Serious fires in my state

Yesterday was a dreadfully hot day, and we were warned conditions would be the worst for fires since the infamous Ash Wednesday of 1983. It reached 45°C (113°F) here and the state maximum was 47.9 (118).

The worst fires are well to the south of me, but there is a fire about 45km away. Yesterday and today we were blanketed with smoke, made worse yesterday by dust blown up by strong winds.

The death toll is rising, many houses and other properties have been destroyed, and it's only made worse by knowing some of the fires are being started by arsonists.

The army has been mobilised to assist:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...013404,00.html

That is screwed up. All arsonist should burn at the stake:flames:. I know what you mean and see. Southern California was also burned by arsonist
and loose campers. old buildings that were land marks, gone, nice beautiful
mountain homes toasted. It is a fricken waste.

Not only the loss of life from fire, but every asthma sufferer is also at risk.

I hope you stay safe Platypus.

Nasty for asthma sufferers, yes, and the very young and elderly already under pressure from severe heat...

Last report has deaths at 60, nearly 100 hospitalized (several critical, maybe 3 not expected to live), 640 homes destroyed.

Does Australia have the equivalent of FEMA or emergency help of some kind? Those are a nasty set of numbers. Are people staying too close to the fire and then can't get out?

Yes, various agencies are involved, and Centrelink (federal government support agency) has emergency provisions. Many people were caught out by the great speed of the fires. There are images of multiple burned-out cars along roads, at least one person who died in their house used a motorized wheelchair - neighbours who found the house locked and no response thought they had been evacuated already.

Oh that is so sad...

We had similar fires in British Columbia's Okanogan valley.

I have friends who live in Kelowna. The wife in this couple started nagging her husband about getting the ladders out and putting the lawn sprinklers up on the roof as it became increasingly apparent that an evacuation order would be issued for their subdivision. Very begrudgingly, he did what she asked. Within hours they had to evacuate. When they were allowed back, theirs was the only house of several hundred that was left standing everything else was burnt to the ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Ok...tain_Park_Fire

The big thing is stay safe. There is only one Platypus. Stuff can be replaced. Look after yourself.

Best of luck.


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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

You truly have my sympathy, Platypus. In the Texas Panhandle, we've had some terrible grass fires recently. In 2006 we had around 1.2 million acres (about 1900 square miles) burned. The worst mistake people make is underestimating how fast these fires can move. Our fires in 2006 were driven by winds that were as high as 50 miles an hour, and averaged around 30-40 mph. You need to be prepared to move quickly at the first notice of fires in your area and get out of the way.

My best wishes to you Platypus and dtay safe. We had our disaster here in Arizona last year on the Rodeo-Chediski fire . Such a waste and loss also due to arsonists.

Sad to hear that people will light fires without truly realizing the full consequences of their actions.
Good luck Platypus hope all is well around you and contiunues that way.
Stay Safe

The fires made the National News here this morning... very sad about the two children - their father put them in the car, then got one more thing from the house and when he came back, the car was engulfed. I wonder what it is that he wanted to get from the house... I wonder if he will ever forgive himself for going.

Anybody heard anything from our favorite punster?


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It is my pure and virtuous heart that
gives me the strength of ten!

Reporting in!

It's smoky around here, but some cooler weather and calm conditions mean the fire threat is not high from the adjacent fire at this time. It's large (covering about 30000 hectares) and probably reaching about 30km away from Wodonga, but fires much further south are the ones causing the most concern.

The death toll has stood officially at 181 for a day or so, but authorities are embarking on the long process of gaining access to over 750 destroyed properties as they become safe to access, so it's expected the figure could rise considerably.

I assume they are unable to just carve a massive firebreak around it?

Yeah that's true. In forest, just not possible. Given enough head start, they can try it in grassland, but even then, the speed at which bulldozers can cut a wide enough break means a slight change in the direction of the fire can easily bypass the break. It's not safe to utilise slow-moving equipment like dozers and graders in the path of a moving fire.

But at the moment the calm conditions mean this particular fire is reasonably contained, and authorities are able to do back-burning to try to remove fuel and help the fire burn itself out.

I'm surprised that the authorities don't maintain firebreaks around the towns... ugly, but easy to create.

From what Platypus says about wind conditions, I expect firebreaks are impractical for the same reason we don't do them here. Our average daily wind speed is about 12 mph, and 30+ is common. 50 or so isn't that unusual, and our windiest months are also our driest months. That would mean breaks hundreds of yards deep, and daily maintenance to remove trash and debris. And to be really effective, we'd have to protect every wooden electrical pole that might burn and fall over thousands of square miles. So, we rely on early detection and fast response to little fires. But they still get away sometimes.

Ah, hadn't thought about the wind...yes that would be very ugly.

God Bless Australia.