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Victorian Fires

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kincella said:
some absolutely damning information coming out now from the Bushfires Royal Commission
experts sitting inside an office in the heart of Melbourne.....unbelievable...

http://www.theage.com.au/national/kinglake-resident-fled-before-bushfire-hit-town-20090512-b13x.html
http://www.theage.com.au/national/kinglake-resident-fled-before-bushfire-hit-town-20090512-b13x.html
Click to expand...

Also some pretty stupid stuff coming out...some legal woman on TV tonight saying that warnings
like "worst ever" (referring to the fire danger rating) are to general and common. :eek:

I would think that "worst ever" as a description of conditions on that day would be enough for
most people...i mean how does worst ever mean anything other than its as bad as its ever been..
10 on the Richter scale.
 
apart from NO Warnings...and why did so many people expect/ believe the local CFA would issue a warning....and the emergency calls went unanswered, or were diverted to Centrelink (which by the way is closed on Saturday) or diverted back to a CFA number when no one was there....
an absolutley disgraceful shambles all of this....
and if you just happen to be in an area in future....and tossing around to stay or go....mild day and a little grass fire on the ground, you may have a chance....expect winds of 50-60kph....just go, and go early in the day..
a lot of those places there is only one road to get in or out....
people were trapped, trees across the road....

the fire raged at 120 kph, snapped off trees at 3-4 metres above the ground, equivalent to 1500 Hiroshima bombs, spotted 35 klms in front of the fire....

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25517177-29277,00.html
 
MrBurns said:
I know it's old news but if the Govt can build the Frankston bypass in such as hurry, and toll free, why couldnt they protect those living in fire prone areas ?

Hundreds of lives at stake in one instance , 20 minutes travelling time saved in another.
Click to expand...

Because they need greenie preferences and support in the senate and hence will not allow backburning. ( Controlled backburning, if greenies had half a brain, actually protects the environment, and reduces emissions as opposed to wildfires )
 
Time to bump this thread, what's coming out of the inquest is frightening and infuriating, those people had no chance and the CFA were totally inadequate as were the emergency services, it's just bloody heart wrenching to hear the stories.
 
MrBurns said:
Time to bump this thread, what's coming out of the inquest is frightening and infuriating, those people had no chance and the CFA were totally inadequate as were the emergency services, it's just bloody heart wrenching to hear the stories.
Click to expand...


When I think about emergency services I am pretty sure that if we have more than handful of places to attend at any time there is not enough services.

Remember while ago when the same drug addicts in Cabramatta were revived four or more times a day, while other people died as there were not enough ambulance services to arrive within 10 or 15 minutes to attend the heart attack victim, not to mention that under 5 minutes would be preferable.

So lets not be under illusion that if disaster strikes we will be helped in a heartbeat.

This is why so important to have shelter, fireproof house and above all limited fuel preferably to ZERO within 50 metres of property.
 
Happy said:
So lets not be under illusion that if disaster strikes we will be helped in a heartbeat.
This is why so important to have shelter, fireproof house and above all limited fuel preferably to ZERO within 50 metres of property.
Click to expand...

True but the CFA didn't know some fires existed until the next day and made no predictons of the path of some even though they were told by some of their own staff no warnings were issued.

80% of 000 calls went unanswered, someone was screaming down the phone that the fire was almost on them and the operator said, "well we are very busy and they were left on hold"
 
I agree Mr Burns, its very sad..

I do think there wasnt enough warning for these people, some had 6 minutes to get out..

These suburbs used to be classified as country, but have now become more suburban
 
as someone said yesterday..our fire season is from Nov to Mar....townies can probably leave at short notice, but what about the farmers....whith animals under their care....I care about the animals ....locked up with no means of escape.....most people have a choice....except the elderly and disabled...

I wonder how many would consider underground bunkers or some other form of protection for the animals....it seems its just not feasible...

but hey...can we eliminate the fire bugs or are there too many of them....

wonder how many people next Feb...will stay when there are fire weather warnings 4 days earlier...
and we will not bother to discuss what was happening in the city office...where all the fire experts were that day....some did not even turn up...it seems so ridiculous
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
 
was it 6 years ago ..the massive Alpine fires that burnt about 1 million or more acres....it raged through the National Parks...but all of those people living on the edge of the parks copped it....whole herds of cattle and horses wiped out....cows screaming in pain as they ran burning alive....
they had an inquiry....but as most have said....there was nothing done about it....zilch zit....
not one followed up to see how they could save any lives....forget the animals...or make any improvements.....so those people wait for another fire to wipe them out again
have a cousin whose land backs onto same national park....he rode his horse through the park to inspect the fire trail..before the fires...to see if they had been maintained...so the fire trucks could get in in need be.....no...all overgrown, trees fallen onto the tracks....had been neglected 20 years...huge build up of rubbish on the ground...
when the fire did come... Dse said they could not go off the bitumen road to help....
he and his 80 year old mother saved the house and the horses...she said it was 20 minutes before the fire storm passed over them.....I was horrified he allowed his mum to travel up there to help him....
the neighbours were all frantically looking out for their own stock and homes...

