fires

[stevecim]

not much of a photo, tech wise but it's part of a fire storm hitting Victoria, this fire was 10Kms away, but with strong winds I nearly had to leave my home, I sent my kids away and wife is working tonight, so I told her to not to come home , to risky to drive at night with fires every where

[Greg Beetham]

Mighty peculiar weather pattern lately, for you guys anyway, 40C+ down there, while we in the tropics are having 27C, but also the monsoon has set in here, non stop rain and drizzle night and day for the last month, wall to wall overcast kludge all day...sheesh.
I see on the news tonight they caught a firebug, after announcing that 30 homes had burnt down....
Greg

[gio67]

keep safe

[aster]

Hope things are well under control by now and everyone feels encouraged to head back to their homes...Sad about the nature though.

Yildiz

[stevecim]

Hi All

looks the threat has moved away from my place, still bad across the state, but weather will be cooler for the next 5 days.

Over 400 fires across the state. Many fires where left to run on their own, the CFA does not have the man power to cover every fire.


Cheers, stephen

[Javelin]

Thats scarey. I was in California and saw fires like this spreading. your weather has been on the news here. while you were 40°c we were -38°c I swear if it ever hit 40 here i'd burst out in a fat fire. but maybe it's not as humid there as it is here?

[Greg Beetham]

I'ts the trees that are the problem, they spontaneously ignite well before the fire front from the radiated heat in a fast chain reaction, which is why a firestorm moves so fast, you have very little chance of outrunning it. If I lived in the hinterland like a lot of those people do in amongst the trees, and there were fires breaking out, I'd be dumping all the trees within a 200 meter radius and then lopping them all down flat too the ground, greenies or no greenies.
Greg

[Javelin]

your right thats exactly what happens. but the other thing is the sparks and embers. if the wind is blowing the fire along a lot of building materials will only hold out so long against that.

[Greg Beetham]

Yep, maybe if you had a swimming pool and dragcar fireproof suit and 2" fire-fighter pump as well as the 5hp chainsaw....
Greg

[Javelin]

well no suit but i have a 2 stroke Wajax pump and 500' of 1 -1/2 hose .. all I've had to do with it is empty people pools though

[stevecim]

Yer, we are still on ember alert. but I should be safe. the wind changed from North to South Westerly at around 6pm last night, good for me but very bad for a lot of other people. 2 major fires north of me have joined into 1 hugh front and 4-5 towns have been wiped out and 3-4 under direct threat

javelin, a few years ago, crews from California came to Victoria, Australia to help out with major fires we had. I remember hearing a radio interview with them,
they where shocked at how big the fires where and at how the CFA (Contry Fire Authority) handles them with small numbers of men/woman.
They where with a group of 500 on a major fire , he said in California they would have put 3000 to 4000 men on a fire of the same size.

[Greg Beetham]

Bad news that, the sunday paper says that there may be up to 40 dead.
Greg

[Javelin]

ouch! sorry to hear that.

[Dusty]

They where with a group of 500 on a major fire , he said in California they would have put 3000 to 4000 men on a fire of the same size.

Yes, but here they use union workers. Honestly, sometimes the administration of the fire fighting gets in the way of those who know how to go the job. Or so my buddy the Fire Chief has said.

Dusty

[Javelin]

news here is reporting 80-100 dead. one says 84 another says 96. Hope it's over soon for you I guess people weren't getting out soon enough. There talking about British Comumbia water bombers being sent to help too.