No doubt many have hard about the terrible fires burning in this country as we speak. Currently the area burned in total is greater than the combined areas of Belgium and Luxembourg , or about the area of Ireland. Although these fires have been devastating, remember that this is a very large country and rather than one huge fire there are hundreds if not thousands of smaller fires. The great majority of the fires are/were very small and have been contained, however several large fires remain out of control and pose a serious risk to human life and property. Several firies (fire fighters) have been killed or injured, mostly as the result of either falling trees on fire trucks or in one bizarre case by extreme wind rolling a 3 ton fire truck.
I have family in the danger zone near the town of Nowra in New South Wales (about 160 km - 100 miles - south of Sydney). Several have evacuated their homes as they come under ember attack, including my aunt, some cousins and their families. Others are blocked off in the small coastal town of Sussex Inlet, south east of Nowra. I have friends in far east Gippsland (the easternmost part of the state of Victoria) They are keeping watch but so far they are not under attack. They stand ready to protect their properties with the help of CFA (Country Fire Authority) volunteers if necessary. I also have other friends on the NSW south coast in areas threatened by the fires. All in all a very frightening time, although personally where I live is under no threat, so there is that.
The fires are top of the news on the BBC in the UK. It looks horrifying.
I really hope your family stays safe Bluenose. I hope everyone does but especially your family.
I read that a lot of folks are fleeing to the beaches. Tragedy.
Not to worry, Prime Minister Morrison is going to gift all victims of the fires a lump of coal.
Quote from: Bluenose on December 31, 2019, 08:46:00 AMSeveral firies (fire fighters) have been killed or injured, mostly as the result of either falling trees on fire trucks or in one bizarre case by extreme wind rolling a 3 ton fire truck.
It was a fking fire tornado and the truck was bigger than 3 ton.
An unpaid volunteer who died had married a year or so ago and leaves a wife and an unborn. :'(
Wow, what a mess! Stay safe, Bluenose.
Quote from: Tank on December 31, 2019, 08:48:15 AM
The fires are top of the news on the BBC in the UK. It looks horrifying.
Horrifying is the right description.
Quote from: jumbojak on December 31, 2019, 12:26:42 PM
I really hope your family stays safe Bluenose. I hope everyone does but especially your family.
Everyone I know is OK and their homes are OK, but we're not out of the woods just yet. Forecasts for next week are not good.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on December 31, 2019, 01:29:04 PM
I read that a lot of folks are fleeing to the beaches. Tragedy.
That's mainly in Mallacoota a coastal town in the extreme east of Victoria. The Navy is sending two ships equipped with a lot of disaster relief gear and supplies as well as a helicopter on the larger one. I heard one of the admirals interviewed on radio and he said if the Victorian government requests it, these ships will be used to evacuate people as well as the other relief tasks.
Quote from: Bad Penny II on December 31, 2019, 01:59:01 PM
Not to worry, Prime Minister Morrison is going to gift all victims of the fires a lump of coal.
He doesn't seem to get it, does he?
QuoteQuote from: Bluenose on December 31, 2019, 08:46:00 AMSeveral firies (fire fighters) have been killed or injured, mostly as the result of either falling trees on fire trucks or in one bizarre case by extreme wind rolling a 3 ton fire truck.
It was a fking fire tornado and the truck was bigger than 3 ton.
An unpaid volunteer who died had married a year or so ago and leaves a wife and an unborn. :'(
Indeed, the reports have been getting a bit confused.
Quote from: Dark Lightning on December 31, 2019, 03:34:22 PM
Wow, what a mess! Stay safe, Bluenose.
I'm in no danger, but I can't say the same for my countrymen. There have been as of the last report I heard, 7 people killed in New South Wales, and at least one in Victoria but several people in both states are missing. The fires have destroyed 176 homes in NSW and more than 40 in Vic. All these numbers are likely to grow in the next week or so. We need rain.
Bluenose and Bad Penny, where generally do you each live?
Quote from: Bluenose on December 31, 2019, 08:46:00 AM
No doubt many have hard about the terrible fires burning in this country as we speak. Currently the area burned in total is greater than the combined areas of Belgium and Luxembourg , or about the area of Ireland. Although these fires have been devastating, remember that this is a very large country and rather than one huge fire there are hundreds if not thousands of smaller fires. The great majority of the fires are/were very small and have been contained, however several large fires remain out of control and pose a serious risk to human life and property. Several firies (fire fighters) have been killed or injured, mostly as the result of either falling trees on fire trucks or in one bizarre case by extreme wind rolling a 3 ton fire truck.
