One hot Saturday

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kiwikrasher
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One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

As you all know we’ve had fires bearing down on us here for the last while and Saturday was as close as it can get without being in my yard. Flame front 2 km away and spot fires 200-400m away. At one stage we had 5 Fire Units in our street telling us to hold on to our balls because we were about to get smashed.

By a cruel stroke of luck a southerly passed through at the last minute and pushed the fire front perpendicular to us. Yay! But not so yay. The long fire flank turned into a fire front, crossed Bells Line of Road with 50km southerly gusts and just destroyed the place. At least 8 houses gone, a family business that was iconical in the area and firefighters trapped and injured.

I’m going to post a link here from FB. It’s written by a good friend of Jess and I, her kids are in both my kids years as school, we go camping with them and she is a pillar of the community. Read what Saturday was like for her (RFS firefighter) and you’ll get an idea of the impact on our community.

Nate the copper she mentions is my neighbour, who was off duty, but got into uniform and brought a marked wagon home and worked a 16 hr day helping out where he could. I looked after his house and he looked after the community. When the road blocks went in I was able to organise with him to go and collect some of the catering crew that were on the other side of the road block. He drove into the fire storm to transport injured firefighters back because ambo’s were over tasked.

F**king great community I have here and I’ve never been more proud of where I live than yesterday.

Now please if you can spare 5 mins give this a read. It’s raw and real. If you are active on FB give Lucy’s blog a like and a follow. You can read this without a FB account.

https://m.facebook.com/permalink.php?st ... 8954107538
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by Kwacky »

Scary shit.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by C00kiemonster »

Jeez - thats horrible. The one time i'm glad it rains here, but you guys stepped up! Glad people are ok - property can be replaced in time and will bind the community together, which is lacking nowadays.

So very scary. But there is no such thing as climate change eh? :^
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by duke63 »

Terrifying.

I assume there is no way of stopping the fires and you simply have to wait for the weather to change to wet?

I watched a Sky News report where the fireman were reporting that the earth is so dry that even that is burning.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

So I’ve been back at work for 5 days and things are heating back up at home again. The local brigade have put heaps of containment lines in behind our little village to minimise the risk from the fire fronts to the west of us.

We still have another fire front to the north of us but has a bit of distance to travel still.

The conditions are going to be severe again on Tuesday and the north one is a reasonable risk. So I was on the fence about heading home early so managed to contact my local RFS captain and he’s confident I should be right to see my swing out so made the decision to not rack up more days that I’ll have to pay back.

Really looking forward to being back home and not sitting here worrying about it all

Current situation
311567D1-1917-4CCA-BFC0-3A9ADF41AEFC.jpeg
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D41
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by D41 »

The RFS website says there's no immediate danger for the next day or two. That's if I'm reading it correctly.
If.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

D41 wrote:The RFS website says there's no immediate danger for the next day or two. That's if I'm reading it correctly.
If.
for my area tomorrow (Monday) is forecast for 42 deg C and tuesday 44 deg C.

the fire warning for sunday /monday is 'Very High'. Tuesday was the day I was concerned about, they have forecast 'severe' fire conditions in my area and winds are up to 35 km NW then swinging to S and up to 45 kms.

although they have backburned containment around us, its not a full burn, its a reduced hazard, they reduce the under growth and bush floor litter, there is still plenty of fuel load that can go up, its just not as volatile as it could be. There is real potential on such a hot day that the fire can intensify, become a crowning fire in the tree tops and still burn rapidly through the backburnt area. if that were to happen those winds would push the front to the south of us and then come directly towards us with the southerly change. Basically exactly what happened to Bilpin last weekend.

So thats why i wanted to talk to someone qualified that i know and trust. I had made my own deductions on my knowledge and it was a really on the fence decision for me. if i listened to the media and FB alarmists, my house is surely burning down this Tuesday. So it was good to talk to him and get a balanced view. He was quite honest and said it was his best guess and it could all still go pear shaped, but he was happy that risk was a lot less than last week.

If I had personal leave up my sleeve I'd be going home, but as i already owe 9 days which means I'm doing an extra week later in the year and a few swings are being extended earlier in the year I really didn't want to add to that requirement. 3 weeks out here is long enough.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by duke63 »

Its an awful situation to be in.

If the fire reaches your property area is it still possible to rescue the house using water, or do you just protect yourself at that point?

Watching some of the footage on the news, it looks quite horrific once the fires burn around you.

I can't believe they are going ahead with the fireworks in Sydney on NYE with all that going on around.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by Kwacky »

You've done all you can mate. It must be horrible just sitting there waiting for some news, feeling like there's nothing you can do.

Keep us updated.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

duke63 wrote:Its an awful situation to be in.

If the fire reaches your property area is it still possible to rescue the house using water, or do you just protect yourself at that point?

Watching some of the footage on the news, it looks quite horrific once the fires burn around you.

I can't believe they are going ahead with the fireworks in Sydney on NYE with all that going on around.
for my situation Duke, the highest probability is ember attack, which is very manageable IF YOU ARE THERE, but easily developed into a fire if no one is there to control the embers. very unlikely to get an actual fire front as i have a couple hundred metres break between me and the bush with only scattered trees in between. My main concern is an ember attack lights off the dense grove of trees in my back section which would give a lot of radiant heat and embers and high risk of then involving the house. As well if some of those trees were to go down due to fire compromising them, at least two could impact my house directly. I have been struggling to get approval to chop them down and I finally did about a month back.

as is the case in a lot of places up my way, if you have bush right up to your house, the risk is infinitely greater and if that was my situation I'd be making quite different decisions about staying, regardless of my training and equipment set up.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

and yeah, spending millions on fireworks while people have lost everything due to fires that are being fought by unpaid volunteers is a bit hard to swallow.

nearly all other smaller fireworks displays have been cancelled
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by Kwacky »

The problem with Sydney are the tourists who booked up months ago to come and see the display
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by D41 »

Apparently this year's Sydney fireworks display cost @ $6.5 million, is watched by @ 1 million people, and viewed by over 1 billion!!
Is Sydney the first (or last for that matter) major city to see in the New Year??
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

New Zealand is the first country to see the New Year but yes Sydney is the first major city to do there fireworks.

And I fully appreciate that the fireworks are organised and prepared for well before the fire drama started so to can them now what have no benefit to anyone.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by D41 »

Oh yeah...New Zealand....forgot about that place...told you my geography is dreadful.

I wouldn't equate the fireworks with a brushfire at all to be honest...not even remotely. Now if there was a chance of them starting more fires then I could see the connection.
People in Paris didn't stop going to church when Notre Dame burned down, did they??
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

D41 wrote:Oh yeah...New Zealand....forgot about that place...told you my geography is dreadful.
(facepalm)
D41 wrote:People in Paris didn't stop going to church when Notre Dame burned down, did they??
Well they sure as sh*t stopped going to that one!
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by kiwikrasher »

And the connection is D41 there is a total fire ban enforced on that day due to extreme fire danger. So they have actually had to get an exemption to go ahead with the display.

During a TOBAN (total fire ban) I can’t even use a grinder outside. Any activity that produces a spark or flame in the open is prohibited.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by duke63 »

Notre Dameburning caused lots of lead from roof to end up in the local atmosphere and be deposited around the city.

In the summer there was a mass deep clean of all school premises in Paris due to the high lead levels.
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Re: One hot Saturday

Post by D41 »

I hope smoking isn't banned. That would be the final straw that broke the CamelBak. (smoking)
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