Here in Brisbane (Queensland) we've been fairly lucky - most other large cities have had severe smoke haze. We had some about a month ago but all clear now. The worrying areas are the more rural areas - Bryan1 (not around so often now) lives in the Adelaide Hills which has been badly affected - hope he's OK. My eldest daughter lives about 2 hours west of here on a 150 acre property - they did have a fire nearby a few weeks ago but it got dealt with. As we're just into summer it is probably going to last another 3 or 4 months. However, despite what the world press is saying, it's not the worst fire season that Australia has had - hopefully it won't turn into it. Currently approx 6 million hectares have burnt, that's 60,000 sqkm - the UK is 240,000 sqkm so about 1/4 of the UK.
Mike.