Thread: WA Fires

Originally Posted by Sandgroper

Thanks so much for the great pics Andy, I hope you don't mind if I pinch a couple to send to some mates overseas so they can see what a bushfire looks like. You are doing a great job and thanks to all the fireos, local, interstate, volunteer and professional, they do an amazing job under the most dangerous of conditions, I have nothing but admiration for these blokes.

No probs.
You will have to post some on Colons site,
.He steals pics from other sites all the time and doesnt let on that they aint his
Andrew

Another late finish.Was actually stood down at 4pm,got half way home and got called back to be on standby with the grader for a backburn.
It went a bit pearshaped,I was treated to watching the helitacs put the escape out,it was in country that vehicles/machines couldnt get.Could watch those choppers all day!!!!! They do an amazing job,there were 2 of them and were doing a 2 min turn around.
As Graz says,tommorow is particularly nasty.40degC and 50kmh winds.The fire is contained but only just.If it gets away it will take some stopping.
Got a heap of pics today too,will post in the next few days.
That 130 Graz was an old girl,had a TDi.
Andrew

One of the risks
https://m.facebook.com/permalink.php...d=135065122236

Very lucky.

could you imagine back before white man cam to Australia and a fire like this when the south west of w.a. was all bush it would just about burn out the whole of the south west and almost nothing would survive

Originally Posted by richard4u2

could you imagine back before white man cam to Australia and a fire like this when the south west of w.a. was all bush it would just about burn out the whole of the south west and almost nothing would survive

The bush would have been burnt in a patchwork fashion by the local tribes, just as it was drying out. This has been well documented all over Australia. Just because they didn't build fences doesn't mean they didn't actively manage the land.

Example

Originally Posted by bee utey

The bush would have been burnt in a patchwork fashion by the local tribes, just as it was drying out. This has been well documented all over Australia. Just because they didn't build fences doesn't mean they didn't actively manage the land.

Example

Yes. Ever since Europeans settled in Australia, we have been mostly trying to put out fires rather than actively burning. And one of the problems is that in the last fifty plus years, we have got rather good at putting them out, so that today, in many places, fuel loads accumulate to an extent that could not have happened before then. This means that fires are getting increasingly difficult to put out when they occur, and given the right conditions are uncontrollable even with the best conceivable firefighting capability.

And of course, the tendency over the last fifty years to build more and more structures in fire-prone areas means that the casualties and damage in these conditions can get pretty dramatic.

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Yes. Ever since Europeans settled in Australia, we have been mostly trying to put out fires rather than actively burning. And one of the problems is that in the last fifty plus years, we have got rather good at putting them out, so that today, in many places, fuel loads accumulate to an extent that could not have happened before then. This means that fires are getting increasingly difficult to put out when they occur, and given the right conditions are uncontrollable even with the best conceivable firefighting capability.

And of course, the tendency over the last fifty years to build more and more structures in fire-prone areas means that the casualties and damage in these conditions can get pretty dramatic.

John

Plus a lot of Australian bush requires the heat of a bushfire to regenerate. We camped at the Carinyah campsite on the Munda Biddi once just after a bushfire and everything was dead and burnt. The next year when we went back the whole place was lush and green with amazing growth.

Originally Posted by richard4u2

could you imagine back before white man cam to Australia and a fire like this when the south west of w.a. was all bush it would just about burn out the whole of the south west and almost nothing would survive

dont you know, bushfires are a result of anthropogenic climate change