Mount Lofty Fire Tower

The spotting crew determine the location of a smoke sighting by taking a bearing and then calculating distance using topographic maps.

Visibility was obscured due to severe dust storms generated by the strong winds, and the crew only evacuated the tower as the fire was literally at their doorstep.

The three members of the spotting crew appeared on the broadcast along with former Adelaide radio journalist Murray Nicoll, who received a Walkley Award for his live report from his own street in Greenhill as it burned around him during the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983.

During February 2009 with some of the hottest weather on record, this 34m tower, the focal point for all fire-spotting activities in the Mt Lofty region, was unstaffed.

CFS members say new civilian communications antennae on top of the tower made it sway uncontrollably in wind.