chris955

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15866169

What the hell were they thinking burning off in those conditions ?

jothefw

It's not a transparent situation.

We have controlled burns near us (neighbouring our boundary) fairly often.

If you don't do controlled burns, the risk is that nature will do it and you won't be able to control it.

If you do do them - there's always the risk it gets out of hand.


Generally for us - they'll pick a scorcher of a day, 35+ and northerly winds. This makes it more "predictable" so then can plan and manage accordingly.

I am in support of such "controlled" burning - sadly though it does go wrong. I hope there are no lives lost, at least homes can be rebuilt.

renth

The burn in question was lit in mid September, it smouldered away well away from the containment lines when the wind whipped it back to life.

I was at the Orange Srings fire last month, that was started when a burn held 2 weeks earlier sprung back to life.

FYI the fire can get into the ground and do it's own thing for months and no amount of water will extinguish it.

Loch Lomond

But all your belongings are lost. It must be terrible to lose everything that is sentimental to you and that can't be replaced.

On a smaller scale, I had a bonfire on my block a couple of years ago in winter. It was going for maybe 4 hours then we let it burn out, dug some sand over it and deluged the area with water. 2 weeks later my son saw smoke coming from it, I raked it over and there were still red embers under the sand.

renth

This place was lost:

http://www.isaacsridge.com.au/pages.asp?code=10

I've stayed there a few times, great place for a dirty weekend! Shame it's gone though, very sad...

cresta57

I agree, studies have found that in some cases frequent small burns can damage the eco system where as a large much hotter burn less often was a much better option.
For example where we live it was found that the Eastern Ground Parrot was almost forced into extinction due to frequent small burns that changed the ecosystem by not being hot enough to kill off the smaller saplings. As a result the saplings became to dense for the parrots to live. Having a much more intense fire every couple of years destroyed the saplings allowing the natural heath-land to return & with it the Ground Parrots.
Only one example, however as a continent Australia is unique in that some of it's flora require fire as part of their regeneration process.
I'm not aware of all the facts regarding the burn-off in W.A so criticising would be wrong. It's easy to say what the hell were they thinking without knowing the reasoning.

daunted

Im going to be 'shaking the money tin' at the cold chisel concert in Margaret River tomorrow so please give generously if you going
What has happened is tragic. we stopped at a fuel station in bussleton yesterday and it seems like half of WA fire brigade pulled in to refuel - those guys and gals do such an amazing job I wanted to hug every single one of them (and not for personal gain )