One hot Saturday

[Cav]

Pretty sure America has the tech (and uses it) to generate rain storms....

Please tell me you really didn't just write that!!??

"Cloud Seeding"

[Blade]

Gmtv news has just reported half a billion animals have lost their lives in the fires. Absolutely shocking and something needs to be done by the international community to help.

[duke63]

I suspect the problems in much of Australia are beyond help.

There is very little way of stopping advancing fire when the ground is so dry. The only option is to let it burn through and burn itself out.

[Blade]

I dont honestly know Duke. I would have thought water bombers might be able to assist even if just to control the fire short term when at peak risk with high temperatures.

Even if they cant help with fires there must be something the international community could do. Rescue animals, humanity aid. I'm guessing and dont have the answers but its shocking countries are happy to rush into foreign wars but hesitate with foreign aid.

[duke63]

I was watching one report where the firefighter said even if they put the fire out above the ground, its still burning beneath the soil as there is zero moisture in it.

[Blade]

I was watching one report where the firefighter said even if they put the fire out above the ground, its still burning beneath the soil as there is zero moisture in it.

Wow. Wouldnt have thought there was enough oxygen in the soil to support combustion, but guess there must be.

Every days a school day.

[duke63]

There is nothing humans can do to stop this.

[video]https://www.facebook.com/TheSydneyNews/ ... 589337954/[/video]

[Blade]

We can we just dont have the will is the truth of it.

[D41]

Nah....it's beyond the scope of what firefighters do to put out the whole thing. You're talking millions of acres, and it's just not feasible. You protect structures when the fire becomes a threat to them, businesses, stuff like that.
The fire burns out all the dry brush, and that'll be (eventually) be replaced by newer, greener foliage that is much more burn-resistant. Gives a few years of breathing space...or at least a decent period where the future fire-threat is much reduced.

[duke63]

We can stop it happening again possibly, but there is no way human capability could extinguish the fires that are burning now.

It is going to see a massive change in the way of life of many Australians in the future though. It will take years to repair the damage done.

[kiwikrasher]

Duke is right. Water bombing is limited in its effectiveness. Aircraft can’t fly in severely hot conditions and when smoke conditions prevent it. There was a small fire out the back from Jess’ place in a remote area. They smashed it hard for 3 days with water bombing, there were 2 helicopters and 2 large aircraft going hard all that time. If it had have taken off unchecked it was a large bush area that would’ve been at risk. After all that they still had to drop in remote firefighting specialists to do a on ground overhaul of the fire. Now look at this pic and see the size of the fire I just described and the effort it took to contain it then compare to the magnitude of the other fire areas.

Yesterday Jess, my kids and I took some hay up to a alpaca farm just up the road that got hit by the fires a couple weeks back. They’ve lost all there grazing feed and lost some feed stocks they had stored. So we went through the area that was burning towards us 2 weeks ago. The bush waS just bare black tree trunks with everything else gone. And still there were visible smoke from burning stumps and earth fires burning under ground. That’s 2 weeks after the fire has past.

[kiwikrasher]

We can we just dont have the will is the truth of it.

Nah mate, you can not even fathom the resources and effort it takes to contain fires even a fraction of these ones. The current process is protect life, save property where possible, and put in containment on the mild days.

The reduction in funding of the fire services and restricted ability to do hazard reduction burns in winter due to govt policy and other interest groups involvement has given way to a huge increase to fuel in the bush.

Then stack on a drought, and a dry and freaking hot start to the summer has lead to this. There have been occasions of fires of this magnitude earlier last century but populations were less and reporting far less prolific without social media. It’s happened before and will happen again. It’s how we prep that makes the difference.

The only way these fires are stopping is when they run out of fuel or we get 2 weeks of soaking rain. I’m betting on the former.

[Blade]

Hope the weather, good luck and fortune are on your side today Kiwi.

Stay safe and keep us updated where and when possible.

[kiwikrasher]

Here is a snap shot of how hard these fires are to control. Story from a mate in the RFS

They where protecting a property with a fire front with 30-40m flames crowning in gums about 500m away. The amount of smoke coming off the fire is huge and still contains combustibles. A particularly dense bank of smoke over the top of them erupted into flames about 100m in the air. That spread forward through the smoke and lit off trees another 500m further down from them.

[Blade]

We can we just dont have the will is the truth of it.

Nah mate, you can not even fathom the resources and effort it takes to contain fires even a fraction of these ones. The current process is protect life, save property where possible, and put in containment on the mild days.

The reduction in funding of the fire services and restricted ability to do hazard reduction burns in winter due to govt policy and other interest groups involvement has given way to a huge increase to fuel in the bush.

Then stack on a drought, and a dry and freaking hot start to the summer has lead to this. There have been occasions of fires of this magnitude earlier last century but populations were less and reporting far less prolific without social media. It’s happened before and will happen again. It’s how we prep that makes the difference.

The only way these fires are stopping is when they run out of fuel or we get 2 weeks of soaking rain. I’m betting on the former.

To be honest I didnt mean the fire could be put out in its enterity. I simply meant more could be done by the international community to help if they had the will to help. Surely more resources could be directed to controlling and limiting the effects of the fire if more Specialists and equipment were brought in to help.

Sadly it seems some are more interested in destabilising the middle east than helping others in dire need. What a sad and selfish world we live in.

[kiwikrasher]

Hope the weather, good luck and fortune are on your side today Kiwi.

Stay safe and keep us updated where and when possible.

We are pretty right atm. Going to be some fire activity about 10 km to our south but we should be ok here for now.

[duke63]

Stay safe, kiwi.

Material stuff can be replaced.

People can’t.

[Blade]

Hope the weather, good luck and fortune are on your side today Kiwi.

Stay safe and keep us updated where and when possible.

We are pretty right atm. Going to be some fire activity about 10 km to our south but we should be ok here for now.

It feels selfish to say Im glad your OK, when clearly others are not and are instead fighting for everything they have.

Still I am glad you and Jess are safe, just wish everyone was tbh. Terrible to watch this unfold but must be horrific being there.

[duke63]

In the early 1990s we had a few very hot dry spells in the UK.

One summer there was a fire on the grass on the field opposite. The fire literally walked up the slope. The fire brigade eventually beat it out I do remember being quite concerned at how close it was to my house and how quickly it spread.

It was tiny incident compared to what is going on in Australia but even that opened my eyes to how quickly fire can spread.

[kiwikrasher]

And to give you an idea of conditions the firefighters are facing, it’s 38 deg at 10am at my place. Expect 45 deg today. Imagine being in turn out gear all day in that.

All the blinds are closed and A/C has been on since 7 am. I put washing out an hour ago and just got it in dry.