I have family in the danger zone near the town of Nowra in New South Wales (about 160 km - 100 miles - south of Sydney). Several have evacuated their homes as they come under ember attack, including my aunt, some cousins and their families. Others are blocked off in the small coastal town of Sussex Inlet, south east of Nowra. I have friends in far east Gippsland (the easternmost part of the state of Victoria) They are keeping watch but so far they are not under attack. They stand ready to protect their properties with the help of CFA (Country Fire Authority) volunteers if necessary. I also have other friends on the NSW south coast in areas threatened by the fires. All in all a very frightening time, although personally where I live is under no threat, so there is that.
This was in the news here today. Besides all the environmental devastation and loss of animal and plant life it's sad to see so many people having to leave their properties because of the fires.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on January 01, 2020, 11:49:38 PM
Bluenose and Bad Penny, where generally do you each live?
I live on the eastern fringe of Melbourne
(https://www.nationsonline.org/maps/australia-admin-map.jpg)
The worst fires in Victoria are east and north of Bairnsdale, which is approximately four hours drive east of Melbourne. Mallacoota, which you have probably geard about with 4,000 people sheltering on the beach, is at the very eastern tip of Victoria, near the New South Wales Border and a further three hours drive east of Bairnsdale. In NSW the fires are right up the coast from Victoria to about the town of Nowra, approximately 100 mile south of Sydney. There is a ring of fire around Sydney, and further fires up towards Queensland.
The last report I heard 7 people have been killed in NSW, 1 in Victoria and 17 people are missing in Victoria. More that 1,300 homes have been destroyed so far this fire season.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on January 01, 2020, 11:49:38 PM
Bluenose and Bad Penny, where generally do you each live?
If you look at Blue Noses map I'm on the coast, Sydney is 400km South, Brisbane is maybe 500km North.
When I look at my place on Google it gives me this.
(https://i.imgur.com/c57vBgc.jpg)
I ran when I saw it coming I ran away. There wasn't a fire storm though, house lived garage burnt. It wasn't an extreme day.
On the news there's fire higher than the tall trees, that's wicked but flames going up to the clouds, that's fucking Venusian.
What sort of forestry management does the Australian government use? Controlled burns and the like or is it just putting out fires once they've started?
Quote from: Bad Penny II on January 02, 2020, 12:54:39 PM
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on January 01, 2020, 11:49:38 PM
Bluenose and Bad Penny, where generally do you each live?
If you look at Blue Noses map I'm on the coast, Sydney is 400km South, Brisbane is maybe 500km North.
When I look at my place on Google it gives me this.
(https://i.imgur.com/c57vBgc.jpg)
I ran when I saw it coming I ran away. There wasn't a fire storm though, house lived garage burnt. It wasn't an extreme day.
On the news there's fire higher than the tall trees, that's wicked but flames going up to the clouds, that's fucking Venusian.
Thanks. Hope both of you survive. I want to visit Australia some day, but I think I'll wait until it's a bit more hospitable!!
Quote from: jumbojak on January 02, 2020, 03:16:11 PM
What sort of forestry management does the Australian government use? Controlled burns and the like or is it just putting out fires once they've started?
A pertinent Facebook post by my niece who works in the relevant area in Victoria
https://www.facebook.com/chris.ritchieneilsen/posts/10162774771760565 (https://www.facebook.com/chris.ritchieneilsen/posts/10162774771760565)
Well we've been in touch and all my family and friends have made it through, houses intact. Family in Nowra were evacuated yesterday and fortunately the fire head off in another direction just before it hit them. Most have been allowed back home now, but road closures are still keeping some at bay but we know their houses are OK. My friends in the high country had he fire stop about a kilometre from their place, just over the hill. They were well prepared and had a plan to move to a virtual fortress of a neighbour's place if the fire started to come out of the bush and down the hill towards them, but that was not necessary. It's been an eventful few days. Hopefully the next flare up, probably at the end of the week when more hot weather is predicted won't be so bad. I'm not taking any bets, though. Currently raining in Melbourne with patchy rain extending over some of the westernmost fire grounds and this rain is heading that way, but suspect it may peter out before it does much good.
