Simone

Lots of bushfires around, at least 3 lit

Fire danger extremely high, and it'll be 38 tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get that thundery shower tomorrow afternoon...

Don't know exactly where the one on this photo is coming from, but there were fires in John Forrest NP(go there often), Kalamunda NP(lived near there as a kid), Boya, Karagullen, Pickering Brook etc.

This is looking south east from the top of our street (Mt Hawthorn, 4 kms above CBD(seen to the right) This must be the Karragullen one, because John Forrest and I think Kalamunda are more to the north.


This is looking south(you can see the lights of Subi Oval). Smoke has spread across the city, all the way to the beach. Not as far as us though, we were still in the (scorching!) sun.

Then there was the fire in Leeming yesterday(see Walla's 'I sh*t you not' thread' and the fires in Geraldton.(all arson).
A big part of Yanchep National Park burned down last weekend, lit by a volunteer fire fighter. Drove past there yesterday and it was still smouldering.
Block of land behind the bank that I use for work burned last week.
Also the parkland near Larissa's house in Joondalup.
:scared:
Then there's all the ones I've forgotten or haven't heard about...
And it's not even Febuary yet!
At this time I'm glad I don't live (semi) rural or in the hills, but I want to one day....!!

The latest on the hills one:
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_...5E1702,00.html

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...1/s1282733.htm

sophia

hiya simone

the fires have been bad today haven't they? I drove up to Freo at 9am this morning and the smoke was shocking, I thought it was much closer to us...I was expecting to be turned around by the firemen on the Cockburn Road. Thankfully I didn't...but although the skies around rockingham were alright, we could see the smoky skies to the north of us.

Weird weather today too...the sunset was astonishing..did you see it? The sun was quite high and blood red very peculiar....lots of people at the beach watching it.

Here's hoping no stupid people decide to light fires tomorrow!

love sophia xx

Simone

Ah, what a shame, didn't see it!
Were at the beach till 5.30 though. But live about 10km's from the coast, so don't really see the sunset.

Yes, fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Merlot

One thing I do not miss about Oz.

If you have ever lived through one or close to one is is VERY scary. I spent most of our summers with the "Escape" box near the door - photo's, important documents, change of knickers (joking)!

My in-laws were hit in Sussex Inlet, NSW in January 2002. They were terrified and we called them as the SES were asking them to drop everything and leave their home.

They (and us) had no contact for 2 days as the lines were down, they did not know if they had a home to go back too. Luckily just gum trees, pines, fences and out buildings gone. Some were not so lucky and the devastion just terrible.

Sussex Inlet usually has 2,000 pop., in the summer 10,000, all displaced in the RSL or Bowling Clubs, watching fireballs race over their heads.

Seriously, even if you don't get evacuated, you have all that horrid smoke to breathe in, black soot on your washing, roads or train services being cut off, panic buying in Coles - seen that, quite crazy.

Hoping that everyone is safe and sound.

Best wishes
Merlot

Larissa

Hi guys
It makes you wonder why some sicko could light those fires; they're saying that one person was responsible for a number of fires which were lit close together. I've been reading up on bush fires as I want to be informed; before the white men came you'd expect a bush fire every 50 to 100 years... now they are much more frequent.
Take care and ATB to those affected,
Larissa

Quinkana

Think you might find that the Aborigines had a system of regularly setting fire to the bush - "firestick farming" - to increase game and to prevent extreme fires.

The difference is that arsonists don't appear to have the the same aim.

Simone

Yeah,

I've always called the firestick farming that you call it 'backburning". Is this correct?
Because now when I think about it, backburning sounds more like lighting another fire so it burns back into the one already going?

They still do the preventive fires in some places. When we were in the south west last week there were notices up from CALM that they were going to do aerial burnings.

Btw, for people who don't know, it prevents bad fires because it burns all the shrubs and leaves etc (fuel) on the ground, so when a real fire comes, it isn't as extreme and as fast.

Fire is good for the environment sometimes too. Some type of tree(or shrub?) only lets it's seeds go when there's been a fire.



Anyway, at work now. (south east, foothills). Looking out the window all I see is smoke (it looks like clouds, but it's not). You can smell it outside a bit too. Collegues have ashes in there houses.

Fire still isn't under control, though no lives or houses lost yet. Overnight they've been building fire breaks.
The wind will probably change this afternoon, and then hopefully the fire will go back along where it came from(backburning?).

Simone

To the south east, maybe 5/10 km's from my work I now see a cloud of smoke resembling an atomic bomb. Must say, it looks very spectacular, I'd make a photo of it if I had a camera with me..
Circumstances are not so good though. Can't find anything on the net, and radio news seems the same, but it looks much closer than it was, and now more in the foothills.
Wife's boss just called and mentioned some people are now looking at evacuating in Bedfordale.(where they and some other colleagues live)

Simone

It's raining!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fingers crossed it reaches the hills and keeps going for a while......

Larissa

I forgot about aboriginal burning... btw how did they ensure the fire didn't get out of hand?
We just flew back from Rottnest Island to Jandakot (will post soon but too knackered now) and saw miles of smoke in the distance... a strange reddy brown colour. We were told that flights were grounded yesterday due to the fires and poor visibility, so we were very lucky.
Not all trees benefit from bushfires (been reading my mates book "Managing your Bushland" lol) and some are becoming scarce whereas others are doing better.
Many mammals escape the heat by going into their burrows, but with these huge fires larger animals would find it much harder to escape. For people it must be an agonising decision as to whether to protect your property or to go and leave it, especially since you're advised not to try to outdrive a fire. Installing special sprinkler systems and keeping a spare water tank sounds a great idea, but I'm wondering how effective this would be. When the fire passes over, how quickly does this happen and what is the likelihood of all the air getting sucked out?
Larissa

Quinkana

Ask them?

Jacko1

I work in West Leederville and saw it as well, absolutely amazing but like you no camera!!

Paul J

Simone

Interesting
Don't remember how the aboriginals kept it under control. Probably only did it when weather was right? But there's probably more to it..

Totally forgot about your flight, happy birthday too!!! Did you take pics? Btw, I remember you saying you couldn't upload pics on here? I can't either, they become to small, so I use www.photobucket.com. Upload them there, then copy and paste the tagline [IMG] etc into your post. Tada!



The atom cloud dissapeared quite quickly, became more spread out. Then the rain clouds were coming. Don't think it was enough rain though.
Btw, it probably wasn't Bedfordable that was close, that's too far south.
I've heard of one damaged property now, in Pickering Brook.

OMG, just seen I wrote "Wife's boss" Ehhh, boss's wife

Sander

Hope I can reply now, earlier it wouldn't let me.

It's a shame there wasn't more rain...hopefully the fires won't be too bad and no more properties are damaged! Pretty scary thought really - those fires...
:scared:

Muzza04

Here's a pic of the atomic bomb like bush fire in the hills