Weirdstone

After the awful bushfires we had here in Victoria last summer, and the summer before .. as well as in NSW and Tasmania - it is worth reminding ourselves about the danger when out in rural areas.

The summer seems to have come early here - and so the fires, as the report says - are not just a possibility.

http://www.abc.net.au/victoria/bushfires/



Be safe

carmele

As a family it's our first summer here and I'm healthily aware especially as they hit Canberra and surrounds hard a few years ago

Anyone had any FIRST hand experience.........

Carmel

The Crow

We had a few minor fires about 1km-2km away from us last summer, all started by a firebug - hope he's/she's got it out of their system now. One was largest enough to be worrying - I followed the smoke home from Safeway - firstly thinking it was coming from a different direction, but the closer I got to home the more concerned I got. You could just see the flames from our street and all the neighbours were out having a look. They asked me what equipment we had and that, if it came closer, they would help us protect our house at that point reality set in! Luckily, after a few hours, the CFA contained it. The school kids were really excited as the helicopters were fetching water from a nearby retarding basin and flying low over the school.

About time, we looked at our fire plan again.

Timber Floor Au

The fact of the matter is, be vigilant.

as we are rural, it affects us from all directions.

Last year i seem to recall 20 good blazes, one of which was some 1500 acres a stones throw from us.

Not on the same scale as Gypsland, but close enough to get concerned

The trick , if there is one is to be aware.. and follow uidelines from council and firies.

Steve

carmele

how many people on here have had to cancel their road trip due to bushfires.....

The locals seem to take it in their stride but I couldn't think of any worse way to go apart from drowning...........

Is it all sensationalised...... i have a VERY VERY good imagination!

Carmel

Weirdstone

If you had been in Victoria last summer...you would know it wasn't sensationalised.

cresta57

I've had first hand experience of bushfires, I've seen them race uphill faster than a 4X4 fire fighter appliance can drive. I've seen them crown and spotters ignite fires in so called safe zones the opposite side of rivers.
I can assure you it's not sensationalised, video footage of the bush fires in Canberra is used in training CFA & RFB brigades. The videos are frightening enough, to be there fighting one knowing a change in wind could bring the fire charging towards you faster than you can run certainly makes your ring twitch
I've got 10 blokes from our brigade up at my place in the morning for a training burn, we burn the bushland around our place every couple of years just to keep the fuel load to a minimum.

crocodileseamus

Flamin Heck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



going to Victoria next year

Croc

Pollyana

Its not just Victoria that gets fires. Every State has its fire season, and you just need to plan for it, take precautions - like Sean said above, they do a controlled burn around his place to keep it as safe as possible. He's not in Vic, he's in Qld.

------------

The Tassie firies were saying a couple of months back that if this season is as hot and dry as is predicted in Tasmania, then they have the potential for another 1967, when a large part of the island was affected, at least one village totally destroyed, and the smoke drifted as far north as Melbourne.

carmele

Always good to check on www.bom.gov.au and type in your area!

I'm scarying myself!

Carmel

why

my bushfire story

we lived in Tom Price for a short time...it's in wa pop about 4 thousand...
the whole town was surrounded by bush fires and the roads were cut off..you could feel the heat and see the flames from our house there was a really fierce wind the sun was blocked out by the smoke and the whole town was orange...everyone is a trained fire officer including all the staff at the hospital where i was working..so they all left me and one other nurse and went off to fight fires.......i was looking after a woman in labour...with no one to help me and no chance of getting out should there be a problem...it was scarry i really thought we were all going to get burned up

when you see the plume of smoke in the distance you just hope no one is in it

why

sad thing is lots of bushfires are started deliberately....can't understand that mentality at all...should go to loony bin for the rest of their lives

Shakmaty

We got the smoke from the Tassie fires last year