Quote from: Bluenose on January 04, 2020, 10:54:56 PM
Well we've been in touch and all my family and friends have made it through, houses intact. Family in Nowra were evacuated yesterday and fortunately the fire head off in another direction just before it hit them. Most have been allowed back home now, but road closures are still keeping some at bay but we know their houses are OK. My friends in the high country had he fire stop about a kilometre from their place, just over the hill. They were well prepared and had a plan to move to a virtual fortress of a neighbour's place if the fire started to come out of the bush and down the hill towards them, but that was not necessary. It's been an eventful few days. Hopefully the next flare up, probably at the end of the week when more hot weather is predicted won't be so bad. I'm not taking any bets, though. Currently raining in Melbourne with patchy rain extending over some of the westernmost fire grounds and this rain is heading that way, but suspect it may peter out before it does much good.
Fingers crossed, hoping the fires will end soon. Keep us posted!
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on January 06, 2020, 02:48:37 AM
Fingers crossed, hoping the fires will end soon. Keep us posted!
All family and friends accounted for and back home.
Except that is the daughter of my mother's best friend who lives in Nerriga, one of the towns badly effected by one of the fires on the South coast of NSW. We haven't heard from her for a day and a half, probably just communications being cut. edit: Just got a phone call, she's fine and her house is OK.
Today in Melbourne we have been smothered in smoke from the fires, which are hundreds of kilometres away, but then the smoke has been reported from New Zealand, so I suppose I should not be surprised. I was in the city on my way back from a job this afternoon and I could barely see the tops of the high rise buildings from ground level. According to the radio, visibility was down to less than 400 metres. It has continued to rain today, with some of it falling on the fire grounds. Some areas have had about 10-15 mm, or about half an inch, but it is said that we need about 200 mm (8 in) in a short time over the fires to really put them out. Not much chance of that any time soon. The forecast is for more very hot weather next weekend and depending on the wind, many of the fires will no doubt flare up again and there will be more evacuations and homes lost, but hopefully no lives. Ironically, today has been rather cold and much the same expected tomorrow. The weather bureaux is saying it will be a few days before the smoke clears. I've had enough of it after only one, I don't know how people in Sydney and elsewhere have coped with weeks of it without becoming completely swivel-eyed.
Australian MP right now:
(https://i.imgur.com/c4jt321.png)
And totally not a global warming problem.
And now there are floods.
not over yet
(https://i.imgur.com/fm4NdWHl.png)
The Port Macquarie Lindfield swampy peat fire has been declared out, extinguished after maybe eight months.
We'd get a bit of rain and people 'd say that'll put it out but I told 'em it'd take 4"
That's what it took last time.
It took 11" until they declared it dead this time but they didn't have heat sensors back then.
What happens when truly vast peat areas start to smoulder?
Yeahbut the real worry is those ecoterrorist arsonists. :grrr:
Too bad Oz doesn't have capital punishment. Those arsonists need stringing up if anyone ever did,
Quote from: Recusant on February 12, 2020, 06:40:11 PM
Yeahbut the real worry is those ecoterrorist arsonists. :grrr:
Quote from: Dark Lightning on February 12, 2020, 06:58:26 PM
Too bad Oz doesn't have capital punishment. Those arsonists need stringing up if anyone ever did,
The role of arsonists in the recent fires has been grossly exaggerated.
Yes. I use the :grrr: smiley to ridicule "angry" posturing, but I should have been more explicit. My comment was specifically referring to a claim made by an Australian senator (https://7news.com.au/politics/eco-terrorists-may-have-lit-fires-senator-c-693655), which was contrary to what police and fire agencies have said.
there were occazional arsonizts in tbe chaparral when i lived in california. one guy was caught throwing road flares out into the brush from his car as he drove to work. another fire was started by a bic lighter that had been lit and wedged open.
Quote from: Bluenose on February 14, 2020, 06:40:56 AM
Quote from: Dark Lightning on February 12, 2020, 06:58:26 PM
Too bad Oz doesn't have capital punishment. Those arsonists need stringing up if anyone ever did,
The role of arsonists in the recent fires has been grossly exaggerated.
OK, I guess I was misinformed.
Quote from: billy rubin on February 14, 2020, 03:11:06 PM
there were occazional arsonizts in tbe chaparral when i lived in california. one guy was caught throwing road flares out into the brush from his car as he drove to work. another fire was started by a bic lighter that had been lit and wedged open.
There was a rash of arson fires here in southern California, which turned out to have been set by one of the investigators. Proving that he was better than the others by identifying the source of ignition more easily (well, duh!).