WILDFIRES

[hairymick]

G'day Gary, and welcome aboard mate. Hopefully, these people if they are ever caught, will be sent to the tender care of people just like me for a very long time.

Are you in the vicinity of the fires? Please stay safe.

Snapps,

That was a beautiful story mate thank you for sharing.

What was the distance between the ridge and their house?

[olsnappa]

Hi Mick.
I'm not a great judge of distances visually but I'd say about a kilometer (around half a mile). When geoff was telling me what had happened he said he had about a minute from when the fire reached the bottom of the ridge till it hit the far corner of his land.
He'd just started the pump and raced back inside and sealed the last of the doors and it was already engulfing the sheds at that corner.
What's coming through in so many of the reports about this fire is the terrifying speed at which it moved.......far quicker than seasoned country folk and fire fighters have ever experienced.
Tragically this seems to be why so many have died. Standard fire plans, whether "stay and defend" or evacuate, which would have worked in previous "text book" wild fires just didn't work this time. Nature has changed the rules.
Geoff and Jill are back home now. He was released from hospital yesterday. And despite his intention of going back up to Buxton on the weekend to continue the clean up, he's heeding the doctors advice and staying home to rest.
I'm going to see him tomorrow for a chin wag and a cuppa'.........(don't know if our American friends will be able to decipher that )...... A talk and a coffee

[garyp]

Hello John,

Chatted to a fiery mate today. He was saying those fires were moving at 2 miles a minute. That's 120 miles per hour. Damn.

Cheers

Gary

[olsnappa]

Hi Garry.....
....and welcome....

Yes, that's a truly horrifying speed.......
How could anyone outrun that in the bush? And even evacuating at a time that would previously have been enough to get to safety would, in a lot have cases, have been just too late. Bearing in mind though, that the particular combination of conditions that applied on Saturday perhaps haven't occurred before....and might not again for some time.

A CFA bloke said on the radio today that there were significant ember attacks occurring up to 45km (28ml) ahead of the fire front because of the winds.....so no wonder it was leapfrogging ahead so rapidly

I guess we have to accept that a new benchmark has been set by these fires and re-evaluate strategies.

[hairymick]

Thanks Snapps,

I spent some time as a volounteer with the rural firies here years ago. they werew all volouteers back then. Every spring we got together of a week-end and did controlled burn-offs of all the scrub and bushland round these two small towns.

The reasoning was that by burning it then, and in a controlled manner, all the tinder dry stuff that accumulates is destroyed before it becomes dangerous. The practice worked very well. I am sure similar practices occurred thoughout the country. the aborigines used this for thousands of years.

Now, is very different. No preventative burn-offs are allowed here and the dry sticks & leaves etc have built up to alarming levels. When we get a fire, it is a bad one and allmost impossible to put out. As you probably know, big fires create their own wind and the cycle continues to get worse.

It is to be hoped that those in power finally learn something from this terrible trajedy. The old ways were used because they worked. I saw on the news tonight of one bloke down there who defied his local counciland cleared a fire-break around his home. They trook him to court, calling him an environmental vandal and he was fined $30,000. Together with his and the councils legal fees the total bill was in the vicinity of 100K .

Guess what. His home is the only one left standing in his entire community.

I also saw on the news tonight, aerial footage of what was Maryville. Astonishing. Block after block of houses gone. It reminded me of piccies I have seen of Hiroshima after it was nuked.

Say g'day to your mate for me. Tell him we are proud as hell of him.

[Ossie Bruce]

I saw that as well Mick,
I hope he is refunded (because he was right) and the "powers that be " take note, and learn from this very hard lesson.
My rellies are about 15k away and not clear yet.

[olsnappa]

Thanks Mick......I will.

Ossie Bruce.....Hoping you rellies get through this ok.

On a lighter note......did you see the pic of the CFA bloke giving the koala a drink?


I heard she was so dehydrated she drank THREE bottles!!

[hairymick]

Yeah I did mate.

Some graphic images and vids here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PWr7x7z ... re=related

check the first vid of the fire racing up the ridge. - unbelievable.

[Wannabe]

Mick,
I read your last post to the Wife and she wants to know if the council is going to refund the guys 100K now that he was proven right.
Bob
P.S. Woops, there was a page two.

[hairymick]

Hi Bob,

I don't know mate. I am guessing, probably not. I really want to do a hairy rant about that but this is not the place.