bushfire usa

[cockneyoz]

Hey Aldgatewest, just saw on the news there's another bushfire in your area, anywhere near you mate?

[Aldgate West]

Nah! No fires in Southern. California., Cockneyoz. The fire season is still young though.

[cockneyoz]

That's good mate......I must get a new TV, this one is too old, it only gives me the news from two years ago.

[marilyn]

[Aldgate West]

NOW there is a major fire in the Antelope Valley which is about 70 miles north from where I am. The Antelope Valley is the next valley over from the San Fernando Valley where I live.

[valk]

Say safe Bill.

[cockneyoz]

Does that mean i dont have to get a new TV.

[Aldgate West]

Well, if you're still getting television news broadcasts from 2 years ago, Cockneyoz, I'd recommend getting a new one. So much has changed since then.

[cockneyoz]

Hey you're not wrong there, i keep seeing young people wandering around with plugs in their ears wired up to a battery, i can only assume that they're giving their brains a boost.

[johnworc]

Someone I know lived in the area where the most devastating bush fires occurred north of Melbourne on "Black Saturday". He and his wife were away that day for a church function. Their house was burned to the ground as was every house in the street except one which was miraculously left untouched by the fires.
Apparently someone went round knocking on doors, warning people of the impending fire front, saying "you need to be gone within 2 minutes". They didn't all leave, though: some of them believed that one neighbour had a safer place so they stayed and went to that neighbour's. They were all burnt to death, nine of them, I believe, three families in all.

[Bigguy]

I can't believe that anyone would believe that any one location is safer than another when it comes to a fire storm. In my option, the safest place to be in a fire storm is anywhere where the fire is NOT and 20 miles further on than that!! Get the heck out of there. I lived in a small town in Northern Alberta back in the 80s. There was a forest fire north of us, that over time got bigger as ir moved south toward us and our town was evacuated. I stayed behind as I was a member of the volunteer fire department, but the townsfolk including my wife, were bussed away. The fire came close to the town, but in the end didn't hit us. For some reason, and I don't know why, it took a turn to the west of the town before it turned back south!! Totally missed the town.

Houses can be replaced, as well as stuff to put in it. Your wife and kids can't, so why put them in danger? I'm sorry, but I've seen what a forest fire can do and there is no predicting where or what it will do next. I have no sympathy for these idiots who think there are actually safe places in a forest fire. I just wish to God they wouldn't include their families in their stupidity. Ok, sorry, I'll get down off my soap box now!!!

[johnworc]

I agree, Brian, with what you say. This weekend saw the Royal Commission report into the Black Saturday (7/2/2009) fires brought out - scathing of all the leaders and mismanagement in the key affected areas (although commending the organisation in some others). It's an issue that may bring down the government in Victoria when it goes to election at the end of November.
The Commission says the "Stay or Go" policy is basically OK but needs several other options and support (refuges, evacuation procedures etc). Several were started by electricity power line faults that just happened to occur on an acute fire danger day (one of the worst ever) - the majority of deaths occurred with that extended fire. Some were lit by arsonists and others couldn't be explained.
I live right next to a large hill - well, we all call it a "mountain" - Mt Dandenong. We get great views of it. The land is mostly very flat to the west of Mt Dandenong - for several hundred kilometres - which is where the prevailing winds come from. That makes Mt Dandenong one of the 3 worst fire spots in the world. If a fire starts on the slopes or at its foot, the winds sweep it up over the top, creating firestorm conditions. Farther out to the west, it's pretty well flat all the way to the Grampians (real mountains) and passing them, across to South Australia. A few years back fire storms swept right across an enormous tract, burning right down to the sea near holiday resorts.
About 3 years before the Black Saturday fires, much more land was devastated - all forest and bush up in the mountains to the east - but uninhabited. The recent ones were remarkably close to Melbourne - hence the great loss of life with people settling in pleasant rural areas with reasonable proximity to the metropolitan area.