Aussie Bros.

Stoveguy said:

. Prayers and good mojo to you all thank God for Firemen.

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+1

It makes our current weather problems in the uk look like a complete non event.

Thanks for your thoughts.

The official death count this morning was 176 and it still rising. It'll be 200 + soon enough.

The deaths generally occurred in communities located in rugged terrain and with fire fronts travelling at over 100 kph at times its very difficult. One report from a car driver said he was doing 150 kph and overtaken by the fire.

For a little contrast, up north they are under metres of water due to cyclones!

Australia, a land of contrasts!

The weather was a little friendler yesterday and should be for the next few days so hopefully some form of control can be achieved before it gets hot and windy again next weekend.

Personnally, I'm well away from the worst of the fires, but can still smell them and am on standby.

And thanks to our Kiwi brothers, 100 or so who are here to help. I guess they felt a little guilty for beating us in a few games of cricket!

There is evidence that 30-40% of bush fires are arson, or at least the result of carelessness!! Arsonists should be burn't slowly at the stake. They have charged one in the Hunter. I'm sure the court case will be interesting. Max penalty in Oz is 25 years.

Steve

Here in Oz we are accustomed to bush fires, ever year there are fires everywhere but this!! I am lost for words, I feel so bad for the poor people that have lost there lives and the poor soles that are fighting for their lives in hospital from the burns, all you Aussies get in there and give your support, Red Cross are asking for blood donors and there are plenty of charities to donate too.

preparing for a bush fire is something we all do in summer but 150Km/hr fire storms ? the red steer, natures napalm,

its horrific stuff, a fire 15km away can be here in 6 min and melt the windows on my house even with 50m wide fireberaks and sprinklers so I don't fancy staying but if you leave you need so do it the day before the fire starts or else get trapped in your car so WTF?

mandatory underground bunkers sounds good, like in switzerland

Bushie

Underground bunkers

Like the way you think bushie, I've just changed jobs from sellings sheds into the building surveying area & the bull$hit you would have to go through in most states to legallybuild one is unreal. There was a story of a bloke, his missus & young kid surviving in a bunker they built around their concrete water tank, so why not ? They dont even need to be underground, just made solely of concrete & able to withstand 5 minutes of 800 degree celcius, which filled concrete blolck should. Royal commission into it should come up with some better solutions than those poor ba$tards had to protect themselves.

My heart goes out to all effected. :cry:

Wal

Just found this for a size comparison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApTCBLSWSkE
USA less Alaska is about the same size. We've got 22 m population, USA about 300m

You've got 48 states to our 7.

We are a little closer to the equator, ranging from 11 deg S to 39 S on the mainland to 48 S at the bottom of our southern island state of Tasmania. You go from about 25 N to 49 N.

The worst of the fires, and where the death toll continues to rise, are in the southeast corner, north and east of Melbourne the capital of Victoria. We have a mountain range, the Great Dividing Range that follows the east coast from the far north around to Adelaide, +/- 100 km from the Pacific and Southern oceans where most of the population lives, and this is where we have the worst of the fires, difficult, often innaccessable terrain covered with Eucalypt forests which have evolved to burn. Many species will not germinate until they do. We are 10 years into a drought sequence and with a record hot spell, anything will burn, and burn fast. Once the forest gets going it creates its own weather including violent winds that feed it oxygen. In the 2003 fires many plantation pine trees near Canberra, our capital city where 500 homes were lost, albeit with no loss of life, mature trees were snapped off at the butt in the wind storm created by the inferno. Amazing! I expect that something similiar has happened this time too.

More milder weather at the moment, but still expected to worsen later in the week. Until we get some rain, we can only hope to control the fires. If the weather worsens, heats up and the westerly winds return, then it can get worse. Firefighters are tired, it is a war.

On behalf of those affected by this, thanks for your support, its appreciated. It is diffcult to come to terms with this. Like Timmy said, we live with fire, but not with a death toll like this...........

Steve

I'm on a bushfire taskforce heading down to Victoria this afternoon from Canberra. It is still burning strong in places. Oh there were 4 lives lost in 03 Steve, but that's a pretty good record from 500 houses lost.

Simmo, 2 of which were drownings! Vehicle failed (LR as it happens) in a gulley and a gulley raker comes down and takes them out!! And I think the other 2 were heart attacks which is why I didn't really include them.

Small world isn't it, bumping into Sandra in Adelaide last week?

Good luck down south, and be safe,
Steve

Yes I could remember that two of them were heart attacks. Didn't know about the others. On another matter is Frank Pons doing a workshop down your way soon?

I've just locked Frank in for the first weekend of May, 1/2/3. It'll be up on the DSMRA and CORC calendars real soon.

Steve

PS gulley raker = flash flood

and to go with it all, the irony that the northern half of the country is flooding from torrential rain.

good to hear your ok wildman, hope your feet didnt get too wet in the floods.

with the fires, its hard to believe that one or more people could be so mentally unhinged to light them and get a buzz, there is no , NO punishment that can ever account to the devastation they caused.

Azza.

a large part of the fires went through where we ride(kinglake). i went up the mountain today and it looks like it has been nuked. tree's look like black toothpicks poked into the mountains and their is still cars smashed along the road where people were trying to escape blinded by smoke. most of the residents didn't even know it was comming, it just went pitch black from the smoke then boom..... waves of flame rolling through the hills over their houses. the bad stories i've already been told by friends who live on the mountain are just horrific and i could never repeat them over a public internet forum. one of the refuge centres is in my home town and it is still full of now homeless poeple with absolutely nothing left and in some cases nowhere to go...

it really is hard to describe and i hope i never ever see anything like this happen again. it is that bad.

I see on TV tonight that groups are starting to turn on local "green" policies that prevent controlled burning of fuel in the bush. The areas are where most of the deaths have occurred. This is going to have huge legal implications for lots of regulators!

awilksch said:

..the irony that the northern half of the country is flooding from torrential rain.....

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The other day they showed a map of all of Queensland. Then they overlayed the areas that are currently drought declared. Then the overlayed another of the areas that are flood declared. The areas overlapped by a significant fraction of the state!!!

BundyBear said:

I see on TV tonight that groups are starting to turn on local "green" policies that prevent controlled burning of fuel in the bush. The areas are where most of the deaths have occurred. This is going to have huge legal implications for lots of regulators!

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we have been screaming about this for years. in our local council(nillimbik) they'll try to fine you for even looking at a tree sideways!! the greenies really do have too much of a say around here but it will all change now for sure. bit late though. but in saying that, the fires can't be blamed on one thing and there is a million things that contribute to a force this big...... they are now talking of the death count going close to the 300 mark.

I'm without words for you Aussies... besides wishing it all to go away

greens!

Guys in Canberra we had the same fight with the greens over fuel build up in the surrounding bush and then in 03 we had several suburbs burn down.The result was a lot of finger pointing and the greens being voted out!Now at the election in 08 the greens are back in with the same policies.The public has a very short and selective memory.
ps I'm off to vic today with our local bushfire service to assist those poor buggers

RE: greens!

Just got back from NZ yesterday and the pics in the papers in Aukland are just brutal.
Everyones heart goes out to those families that have lost so much in these horrific fire storms.