General > General Technical Chat
Australia Under Fire Worst in Decades..
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richnormand:

--- Quote from: SerieZ on January 06, 2020, 03:49:08 pm ---Absolutely horrible Situation... I hope things get under Control soon!

Question to the Aussies:
How much is Government to blame? I have seen a lot of angry people vent against the Prime Minister - is it justified?
How much of the Fire is due to Humans Activity and what is the "normal" in heat season?

--- End quote ---

Not an Aussie but:
Here is a report mentioned on reddit that I saw yesterday. No idea how accurate this is. The Garnaut report to the government apparently dates from 2008. Note the line about the climate change effect should be clearly visible by the 2020s....
If that is true the govt was fully aware. Also, elsewhere, I remember reading that budgets for firefighters had been reduced in that time period...

Looks like Lucas published several papers on bushfires:
Here is one of many. The concluding remarks (2007) are disheartening.



MrMobodies:
Found a nice simple map:

http://google.org/crisismap/australia

Surrounded by bush fires but under control from the blue advice symbols.
KL27x:
re: edy video:

Goes to figure the moment you need to put out a fire, all you have is a hose with a slit in the side that can only shoot 20 feet. You get a glimpse of what she is using about halfway through, before she puts the dust mask on.

That footage is intense. It looks like Fallout 3.
John B:
There's a lot to cover. In Australia, the line between in the sticks and in the city is trivial, unless you're in CBD type areas. The fires in the national parks surrounding Sydney, like the Blue Mountains, were very close to heavily populated areas. In general, the areas affected by fire are interspersed with heavy vegetation, people and buildings.

The smoke has been a major issue. It comes and goes from day to day, but a couple of days ago, the smoke cloud hanging over NSW/ACT was severe and was the size of several American states put together. At one point I estimate visibility was down to only a couple hundred meters. Millions of people were having to breathe that, with obvious negative health effects.

I don't know about "blaming" government, but I would say that people are no where near prepared enough for large bushfires in most areas, and I think government could play a role in helping. Buildings need a major rethink in these areas to increase fire resistance. People need more equipment and greater water reserves on hand to deal with spot fires. I won't say people should stay to fight large fires, because you really need training and good equipment. I know from experience how quickly you can get disoriented and debilitated from smoke, and you can easily be surrounded and overcome by fire when you don't know what's happening.

Even when not directly affected by fire, one big issue is people's reliance on fuel, power and a functioning transport network. When areas of the southeast coast were isolated and without power, it became obvious how many people didn't have backup power, and so food spoils in the fridges. The shops were running out of food because trucks also couldn't get into those areas. To make matters worse, these areas were packed with tourists. When the evacuation orders were issued, fuel stations were packed and running out of fuel because of the mad rush to get out.

In america, there's people called preppers. At least from what I've seen, they're usually portrayed in a kooky paranoid light. But in Australia if you live in a rural or semi rural area, I don't think it would be unreasonable to think along such lines.
nctnico:

--- Quote from: edy on January 06, 2020, 06:07:23 pm ---Hope everyone is safe! We have friends in Melbourne and called them yesterday, they seem ok but say they have trouble breathing. I just saw this video on YouTube and wondering if this was such a good idea. I mean she managed to save her home and lived to share the footage but how incredibly risky is this:

--- End quote ---
Indeed incredibly risky. I hope she used protection against the smoke otherwise she won't be getting very old.


--- Quote from: John B on January 06, 2020, 09:14:10 pm ---In america, there's people called preppers. At least from what I've seen, they're usually portrayed in a kooky paranoid light. But in Australia if you live in a rural or semi rural area, I don't think it would be unreasonable to think along such lines.

--- End quote ---
Even in the Netherlands the government recommends to have a stock of non-perishable food & water to last a couple of days so the idea of being prepared isn't that crazy.
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