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Thread: Bush Fires !

  1. #1
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    Talking Bush Fires !

    Hi Guys,

    How is everyone doing with the bush fires ? It seems to have disappeared from the news channels here. The last thing I saw was about saving the wild animals caught up in it, particularly the koala bears.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  2. #2
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    One of my work colleagues lost everything in the fires here at Yeppoon (coastal Central Queensland). Another lost his shed and contents but his house survived.

    My place was ok during the fire. It was burning less than 1 km away but fortunately no issues at all.

    Back burning a week later caused some drama when the fire jumped a containment line and came within 50m of my shed. Great work by the rural fire services, the town crews and a helicopter saved the day.

    helicopter1.jpg

    John

  3. #3
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    Hi John, Guys,

    Thankyou for that picture, it just shows how easy it is for fire to get close to peoples homes. I hope that all forum members are OK. It must be devastating to lose the shed, but that can be replaced, people can't.

    Its been the other way round here ! Rain and the huge amount of water has caused widespread flooding along with hundreds of people having their homes flooded and making them uninhabitable. It seems that very many don't have any insurance either !

    What gets in my craw, is that as a country we can give millions in aid to other countries, but cannot help our own people who are in just as desperate a need.

    And before Graham jumps on me, no I'm not going to get political !
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by BaronJ View Post

    Its been the other way round here ! Rain and the huge amount of water has caused widespread flooding along with hundreds of people having their homes flooded and making them uninhabitable. It seems that very many don't have any insurance either !

    What gets in my craw, is that as a country we can give millions in aid to other countries, but cannot help our own people who are in just as desperate a need.
    It's been a while since we have had much rain here but we are much better off than many areas of the country that are in the grip of severe drought, including members of this forum.

    Many people here would support your sentiments regarding foreign aid.

    John

  5. #5
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    BaronJ
    Still lots of fires burning - as of 11 hours ago there were 146 fires in NSW alone. https://www.theguardian.com/australi...ross-the-state

    The Koalas (they are not bears btw. are very high profile but its not just them that are effected either. All the wild life are impacted. possums, gliders, fruit bats, quolls, reptiles etc etc. Even birds. Some of the fires are so intense and fast that a lot of the birds don't escape either. Possibly smoke effects their capacity to breath so they cant fly properly (thats just me guessing). There were reports of "birds falling out of the sky".
    The sad thing is the wild life that survive the flames but are burnt and die in agony or survive and die from starvation because all their food is gone.
    When the fires are this intense, not much survives. even a lot of the trees can be killed. Usually, with a more "normal" fire, the leaves and small branches will go but within a few weeks of the fire, new leaves will be coming out.
    In fact, most Australian native plants either need or at least do a lot better if the seeds are subjected to smoke before they germinate.
    My wife has been growing native trees for a couple of years now and she says that if the seeds are not smoked then usually only about 5% will germinate whereas if they are smoked about 60-70% will germinate.

    I hope you haven't been effected by flooding. I'd assume that as usual the insurance companies will be trying their hardest to get out of paying out. I've always found it interesting you can be covered for "storm damage" but not "flood"damage but if a big storm comes through and dumps a lot of water, causing peoples homes to be flooded the insurance companies try to knock back claims on the grounds that its flood damage.

    Take care
    peter

  6. #6
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    Hi Peter, Guys,

    Thankyou for your comments, they are very enlightening ! I didn't know about the Koalas not being bears ! They always seem to be referred to as bears. Its sad to learn about the amount of devastation caused by fire and flood.

    You are right though, the insurance companies want fortunes for those types of cover but don't want to pay out. I heard of one insured person saying that "yes" he was covered for flooding but the excess was in the thousands which he commented that it was not worth trying to claim, and that he wouldn't insure again.

    As for me, luckily I'm about 100 feet above the river level. So while the water got close, about half a mile away, we are fine, though York took a hit but not as much as Fishlake, Doncaster and parts of Sheffield.

