Bushfires

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Originally Posted by mikehzz

You are assuming that there are emergency services people there. I know of at least 3 streets that went up in smoke here with no firies at the scene. I would never say a bad word against the firies by the way, they were stretched too thin and the fire was too fast. With all the smoke and confusion, you have absolutely no idea what is happening even 3 or 4 houses away. I was staggered when some firies finally turned up to help me and they told me most of the houses on my side of the street were gone. If there is no one there to order you out then it is a judgement call on your own with incomplete information. If you perish then you are a silly dickhead who should have left, if you save the house then you did a great job. So my rule of thumb is to stay if you are alone and feel in control with an escape route, or leave straight away if ordered by experts that have better information at hand. I would hate to put emergency services people at risk by my actions but that can happen inadvertantly. If everyone just evacuated then thousands of homes would have went.

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I agree Mike, my comment was too generalised. I was referring specifically to the people in cars who decided to leave but left it too late.

There is a difference between putting out embers vs stopping a wall of flame driven by 90kph winds - obviously. Given the conditions on the day it sure would be easy to be overtaken by the speed of it all while having good intentions. Though, looking at the people that were trying to leave in their cars, there was no way they were ever going to be capable of defending their properties on that day - they should have left much earlier.

It maybe could have got Gary killed, but he wouldn't have cared. If he did nothing and Vicki died then he wouldn't have wanted to live anyway. Another guy did similar because his 18 year old daughter was home alone studying and called him hysterically. Everyone should have the right to man up and try if things are that important. I do believe that in doing so, emergency services are in no way obligated to go in until it's safe to do so.

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Originally Posted by mikehzz

Then there are fabulous stories like Gary Ruttley whose wife Vicki was home alone and he was stuck at a road block 6 kms away with no communication. The house has caught alight and Vicki is ordered to leave and given a lift out in a fire truck unbeknown to Gary. The truck is driving out through flames and actually passes Gary who is running the 6kms through the smoke and flames to help Vicki. He gets home and finds the solar hot water heater on the roof has burst and put the fire in the roof at the rear out and he puts the rest of the fire out with a garden hose. Then he helps save the neighbours house. Balls of steel in my opinion. That street was creamed, there are hardly any houses left.

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True, gallant indeed and a fantastic story. No doubt any of us would be going back for our families too. It could just as easily have ended in tragedy. All pure luck in these conditions.

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Originally Posted by mikehzz

It maybe could have got Gary killed, but he wouldn't have cared. If he did nothing and Vicki died then he wouldn't have wanted to live anyway. Another guy did similar because his 18 year old daughter was home alone studying and called him hysterically. Everyone should have the right to man up and try if things are that important. I do believe that in doing so, emergency services are in no way obligated to go in until it's safe to do so.

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Absolutely!

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Originally Posted by SBD4

I agree Mike, my comment was too generalised. I was referring specifically to the people in cars who decided to leave but left it too late.

There is a difference between putting out embers vs stopping a wall of flame driven by 90kph winds - obviously. Given the conditions on the day it sure would be easy to be overtaken by the speed of it all while having good intentions. Though, looking at the people that were trying to leave in their cars, there was no way they were ever going to be capable of defending their properties on that day - they should have left much earlier.

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Fair enough :) But the speed was unbelievable. You can't see the fire and you don't know which ridge it's on. We see heaps of fires that look close but are actually quite a distance away, we could pack up and leave for all of them but it's a bit like the boy who cried wolf. Usually we wait to see flames. In this case at my place I first saw flames about 500 metres away, and 5 minutes later they were burning my studio and next doors garage. There was no time to do anything.

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Originally Posted by mikehzz

Fair enough :) But the speed was unbelievable. You can't see the fire and you don't know which ridge it's on. We see heaps of fires that look close but are actually quite a distance away, we could pack up and leave for all of them but it's a bit like the boy who cried wolf. Usually we wait to see flames. In this case at my place I first saw flames about 500 metres away, and 5 minutes later they were burning my studio and next doors garage. There was no time to do anything.

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Mate, you have my admiration. It must have been a terrifying scenario and something I would not like to face. Good luck to you in future.:)
Nothing like a description of the scene from somebody who was actually there and faced it!!!:)

Preparation, preparation, preparation.

It basically all comes down to whether you have defensible space, for a house (generally) to survive a fire it has to be well prepared and then actively defended. If there isn't space for you to work (with some degree of safety) then you are really pushing the proverbial uphill.
In an urban type of environment houses a bit removed from the front are subject to heavy ember attack, and speaking to our guys that were some of the first into Winmalee (they were enroute to Katoomba) there were houses alight to the east of Hawksbury Road before the fire crossed the road, this would have been from the heavy ember showers.
For those that haven't experienced it, some have likened it to hailing fire.


Martyn

Just had a phone call from Sheila's father who lives at Callala Beach and it has just started raining there.....hope it spreads around to the areas that need it most!

It's raining in londonderry also and spitting down in camden

Spitting up here in Springwood...yippee!!