Heat

[dilloduck]

This is just absolutely awful.

Fourteen people are dead and at least 100 homes have been destroyed as fires burn over tens of thousands of hectares in Victoria and New South Wales.

Six have been killed at Kinglake, four at Wandong, three at Strathewen and one at Clonbinane. Police fear up to 40 people may have died.

Victorian Deputy Police Commissioner Kieran Walshe says he expects the toll to rise.

"Based on the fact we're only just getting into areas, these have been very significant fires, our concern is that it can get worse," he said.

Police say they will strive to confirm the identity of the people killed by the morning.

Victoria is bearing the brunt of the inferno with eleven major fire fronts.

14 dead in Victorian inferno - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
This is the state to the east of mine (Victoria), this is just absolutely terrible.

Horrible--I also saw where there is flooding down under too. So sorry this is happening to you. Thinking about ya !

 

[Diuretic]

Cheers dillo, the worst of it is (hopefully) over for us, but over there in Victoria it's just terrible. Hottest day ever in Melbourne. And the fires, it's just terrible.

 

[Old Rocks]

Really sorry to hear about the fires. When I worked for the Forest Service in Soils Engineering, they would grab us to fight fires in the summer. Were I a young man today, I think I might consider a career in Fire Suppresion. I see where a number of our boys that fight fires here in the summer go South in the winter to fight them Down Under. And we had an Aussie crew on one of our major fires in Oregon a few years ago.

Unfortunately, a definately growing field. And on every continent, save Antarctica, of course.

 

[Old Rocks]

Went on the net and looked at some of the vidieos on the fires. Lord, that is bad. The speed of the wind in some of the vidieos was absolutely appalling. All you can do on the ground in that kind of fire is get out of the way.

 

[Diuretic]

Really sorry to hear about the fires. When I worked for the Forest Service in Soils Engineering, they would grab us to fight fires in the summer. Were I a young man today, I think I might consider a career in Fire Suppresion. I see where a number of our boys that fight fires here in the summer go South in the winter to fight them Down Under. And we had an Aussie crew on one of our major fires in Oregon a few years ago.

Unfortunately, a definately growing field. And on every continent, save Antarctica, of course.

It's a good exchange programme and it helps to develop firefighting expertise. The terrain here in parts is similar to southern California and Nevada and Arizona but some parts are heavily forested so the firefighting expertise of people from northern California, Oregon, Warshington (sorry), Idaho and the like is very valuable. I don't know how it is in the US but the firefighters you see in those pictures and videos who have CFA on their backs are all volunteers.

 

[Diuretic]

Went on the net and looked at some of the vidieos on the fires. Lord, that is bad. The speed of the wind in some of the vidieos was absolutely appalling. All you can do on the ground in that kind of fire is get out of the way.

I just saw those. Yes, those winds were like they were out of Hades, absolutely terrifying. My state dodged the bullet, thankfully, I just feel terrible for the Victorians and the wildlife and livestock that have perished as well.

Here people who live in bushfire-prone areas (I don't live in such an area) are taught that you make a decision early - you stay and fight the fire or you get out early. I suspect some of these poor souls who lost their lives may have left evacuation too late. As you would know, a bushfire doesn't travel fast, that's a bit of a fallacy, but it does throw spot fires and they can trap people trying to get away. Interestingly enough research indicates that you can stay in your house and keep safe (the danger from a bushfire is the radiated heat, not the flames) because the fire will pass over and around the house and as long as you get any embers that may get inside the house (doors and windows should be closed, all gaps stopped) you should be safe.

Bushfires

 

[Old Rocks]

Went on the net and looked at some of the vidieos on the fires. Lord, that is bad. The speed of the wind in some of the vidieos was absolutely appalling. All you can do on the ground in that kind of fire is get out of the way.

I just saw those. Yes, those winds were like they were out of Hades, absolutely terrifying. My state dodged the bullet, thankfully, I just feel terrible for the Victorians and the wildlife and livestock that have perished as well.

Here people who live in bushfire-prone areas (I don't live in such an area) are taught that you make a decision early - you stay and fight the fire or you get out early. I suspect some of these poor souls who lost their lives may have left evacuation too late. As you would know, a bushfire doesn't travel fast, that's a bit of a fallacy, but it does throw spot fires and they can trap people trying to get away. Interestingly enough research indicates that you can stay in your house and keep safe (the danger from a bushfire is the radiated heat, not the flames) because the fire will pass over and around the house and as long as you get any embers that may get inside the house (doors and windows should be closed, all gaps stopped) you should be safe.

Bushfires

One point on the speed a fire travels. On relitively flat ground, a fire will not travel that fast, the spot fires it creates far out pacing the fire itself. On some of the ground that I fought fires on, the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon, were you caught on the uphill side of a fire in a steep canyon, and it blew up, there is no way you can outrun it. A chimney effect, and we have lost, over the years, a number of fire crews in this manner.

Most of the regular firefighters here are people that work in the woods, Forest Service personel, loggers, or professional crews like the Navajo, or Deni. In a really bad fire, the state governments of at least Oregon and Washington can legaly draft people right off the streets. However, since so few people work at phsical enough jobs in this day and age, I don't believe that has been done since the Forks Fire of 1952.

 

[Diuretic]

Yes on the speed of a fire it seems counter-intuitive that it will travel faster uphill than it does downhill. And that's probably what's happened over there in the outskirts of Melbourne in the ranges there, lots of gullies - a bit like the hills that are the backdrop for my city, when there's fire in those gullies it's like a wind tunnel and the fires just travel at express speed.

