Bushfire threat

[Torsten]

I know that some of our customers and probably a few forums members live in fire threatened areas, especially in north eastern vic and south eastern nsw.

if they are actually threatened, then chances are that the last thing they are doing is logging into these forums. But regardless, even just to eliminate some of them, if you live in one of those areas, let us know how you are doing and if you need any help.

waterdragon - are you in the 'line of fire'?? (bad pun intended)

[Rev]

Torsten i was wondering how wandjina is going to cope with this issue given the eucalypt vegetation on the upper slopes and also the grass in the cleared areas?

I guess even rainforset burns in years like this

[Torsten]

Wandjina is fine. The facilities are well protected by clearing a buffer zone. As it is so steep, it is most likely for a fire to come from the valley, which means it would be a grass fire. Much less heat and danger in those. The trees around the houses will be fire resistant and there will be sprinklers everywhere.

The rest of the block is a different story. The gardens themselves will be structured in a fire retardant manner and will have some sprinkler systems for emergencies.

The top of the ridge will be left as a natural environment and will also be left fireprone. Given the vegetation up there there is little we can do other than let nature take its course.

Fire is a time for regeneration in the australian bush and is a good thing. We shouldn't try to eliminate all fires, but rather build and integrate into the bush in a fire safe manner. The combination of short memories and cheap building practices, plus in the last few decades an arrogance that nature can be controlled, has provided us with a society and culture that is totally unsuitable for living in australia. While the loss of life is a dreadful thing, I feel that it requires ocassional disasters like in canberra and elsewhere to wake people up to their own ignorance, arrogance and stupidity.

When I lived in Canberra, we lived 1 house away from eucalyptus bush. Several people in our street used to go and clean the edge of the bush to reduce fuel, but it was rarely the rich pricks sitting right on the edge of it. They simply relied on a combination of firefighter protection and insurance to ease their minds. When I hear those people in canberra whinging I could throttle them. Most of them have probably never heard of fuel reduction and have never considered joining the CFA. They think that paying your taxes and buying the firefighters a slab of beer when they are finished is all it takes to protect your home.

The bush goes up every few years. El nino years are usually the worst. An 18 months el nino usually spells diaster. This IS predictable!

After the ash wednesday fires people started putting sprinklers systems on top of their homes to protect their houses without relying on firefighters. certain simple building modifications were done to stop embers flying into the roof cavity. Every house that was rebuilt was equipped this way. These days no one gives a shit cos they've forgotten that disaster already. The HUGE financial and human cost involved in disasters like ash wednesday or canberra, absolutely dwarf the cost of installing a fire protection system on every home that is in a possible fire zone. And that would mean at least 80% of houses in canberra! I can't believe how they initially said in the news that 'canberra is not used to bushfires'. What a load of shit. As all hilltops in canberra are bush, almost every suburb borders onto dry eucalyptus scrub. There are fires all the time, and if anything, the locals are too relaxed about them.

Just imagine a facility like Mt Stromlo observatory not to have a totally automatic fireprotection system?? How fucking stupid does it have to get before people stop blaming some imaginary god and nature and the fire itself??

Am I pissed off?? You bet I am. The stupidity of these people is costing ALL of us. The federal government ie John Howard in his attempt to appease the city he pissed off so much in the past, has promised to pay 50% of the damage bill. That means yours and my tax dollar. On top of that those of us who have insurance will be paying for the losses through the increase in premiums. ie, we will be paying for the rich pricks who were too stupid to put fire protection systems in/on their houses.

If you live in a flood prone area you can't get floodinsurance. if you are at any particular risk of any destructive event you need to have protective measures in place or you cannot get insurance (eg cyclone, storms, beach erosion). So why do we take fire in our stride and ignore it as if it is an unpredictable event?? Councils and ASA have no problems imposing all sorts of ridiculous standards and limitation on how and where we can build. They try and protect us from internal fires and from arson. But even in the driest scrub you can get a permit to build a timber cabin/house and you can get insurance for it! Something is wrong there.

[waterdragon]

surrounded by bush in my area. national parks and state forests are in easy reach ie edge of town. been putting up with the smoke for near three weeks now. a property in the brindies where i used to work went up in flames. the winds are the only things stopping the flames from burning back this way. most regional roads are closed. just on the canberra issue - it's pretty clear that the powers that be were informed of the fires potential well in advance, seems the only people surprised were the home owners. there was a big debate going on just before the fires came to town on the removal of the a.c.t pine forests to make way for urban development, of course the logging industry was having none of it. the debate is no longer.

[Torsten]

good to hear you're OK so far.

I wasn't aware of the controversy of the pine plantations ..... interesting angle.

[RonnySimulacrum]

When i drove back down to melb i got to see just how mad it is all up there.

Smoke for about 6 hours of the drive.

Fire trukes everwere. Hold in there Guys.

I have some idea what a bushfire in your town is like.

[nabraxas]

i couldn't agree w/you more torsten. as a non native i am shocked at how little the govt. is pro-active in the matters ov water & fire. even their re-actions are pretty appalling- it took them 3 days before they called in the troops- were they trying to save money?- paying for firefighters from new zealand must have broke the budget.

as i've tried to point out before, it seems to me a waste ov money spending billions to equip all ports w/container x-rays in the fight against terrorism; when a well organised cell armed w/nothing more than matches could cause such terror & drain on water resources- let alone if they hired light aircraft & dropped mini-incendries thru the bush.