Firestorm in Australia

[yaouk]

Well I had a hellova weekend!
You may have seen in the news the devastation and terror from the firestorm that hit Canberra and the Snowy Mountains on Saturday.
Trust me when they say firestorm they mean Firestorm with cyclonic winds and enormous balls of fire flying through the air. The fire trucks had no hope because the fireballs were travelling faster than vehicles coud travel. It reminded me of those flame throwers from world war 2; except a hundred times bigger! Water bombing helicopters did nothing but make steam. All steel buildings melted as if they were plastic. Even concrete buildings and underground houses were damaged. It was total chaos..insanity.
The point was made very clear to me on Saturday. If its very dry and very hot and very windy virtually nothing you can build and absolutely nothing you can do will save your house. But you can save yourself and your family.

 

[rancar]

Thanks for the personal update George. I've heard about all this on American network news channels. The U.S. Rockies experienced similar, out of control forest fires during the Spring/Summer of 2002.

Trust you made it through OK. Stay safe mate!!!!

....Bob

 

[MossRoad]

Looked terrifiying!

Are you and yours OK?

 

[njrqs]

George

Nothing but Canberra made our news here and I didn;t even realise there were fires anywhere else.

Over 400 homes destroyed in Canberra. That is a HUGE fire.

How bad was it out your way?

 

[yaouk]

At the moment 11:54 Tuesday, all calm and safe...but its very smoky and very tense. Surrounded by fires in the distance. In light of Saturday nothing is considered overreacting.
They don't actually fight fires in the forests; its too dangerous. The fire teams just wait by the houses and property most at risk. Its an awful waiting game and
the weather forecast is bad.

 

[yaouk]

Gidday Neil,
Its been over a week since I have seen the sky. There is so much smoke its like an eternal twighlight....very creepy.
I am sandwiched between Kosziosco NP and Namadgi NP and there are fires in both parks. Any wind change will affect me but the still conditions are like the eye of a cyclone. The emergency siren they broadcast on the radio just creeps me out more!
Don't worry about me, feel for the poor people caught by complete surprise on Saturday.

 

[Egon]

Hope all bodes well for you and your neighbours.

Egon

 

[njrqs]

So being on acreage, how far is the nearest firefighting team from you?

 

[RobertN]

Wildfire is really something. A fire in light brush can easily outrun a man. It is a very terrible thing if you get fire down slope from your position, especially in the afternoon when you get up canyon winds. The fire can easily out pace you. Too many firefighters have died just before they crested a hill as they tried to outrun fire.

Fires can generate thier own local weather systems too. The cyclonic winds you mention are all too frequent. The winds that are generated can carry embers a long distance, causing spot fires.

Things are all the more difficult when people do not maintian adequate clearance around thier property. When I worked in our local volunteer fire department, we used to survey neighborhoods, to get a feel for which houses we would not even try to defend. Some places you just have to write off because it is too dangerous to try to defend.

Australia gets fires that easily equal the big ones we have in the western US. It is a shame that it happens. It gets more and more dangerous as folks move further out into the woods too.

 

[yaouk]

Normaly about 20 ks but at the moment there is one 1976 bedford truck and a nissan patrol at a farmhouse 10 ks away. Hooray! Adaminaby has two trucks and is 23 ks away but they have their own problems. Cooma is 30 ks and Canberra is about 90 ks but forget them. In addition as my creek is bone dry cause of the drought its every man for themselves. They won't let the trucks leave their posts without orders, no matter what. This is so they protect strategic places like water supplies and electricity. This really upsets people who come racing in for help and get nothing; its tragic.

Canberra normally has 12 fire pumpers plus about one hundred and twenty NSW trucks that have come in minus all the ones destroyed on saturday! And if Canberra doesn't have enough to worry about the heavy smoke is causing the power lines to arc and houses are catching fire that way. Plus if it does rain (and there is no hope of that) they say that all the ash and soot will wash into the water supply for Canberra and pollute it.
But some people are remarkably brave. My neighbour was not going to be panicked, he's out there with the hedge trimmer getting his hedge perfectly square. Another man invited us in to look at what remained of his house because he was having an open day anyway cause he was trying to sell the place.