I also noticed his absence, but did not realise it was probably due to your bush fires. Hope he is ok, and your dad. We had a serious fire a couple of years ago and the small town near me, Knysna, lost about 1000 houses if I remember correctly. It was not a fun time. Luckily the property on which I stay was not affected.
Some pics of my old bakkie (ute) doing fire duty damping down.