Canberra was the only one...they do not grow pine trees next door to the suburbs anymore.... hello...
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
 
MrBurns said:
True but the CFA didn't know some fires existed until the next day and made no predictons of the path of some even though they were told by some of their own staff no warnings were issued.

80% of 000 calls went unanswered, someone was screaming down the phone that the fire was almost on them and the operator said, "well we are very busy and they were left on hold"
Click to expand...

I agree Mr Burns an absolutely terrible shame. Ambulance services being tied up to assist rave-party goers at Calder Park. I cannot remember it being mentioned in the papers while people were being consumed by the bushfires.

It wasn't long ago that there were so many dying dialing 000, due to the incompetence of the Kennett Government and the reaction times of a flawed system. It had a terrible impact statewide.

Remember the Metropolitan Ambulance Service Royal Commission in Victoria?

It makes me wonder what essential government services should be privatised? And at what cost to human life?
 
Just for interest, here is how it all ended up.
 

Attachments

  • fires.pdf
    266.7 KB · Views: 105
Tomorrow:

Adelaide 44 and sunny.
Melbourne 41, dry and windy.
Hobart 39 and windy.

In other words, if a fire breaks out in SA, Vic or Tas then it's going to be very difficult to control and this should be obvious to everyone.

It was 34 today in Tas and windy. There are fires burning in various parts of the state right now. And yet once again I've seen someone throw a cigarette butt out the window in a bush environment. What part of the words "Total Fire Ban" do these clowns not understand? :mad:

Suffice to say that I do not condone road rage but I think they got the message. :2twocents
 
Smurf1976 said:
Tomorrow:

Adelaide 44 and sunny.
Melbourne 41, dry and windy.
Hobart 39 and windy.

In other words, if a fire breaks out in SA, Vic or Tas then it's going to be very difficult to control and this should be obvious to everyone.

It was 34 today in Tas and windy. There are fires burning in various parts of the state right now. And yet once again I've seen someone throw a cigarette butt out the window in a bush environment. What part of the words "Total Fire Ban" do these clowns not understand? :mad:

Suffice to say that I do not condone road rage but I think they got the message. :2twocents
Click to expand...

The firebugs will be out tomorrow:banghead:
 
Although after 34 pages there probably isn't anything that hasn't been already said..

If more people understood how bushfire management is done in SE Australia, it would be a national scandal, and there would be demands for change.

Waste, inefficiency, political cowardice (all parties, and local Councils), surreptitious undermining of fuel management programs, continual undermining of budgets, and rank exploitation of volunteers.

Nothing will change until the volunteer movement draws a line in the sand, stops acting as mere cannon fodder, and demands a real say in policy. Fire management depends on volunteers, but they are ignored on the big policy issues.

Failing this, bushfires will go on being just a seasonal political nuisance to city based decision makers, who think a monster helicopter or two gets them off the hook. Which it mostly does, more's the pity.

I very much understand Kincella's post #670 above.
 
It's not a good situation in Victoria at the moment that's for sure. Let's just hope that no lives are lost and that the fires can be put out reasonably soon.

I'm not sure if this happened in Vic or not, but in Tas we had 130 km/h wind in Hobart yesterday and that has itself done a bit of damage with a few roofs coming off, trees down, power lines down etc. If they're getting anything like that in Vic then it's going to make the fires incredibly difficult to deal with.

I'll also mention that in Vic there's a fire at the Morwell coal mine which isn't a good situation. To my understanding that's coal on fire in the mine, in addition to the bush fires nearby. The nearby Hazelwood power station, which uses coal from the mine, is still operating but at greatly reduced capacity. Production is running at around 230MW versus 1680MW in full production. There is no immediate threat to power supply in Vic however since demand is relatively low today given the milder weather and power is also being supplied from SA and Tas.There are reports of 3 large explosions near the mine and power station - I'm not sure if they involved any critical infrastructure or if it was just something minor like a few gas bottles etc blowing up.

What's really needed is a decent dumping of rain to put all the fires out.....
 

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