 

[Diuretic]

This is just too sad for words.

Eighty-four people are confirmed dead in Victoria's bushfires, far surpassing the state's toll of 47 in the 1983 Ash Wednesday blazes

Death toll from Victorian bushfires rises, CFA says 84 dead in fires at Kinglake, Arthurs Creek, Strathewen, Humevale, Bendigo, Wandong, St Andrews

84 confirmed dead, more probable.

I worked a search and recovery role in the aftermath of the Ash Wednesday 1983 fires here in my State, fortunately I didn't find anyone deceased, did find a group of people who had stayed and survived, they were partying early in the morning and I don't blame them. But this - I have never seen anything like this in Australia.

And the fires are beiieved to have been lit by fire-setters. I'm afraid I can't express my horror sufficiently that people would set fires that they knew would do such damage.

 

[jillian]

Was very sorry to hear about what's going on there. Hope things get under control soon.

And if it's found that people did this intentionally, I hope they get the fullest punishment allowable.

Animals...disgusting.

 

[Kazikli Bey]

Was very sorry to hear about what's going on there. Hope things get under control soon.

And if it's found that people did this intentionally, I hope they get the fullest punishment allowable.

Animals...disgusting.

They do it every Summer unfortunately. There has to be at least one stupid pratt who intentionally sets something ablaze.

 

[Diuretic]

Operation Nomad helps. Every summer on high fire danger days police visit prior offenders and let them know they're being watched. They are also out in bushfire prone areas patrolling and looking out for firebugs. It's not perfect but it's useful and it's been going for some years.

The toll is rising in Victoria. 108 and more will be found today. It's numbing.

 

[Old Rocks]

Operation Nomad helps. Every summer on high fire danger days police visit prior offenders and let them know they're being watched. They are also out in bushfire prone areas patrolling and looking out for firebugs. It's not perfect but it's useful and it's been going for some years.

The toll is rising in Victoria. 108 and more will be found today. It's numbing.

Lord, this is a tragedy of almost Biblical perportions. I really feel for the people involved in this tragedy.

I have always wanted to visit Australia, met and enjoyed the company of a number of Aussies in my rambles in the outback of the US and Canada. I hope that things get better, loss of life and property on that scale in a nation of relitively small population has to be a real burden for all.

 

[Diuretic]

I feel like Jeremiah.

It's just getting worse. The recovery operation is finding more bodies. Possibly 200.

I was listening to the radio last night (the national broadcaster was giiving a live feed from Melbourne) and a woman came on and said how she just couldn't stop listening to the radio. She was a survivor. I'm no medic but she said, "I just can't turn off the radio". PTSD?

It's a lovely country Rocks, I wasn't born here but I came here as a kid and I love it deeply. If you visit here I hope you get out of the cities (which are fun on the east coast) and see the rest of the country. Central Australia is a remarkable place, you get a sense of the nature of Australia, it's hard to describe but when you see it and spend a few days waqndering around you can't forget its effect. But let me say that I have had the same sense of awe in the US in Monument Valley, AZ for one. Bryce Canyon National Park UT is another. Crater Lake OR another. I should stop, I sound like a tourism ad.

Australia is coming to grips with this terrible disaster, I feel for everyone affected, it's just dreadful on so many levels.

 

[Diuretic]

How we cheated flames of death | The Australian

THEY warn you it comes fast. But the word "fast" doesn't come anywhere near describing it.

It comes at you like a runaway train. One minute you are preparing. The next you are fighting for your home. Then you are fighting for your life.

But it is not minutes that come between. It's more like seconds. The firestorm moves faster than you can think, let alone react.

For 25 years, we had lived on our hilltop in St Andrews, in the hills northeast of Melbourne.

You prepare like they tell you every summer.

You clear. You slash. You prime your fire pump. For 25 years, fires were something that you watched in the distance.

Until Saturday.

We had been watching the massive plume of smoke from the fire near Kilmore all afternoon; secure in the knowledge it was too far away to pose a danger.

Then suddenly there is smoke and flames across the valley, about a kilometre to the northwest, being driven towards you by the wind. Not too bad, you think.

I rush around the side of the house to start the petrol-powered fire pump to begin spraying the house, just in case.

When I get there, I suddenly see flames rushing towards the house from the west. The tongues of flame are in our front paddock, racing up the hill towards us across grass stubble I thought safe because it had been slashed.

This a remarkable piece of journalism. Obviously more at link.

 

[Kazikli Bey]

I heard on the radio that apparently there are 100 kilometre per hour winds. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, that's INSANE!!!

 

[Old Rocks]

Wow. That is about as bad as it gets in a firestorm. Mr. Hughes, and his family, are very lucky to be alive.

Of course, if I ever have the oppertunity to visit Down Under, I will be primarily interested in seeing the country side. People really get upset when you chip the statuary for rock samples.

 

[Diuretic]

Lots of "old rocks" here Rocks -

Australia's fossil past - Australia's Culture Portal

 

[Diuretic]

I heard on the radio that apparently there are 100 kilometre per hour winds. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, that's INSANE!!!

The winds must have been terrible drivers of the flames and - worse - embers. It was the absolutely worst set of conditions.

 

[Old Rocks]

Lots of "old rocks" here Rocks -

Australia's fossil past - Australia's Culture Portal

Fantastic site, Thank You. I can see that I would be in seventh heaven in some areas. And I do know the proper time to collect rocks, and when to just take pictures and report the find.