....and so How's Your Luck Holding?

[30Three]

That's terrible news Muffet. Can't imagine how the Firemen must be feeling when faced with such inferno's. They must be worn out. Brave men indeed!
Hope you get a break with the weather. It's been raining a lot here these last few weeks; wish we could export some your way.

[CINDERS]

I have heard from a very reliable source that some fire crews have been at it for 60 days straight with no break and no let up.

We in the West have had the hottest start to summer ever 40 degree days in Perth continuous, while up the Northwest where I go to Telfer it has already topped the hottest spot the other day with a mere 45 degrees celcius and Jan/Feb are the hottest months yet to come.

[Gil Boyd]

Easy to look from afar when you are not affected by these fires, but one would have thought there would be better fire fighting methods in place across the world when these fires break out, and solutions made, powder or whateve, that kill the breath out of them, in any weather conditions!!
Maybe even foam dispensers built within the sturctures of homes laying a blanket of foam down when they approach??
I know the RAF found foam when they needed to extuinquish aircraft fires, and they are an isolated target when you see these fires in forests where flames leap from tree to tree and cross roads................unbelievable. Hope all those firefighters come out of each fire safely.

[CINDERS]

The problem faced Gil is the fuel loading on the ground when I was working out the controlled burns at the power station I was at (Its located in the middle of a forest and its coal fired!) is fuel loading we worked on a 2.5 tonne fuel load per hectare as the max, then you have to have the right conditions ambient air & moisture plus wind direction and strength all contribute to a go/no go situation. There was a place in that actual shire where the power station is located where for some reason they cannot do reduction burns its fuel load was calculated some 4 years ago at 23 tonnes per hectare just a disaster waiting to happen.

I will tell you a story; I due to my position at the power station had to attend the shire emergency management crisis control and what would be done if things went south in the shire whatever the emergency, there were occasions where I mobilized some ERT crew and assets to assist the shire when local flooding became an issue for them but not leaving the power station at risk. Anyway at one of these meetings I decided to put the question to all the members present , the shire, the police, the army reserve, other coal mine reps would they come to the aid of the power station if we got swamped with a bush fire and we needed out side assets from the town.
(I could call in outside assets but they were 1-1.5 hours away) Well eff me the reply from the shire rep was its not a shire asset so no we will not send any help your way, I retorted it is a state asset your bound as local govt to assist, nope we wont come, I said fine just remember that power station can generate a 1/3rd of this states power needs (By this time I had red lined under my hat).
So I never went to another Shire LEMC meeting there in my tenure as the Fire Officer/ERT manager what a load of crock sh*t govt nob heads whose only concern is to how much they could crow and who would listen to them.......

[30Three]

I know theat bush fires are a regular occurrence in Australia; but I was wondering how long does it take to grow back, to the point where it becomes a risk area again?
Will you get a free season next year due to all that's been burnt this year?

[CINDERS]

Allot depends on the type of bush and the amount of trees and other bushes in that area the obviously the denser the forest then your burns are to be conducted on a regular basis due to the amount of leaf matter dropped by the trees etc at the station it was a rotational system with our scrub on site 1100 hectares on about a 2 year cycle for various zones obviously we had sparse areas where it would be around 5 yearly +- season dependent.

CALM our land management authority is given X amount to burn yearly I think last year in the southwest they had something like 200,000 hectares ear marked to burn off but due to the season they only accomplished 15% of that and in the past there has been some burns that got out of hand with property loss etc so they have to ensure everything is correct and the risks minimal.
That film we watch on the Australian crew they actually caught on camera a fire tornado it was not you small cockeyed Bob but a full blown funnel of fire going through the tree tops like Dantes Inferno it was a chilling sight and something I hope never to encounter in the flesh.

[Gil Boyd]

Cinders,
It almost begs the question, that perhaps those living in remote wooded areas should build a moat or a wood gap wide enough so flames can't jump and if they do a cleared out moat would stop it in its tracks with no vegetation to burn off!

[pisco]

hi working with a mate he told me his in laws have 4 blocks over near tabulum they have lost 2 1/2 of them the fire moved 25 km in 1 1/2 hours you would never control anything like that thumbs up to the rfs

[22SqnRAE]

how long does it take to grow back, to the point where it becomes a risk area again?

A good question. In eucalypt forests, you'll see regrowth in 2 years, as Cinders says, but the bulk of the scrub won't be back to 'healthy' status until at least 5 years. Around the 7-10 year mark the place is pretty much back to what it was, just not as tall. The undergrowth is the problem fuel and that springs up very quickly.

While damaging and dangerous, you must realise that the Australian bush needs fire to regenerate and thrive. The problem with man (and yes, the Aboriginals are included, despite their good land management practices) is that the imposed development and "conservation" foisted upon the countryside has buggered up a lot of the bush. When you don't cool burn an area in winter, then you run the risk of excess fuel load in summer. The outcome is very big fires. Do they occur naturally? Sometimes. But sadly we have b@$7@`ds here who think that lighting fires is a fun thing to do.

Generally considered a good thing to steer clear of, if you can.

[muffett.2008]

As of this morning, NSW has lost 2.7million hectares, a lot of European Countries aren't that big.
All OZ states are currently battleing fires.
The Fires are spotting Embers up to several Kilometers in front of the main fires, the wind speeds have been averaging between 50-80 kph.and constantly changing direction.
The wind generated at the fire front is making it very near impossible for low level water bombing, so far the lads at my local airport have been bombing non stop for a month, planes are being pulled from service for maintainance as they are exceeding their hours, a rapid turnaround of servicing has all other tasks on hold, but we are beginning to lose the odd plane and chopper, so the extra downtime means less water dropped, it in itself a scarce resource in this never ending drought.

As for using foam, mate we are still fighting the Government over the contamination to the land and waterways around Military bases caused be the bloody stuff.

If you have followed the fires in California, it's the same, just larger fronts and inhospitable terrain.