The TV news in the UK has lots of information regarding the massive fires in Australia.
Apparently the wild fire season is both exceptionally bad and exceptionally early this year in Australia.
The television pictures are dramatic and horrifying.
We hope Neil that you are well away from this, and safe.
Pass our best wishes on wards to anyone else in our CLL group that if affected in Australia.
Stay safe all of you
Dick
Dick,
I'm well away from these fires and there's a city between me and our native bushland. Australia is a BIG country and overseas, you get a distorted perspective of how many people are affected by fires and floods via the media. That said, these fires are the worst the state of New South Wales has seen for 50 years.
Getting caught up in these events is horrifying enough for a fit, healthy person, so anyone with CLL living in fire (or flood prone areas for that matter) would be very wise to have everything in readiness for a quick evacuation (or be able make do if they can't get back home.) Also bushfire smoke can cause breathing difficulties for people with respiratory conditions living thousands of kilometres away.
Unlike England, we have very pronounced dry seasons and after a wet winter, or after several years without a bushfire, the undergrowth builds up. On a hot summer's day when the temperature can get to well above 40C, you don't need much to start a fire. A smoker discarding ash from a car, someone clearing weeds and the lawnmower blade sparks against a stone, a train with a hot wheel from a stuck brake, a compost heap or smouldering rubbish tip, a discarded bottle that can focus the sunlight, someone disobeying a fire ban, firebugs, lightning strikes, sparking electrical power distribution wires in strong winds (that's how many of these current fires started) and so on, it doesn't take much. Then the often hot dry winds can quickly fan the fire into something that you just cannot control. All you can do is water bomb it or back-burn bush in front of the fire to starve it of fuel. The fire quickly leaps from the ground into the tree canopy (eucalytpus oil burns fiercely) and the wind spreads burning embers ahead of the main fire-front, starting further fires. The electric power companies disconnect power in these conditions, so those living in bushland must have independent power and a large water tank/pool so that they can pump water over their house to try and save it. You can't expect fire fighters to risk their lives to try and save your home. They are at danger of heat stress in protective gear in these hot conditions and poor visibility from the thick smoke and often bad communications can quickly put them at extreme risk. Radio communication doesn't penetrate the gullies well and sadly entire fire fighting crews have lost their lives trying to save others.
Living closely with native wildlife in bushland is certainly attractive, but you need to take precautions to protect your property and get it in readiness every fire season. And then if you work away from your home, you need to be prepared to be told by the authorities to stay away from your home and just hope that it is still standing and any family members that were home are safe.
Locally, one of the most chilling reminders of the personal impact of bushfires occurred when local journalist, Murray Nicoll, reported live from his local area where five people died:
“At the moment, I'm watching my house burn down. I'm sitting out on the road in front of my own house where I've lived for 13 or 14 years and it's going down in front of me. And the flames are in the roof and—Oh, God damn it. It's just beyond belief—my own house. And everything around it is black. There are fires burning all around me. All around me. And the front section of my house is blazing. The roof has fallen in. My water tanks are useless. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_W...
We quickly forget about these disasters, but communities can take years to recover from them.
Neil
Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery.... Please Donate
We've just had some gale force winds through my state, with wind gusts in some places over 100kph. Accompanying that we had over 50,000 lightning strikes. That weather has today moved to where the fires are burning (for seven days now) and with very dry conditions and a maximum forecast temperature of 32C, it will be a shocker of a day for the fire fighters. Last night there were still about 60 fires burning, with 17 uncontained and one being battled by 1,000 fire fighters. Other states are rotating their fire fighters over to New South Wales; about 300 have rotated through from my state with about half that number currently assisting. Even our Prime Minister joined his local fire service for a 14 hour shift a few days ago, (he has been a volunteer fire fighter for 13 years).
Anyone who knows of people in the affected areas can check what's happening by going to:
google.org/crisismap/australia
This site sources information directly from Country/Rural Fire Services and other fire authorities across Australia.
To use the site, on the right hand side, clear all the ticks but 'Fires and Incidents' and 'New South Wales'. Then click on the blue text 'Zoom to area' under New South Wales. You can then click on the fire symbols to obtain specific information about that fire.
While it might look like Sydney is under threat, just remember that New South Wales is over three times the area of the UK and that anyone living in there or in larger towns is safe.
Neil
Hi Neil, thanks for this update.
The fire situation clearly remains a big mess, and it’s so early in the season this year.
Hopefully none of our other Australian members are affected.
Meanwhile stay out of the smoke zone if you can, as breathing in all that smoke cannot be good for any of you all.
Dick
So sorry to hear about this (the Australian fires). Terrible situation. For us in the UK, who don't get such fires, it's hard to imagine the enormity and horror...
Hi Neil,
You might want to read this and pass around any Australian friends affected by the smoke from the wild fires.
There have been some big fires within the USA also this summer, and the smoke is apparently more of a problem than was at first realised.
usatoday.com/story/news/201...
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/190...
outsideonline.com/news-from...?
Dick
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