Australian Wild Fires

I just was wondering how Gary (Ausiman2001) is doing and were you anywhere near the fire storm???

Robert
Left Coast USA

loadmaster wrote:

I just was wondering how Gary (Ausiman2001) is doing and were you anywhere near the fire storm???

According to Gary's profile he is from Sydney, and those fires are near Melbourne. But then I know of another Z-head near Melbourne. I hope he isn't in danger from those fires.

Let's pray for all who are affected by those fires.

Hi all,

I'm south of Melbourne and the next large fire is approx. 40-50km (25-31 miles for our imperial friends...) away. So we have sometimes haze and at night you saw the horizon glowing. We are just lucky (not the approx. 300 people in the forrests) as the wind (60-100km/h) last Saturday, 47 degrees Celsius (116 F) was blowing the fires away from us. This was like facing a hairdryer on full heat and speed!
There were some smaller fires in our surrounds, some with potential for a major blaze, but extingished very quickly, the CFA (Country Fire Authority) is doing a great job! Some of them are fighting now for 2 weeks without nearly no sleep, unbeliveable.

Regards
Gerd

Gerd,

You are very close to the fires. With the wrong kind of wind, I don't even want to think what would happen. Please keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

Best wishes to all of you.

loadmaster wrote:

I just was wondering how Gary (Ausiman2001) is doing and were you anywhere near the fire storm???

Robert
Left Coast USA

Hi Robert and thanks for your concern. As ULie said I'm in Sydney and therefore over 800 kilometres away from the danger zone. There have been a few much smaller fires on the outskirts of Sydney over the last month or so, but none of them really dangerous, and thankfully no lives lost. Here it's been cool with some rain for the last few days, so no danger at the moment.

PS: My response was delayed by the fact that I was away for the weekend, as usual.

Gary and Gerd,

Good to hear you both are out of harms way. Let's hope things remain that way.

Jerry

I heard on the evening TV news that a group of 60 volunteer American fire fighters arrived in Melbourne today (Sunday). Even though the immediate danger has lessened, their presence will be more than welcome to give the locals (and interstate firemen and Army personnel and New Zealanders) a much-needed respite. Those men and women have been at it, with little rest, for a couple of weeks now.

On behalf of the people of Australia, and Victoria in particular, I extend our heartfelt thanks.

Gary, You may not realize it but OZ and the US have a mutual assistance treaty. You get attacked by Martians and we'll be there to help! Actually firefighters from OZ have been in the US at least four times in the last ten years helping out with our own wildfires. Small world. Cheers, Jim CCRR:)

There were Aussies where I was at in the Middle East. They are the nicest people and one of our best allies. They were helping us fight "Martians" all along.

the death toll is now aproaching 200 now and 7000 homeless they are finding more people every day i live in adelaide which is 750km away and the smoke is reaching us over here

cheers sam padgham

sar602 wrote:

the death toll is now aproaching 200 now and 7000 homeless they are finding more people every day i live in adelaide which is 750km away and the smoke is reaching us over here

cheers sam padgham

Welcome Sam - it's good to have a Crow Eater on the forum!

That's remarkable about the smoke reaching Adelaide. I did read somewhere, a long time ago, that there have been times when dust from storms in Oz has reached the Shaky Isles. Maybe bushfire smoke too, but I'm not sure about that.

cheers mate they say it will clear by wensday when a northernly wind comes through

I saw on BBC news this morning that one arsonist has been caught and the electric company is responsible for another fire which I hope they pay, although it is the customers that will end up paying the bill. There was a wild fire in the Los Angeles area last fall and it was contributed to downed electric wires.

Robert

Yes, somone has been arrested for the Victorian fires and a controversy has erupted over the spreading of hate messages via SMS and the net. When will these people learn that in a society that claims it embraces the rule of law the processes of the law must be allowed to work themselves through?

Yes, I know there's a lot of emtion around because of the shocking death toll and loss of homes, but trial by SMS and the media is incompatible with a civilised society.

Another man has been arrested just north of Sydney for starting fires in this area.

This isn't the first time that power lines have started fires. Our new member sar602 would be able to tell you what happened in the Ash Wednesday fires in his state. In the suburbs of Sydney, where bushfires are unlikely, the distribution companies spend a lot of time and money trimming trees - ironic, isnt it?

sar602 wrote:

cheers mate they say it will clear by wensday when a northernly wind comes through

Sam, I'll generously donate some of the rain NSW and Qld has been having.

that would be great mate we desperately need some more rain:( used to live in the adelaide hills and was always worried something like ash wensday back in 83 could happen again there were 47 lives lost in Victoria and 2,080 homes were burnt and Twenty-eight lives and 383 houses were lost in SA:( my home town is port lincoln in country sa and the town has almost been destroyed many times by fire people had to run down and jump in the sea

cheers sam

Sam, Port Lincoln was threatened only recently, wasn't it?

Is the 3'6" gauge line in the Eyre Peninsula still going? The hub was in Port Lincoln, if I remember correctly.

thats right mate came very close to the town and yep the old narrow gauge is still going theyve just finished doing a big upgrade new track and all was over there couple weeks ago great place old boy used to work for AN over there

A (hopefully) final update: Yesterday useful rain fell in the areas ravaged by the fires. The firefighters are confident that they now have the situation fully under control, and that they can actually start putting the fires out. Overseas and interstate firefighters have started to go home. A big Thank You! on behalf of the people of Victoria for all the assistance in the three week emergency.