping to run the tower. This volunteer group officially became a CFS brigade in November 2000.
Ash Wednesday Bushfires (1983)
The tower crew faced a huge challenge during the Ash Wednesday bushfires on February 16, 1983. They remembered how fast and strong the fire moved. It came tearing through Cleland Conservation Park towards them.
The main fire that day started nearby at Mount Osmond. It reached the top of Mount Lofty in less than an hour. Normally, a bushfire would take many hours to cover that distance. Strong winds also caused severe dust storms. This made it hard to see anything.
The crew had to leave the tower just as the fire reached them. The tower's steel frame survived, but all its windows shattered. The fire spotters had to shelter in the carpark below as the fire passed over them.
Australia Live TV Show
On January 1, 1988, the Mount Lofty Fire Tower was shown live on Channel 9. This was part of the Australia Live broadcast. The show celebrated the Australian Bicentenary, which was Australia's 200th birthday.
The three fire spotters from the tower appeared on the show. They were joined by a former radio journalist named Murray Nicoll. He had won an award for his live report during the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires. He reported from his own street as it burned around him. After the Australia Live show, the three teenage fire spotters were featured in local news. They even had a two-page article in Woman's Day magazine!
Tower Safety Concerns
In February 2009, there was some of the hottest weather ever recorded. During this time, the Mount Lofty Fire Tower was not staffed. This tower is very important for spotting fires in the area.
CFS members explained that new communication antennas had been placed on top of the tower. These antennas made the tower sway too much in the wind. Two experienced fire spotters felt unsafe. They decided to walk down the spiral staircase to the ground.
After being closed for about a year, the tower was reopened. Since then, the Mount Lofty fire tower brigade of the CFS has regularly staffed it each fire season.