    Interesting about germinating tree seeds ! Something I'd not heard about.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  7. #7
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    We live 18 miles north of Tamworth in NSW. This area has,for the last 10 years or so, not had our usual amount of rain! Where there were floods along the coast and out west we were getting none. When you drive along and look into the bush you can quite easily see the terrain because the undergrowth has died back due to the lack of rain. This is great fuel for fires. With a little bit of lightning from a dry storm fires can start any where hence the large number of fires the Bush Fire Brigade has to deal with. The dryness has also caused an awful lot of trees to die or drop leaves and branches adding more fuel to the landscape.

    The farmers in our area have not been able to grow crops due to the lack of moisture and this has a knock on effect on the town (everyone is affected) with some companies having shorter weeks or letting staff go because of the downward economy.

    It took until September last year for the government to recognize the desperate situation in our area and start to help the rural sector. The drought is very bad!! One shower of rain will not end the drought. It will take years for the situation to get back to normal. Our rainfall for the year to date is 305mm and that is a long way short of 650mm that we normally get.

    Thankfully we have had fires to about 2-3 kms away, but we have had smoke in the air now for weeks. We did get a storm which has given us 23mm but its only really just laid the dust. The mind set is, that its not "if" we get a fire but "when".

    The Rural Fire Service has brought in trucks and crews form all over Australia to releave crews. It has turned out to be a huge operation and its going to go on for a time yet
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by BaronJ View Post
    Hi Peter, Guys,

    Thankyou for your comments, they are very enlightening ! I didn't know about the Koalas not being bears ! They always seem to be referred to as bears. .
    I suppose they look a bit like a bear but in fact they are a Marsupial. They are hind gut fermenters (similar to a rabbit) and they are so specialised that they can only eat Eucalyptus leaves. They have special bacteria in their gut to help them overcome the toxicity of the Eucalyptus.

    Peter

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    Talking More fires ?

    Hi Guys,

    I've just seen a news program saying that there are more bush fires threatening homes. All the pictures seem to be ones that have previously been aired.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

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    Yesterday we went into town to see our daughter. We marveled just how clear it was looking to the horizon because the haze has been so prevalent. By about midday the smoke was back taking away the normal horizon. Woke up this morning and the smoke is worse than ever. Its apparently coming in from fires on the coast (about 100 miles away, as the crow flies). It looks like fog just hanging in the air.
    There was a report that the smoke form the fires has gone as far as South America!
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  11. #11
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    Hi Guys,

    There was some more on the BBC news this morning showing some film of fires and the fire service trucks dashing about, also the smoke drifting over Sydney. They said that a a water drop helicopter had crashed, no mention of the crew though. There was a two or three second picture of it, then no further mention. The report also said that the fires were now so widespread that they covered an area bigger than Sydney, and that it was no longer possible to put them out. It said that they were now concentrating on saving homes.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  12. #12
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    Quote "They said that a a water drop helicopter had crashed, no mention of the crew though. There was a two or three second picture of it, then no further mention. "Apparently the helicopter engine caught on fire whilst it was dumping water. The pilot managed to land the aircraft and walked away fortunately.

  13. #13
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    hi Ian,

    Thankyou for your post.

    Quote Originally Posted by baronJ
    "They said that a a water drop helicopter had crashed, no mention of the crew though. There was a two or three second picture of it, then no further mention.
    Quote Originally Posted by hpa1
    Apparently the helicopter engine caught on fire whilst it was dumping water. The pilot managed to land the aircraft and walked away fortunately.


    They didn't mention that bit ! It gave the impression that it was more tragic than it seems.
    It shows how they manipulate things for effect.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  14. #14
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    BaronJ.
    I tried to take some pics of the smoke one day last week on my way home from work to post up here for you to see. Unfortunately the camera in my phone manages to filter most of the smoke out of the image so the resulting picture looks far, far better than the reality.
    peter

  15. #15
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    Default Volcano tragedy

    Hi Peter,

    Thankyou for trying with the pictures, its appreciated !

    This morning's BBC news broadcast never made any mention of the fires. The New Zealand volcano tragedy taking up 2/3rds of the program time. Tonight I've heard that five bodies have been recovered and there are still people missing. The same film of the volcano that was shown this morning was repeated. Apparently warnings were posted about the potential for the volcano to erupt at any time, but tourists were still being taken to the island. Tragic !
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

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