Victorian bushfires 2009

Yep George -- and its not just the media

I CANT BELIEVE people that drive around for a look in this devestation - what is wrong with them???
The owners of the properties said - rather than driving around 'looking' get out and ask us if we need any help

I would lose it if I saw people like that - makes me SICK!

This question may be somewhat premature, but I think it's an important one to at least consider - what have we (as Victorians, as Australians, as humans, as ordinary people) learnt from this experience ?

Is there something we now know that we did not know before these events took place ?

I'm sure it will make a long list.

I dont know George - there are so many factors when it comes to bushfires in Australia and its not over yet

Whenever a tragedy like this happens, tho this is a BIG one, there's alot of finger pointing

We definitely need to make some changes in the upkeep of our country towns..

Interesting reading in the news that the fire was contained for now and that firefighters had the chance to fix it with the weather the way it was - they have been backburning

BACKBURNING -- That word which I know comes up all the time everytime a fire starts -- and we have a tragedy

Should we be still doing that?
Or shouldnt we be?

Bad for the environment I know .... its a hard one

Backburning is the practice of a controlled bushfire done by fire authorities when weather conditions are most favourable. They light small grass and bush fires in order to clear out deadfall and dried scrub that would otherwise lay about in healthy forests just waiting for the right conditions to combust into a massive and deadly inferno.

Backburning is good for the environment and can save lives and property if it's done by professionals in a controlled manner when the need arises. By clearing out this dead scrub, it cleans the area so that more healthy plants and trees can grow, and it removes the fuel sources that can allow a bushfire to rage out of control.

It's a bit like having too many old magazine issues laying around your house. Drop one lit cigarette and you have a recipe for disaster. Get rid of them once you've read them and the most damage you may have is a black mark on your floor.

Would backburning have prevented the Victorian bushfires from happening? No, but I'd wager that these fires would not have gotten out of control to the degree that they did if some managed backburning practices had been in place by the CFA.

OK, I don't want to sound mean, but I don't think I wanna be reading articles such as "What I Saved From The Fire" just yet (or ever).

www.smh.com.au/national/from-the-ashes-w...d-20090214-87nu.html

I dunno what it is about this article that's got me going, but it has.

Those people who managed to escape with "just" their lives from the fires should consider themselves really fortunate.

Let's have some press coverage about stuff that really matters right now - e.g. what work needs to be done in the affected communities right now to get things going back to normal. Keep the "What I Saved From The Fire" stuff for No Idea magazine and the like.

I agree, George. That's going overboard and I question what "public interest" is served by people telling their stories of saving a child's doll, their dead sister's ashes, or a pet lamb, or whatever else they considered most precious to them. As you say, what's most previous is that people escaped with their lives and, I believe, that's exactly what the majority of survivors would be thinking. In fact, from what I've read or seen, many people are feeling guilty that they or their property escaped unharmed while their neighbours around them lost everything.

Yes Ness (and it's good to hear from you), I mostly agree with you about controlled burning. Our lovely continent was managed by its indigenous population using controlled burning for over 40,000 years. In the NT the authorities are beginning to consult with the indigenous leaders each year about where is best to burn, as it often saves wildfires in the scrub. Mostly, I understand, a checkerboard pattern is used so that wildlife can escape and so that the bush is not too heavily impacted. Areas are not burned every year.

In the January 2003 wild fires in the Snowy Mountains, a property I owned was saved because there had been a controlled fuel reduction during the spring of 2002. I was fortunate, both that the adjoining land belonged to the shire council rather than National Parks (where you are not allowed to do controlled burns) and that the local fire brigade was keen to protect us. Others were not so fortunate.

The key difference between a wild fire and a controlled burn is that a wild fire is so intense and fast that not only do the native animals have little or no chance to escape, but even the fire adapted native vegetation is obliterated. Controlled burns, which are "cool" fires, assist much native vegetation to regenerate: for example, banksia and wattle. If you look at the landscape after a wild fire, there is a moon-like quality. It is totally barren. After a controlled burn, most vegetation and wild life survive. I must qualify my comments with the knowledge that some of our alpine areas may not benefit from controlled burns - but I don't have sufficient information to discuss this.

While controlled burning may assist in most areas, some conditions make fires impossible to control. I suspect that with the conditions on 7 February, there was little that would have helped. The fire situation changed in minutes, and the heat from the fires, from what I have heard, was like a blast furnace. I guess the Royal Commission may come up with some answers. All I know is that having experienced fires a number of times, I would never again willingly live in a heavily forested area, and if circumstances forced me to live in such an area, I would have a bunker.

Mem

We havent heard any comments from the Greenies -- have you? :whistle:
Abit quiet in their headquarters...

National day of mourning service - Feb 22

Today a friend of mine had to drive up to Yea for work and asked if I wanted to come
How devestating to see it all for real : (
We drove past Toolangi Dixons Creek Yarra Glen up to Yea
Its like a big campfire going out - white ash all over the floor and some trees still have leaves but its all just black and grey - couple of houses here and there
It really is like a bomb hit the place..
Its awful : (
The road is just devestation on both sides
Was alot of rainforest out there and was so beautiful..
I spotted a couple of red glows..

My daughters school the Year 8's usually go down Toolangi every year but they cancelled this year..