Firefighter Blog

The bushfires in Victoria State have subsided and homeowners are already rebuilding.

Twitterer Bushfires points to these satellite images of the towns of Marysville, Kinglake, Kinglake West, Churchill, Flowerdale, Murrindindi and Callingee taken 5 weeks after Black Saturday.

Labels: Australian Bushfires

Firefighter David Balfour was killed by a falling tree near burned out Marysville yesterday.

Firefighter Balfour was a member of the ACT Fire Brigade on assignment from neighboring Canberra.

Story here and supporting video, here.

Labels: Australian Bushfires, Bushfires, LODD

The tragic story of Marysville, Victoria State, Australia as fire struck the town. This is a chilling story.

Labels: Australian Bushfires, Bushfires

The Australian reports many local townships and homeowners failed to heed warnings concerning defensible space. Despite pleas from local bushfire experts area "greens" designed new housing developments with complete disregard for fire. In fact in some cases homeowners were required to plant trees and vegetation close to their homes.

Their guidance was "trees being the holy green icon" and with that as their view came up with this.

"green groups were pushing for changes to planning laws that included restrictions on the removal of vegetation, "and worse still, the requirement for planting vegetation around and almost over houses, as part of any planning permit to build a house in the shire of Nillumbik, so it gave the appearance from the outside of being a forest".

This foolishness was designed against reminders of the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983 that killed more than 74 people in the region. The fires this month are a stiff reminder that there are consequences for bypassing expert advice or making rules contrary to scientific and historic evidence.

To some extent this question is being played out in court in California. As I posted here the San Diego utility is suing homeowners on the grounds their alleged negligence of defensible space ordinances contributed to the intensity of the Witch and Rice Fires in 2007.

What is often missing in the defensible space debate is the importance of cleared space as it applies to firefighter safety. Firefighters should not be called on to defend individual properties designed to simulate Tarzan's tree house. People that choose to live directly under trees should expect firefighters to pass by their homes on the way to protect more defensible properties.

This is a good time to initiate discussion on the topic, even as the fires in Victoria still rage. In a couple of months California and Western US states will begin burning. Let the decisions made by (ordinarily well intentioned) green's in Victoria State serve as a warning here.

UPDATE: Victoria homeowner charged nearly $100,000 dollars for clearing a defensible space around his home, his property survived.

Labels: Australian Bushfires, brush clearance, Defensible space

Mashable points us to a Google Maps workup of the Victoria Fires.




Click here for the code.

Labels: Australian Bushfires, Bushfires, Google Maps

Shocking numbers from The Australian. As Firefighters enter burned out areas they are cautioned against what may turn out to be an unprecedented loss of life by fire.

Flickr images from Vic Fires here.

Google Map of fire areas and EMS links here.

Update: Deaths from bushfires now at 166 says The Australian.

Labels: Australian Bushfires, Bushfires

The death toll from bushfires in Victoria State have eclipsed all time National marks as authorities find more victims. Four children are among the dead. As well more than 700 homes and likely as many outbuildings have burned. Thousands of livestock have been overrun devastating the lively hood of many ranchers in the region.

NZ Herald.co.nz informs us of the historic nature of this fire tragedy.

"In 1926 fires in the Dandenongs, Gippsland and Warburton in Victoria killed 91 people, 71 died in the state's "Black Friday" of 1939, and 75 perished in Victoria and South Australia in the Ash Wednesday infernos of 1983."

The town of Marysville, Northeast of Melbourne is one of several towns that took a direct hit. Many of the dead lived in Marysville and neighboring communities.

Update: Marysville has been leveled. "The Australian" shot these dramatic images of what was Marysville.



Fires are also burning in New South Wales. Sydney firefighters who already have their hands full can expect worsening conditions as the heat wave makes its way North.

Labels: Australian Bushfires, Bushfires

South Australia bushfires have killed 14 people so far in what Victoria Premiere John Brumby describes as "Our worst day in history".

Video from Victoria State visually describes the destruction as record temperatures combined with strong dry winds fan flames.

The CFA has issued severe alerts for no less that a dozen towns in the path of approaching fires. Interestingly their warnings advise citizens to patrol their properties for "ember attacks", something you never hear in the States.

This fire assault is reminding Australians of Ash Wednesday, February 13, 1983 when 75 people were killed by wildfires.

Uncomfirmed reports indicate more than one town burned to the ground yesterday.

Follow the news and individual accounts as they appear on Twitter.

UPDATE: Loss of life total now 49. 600 homes destroyed, story here.

Labels: Australian Bushfires, Bushfires

Labels: Australian Bushfires, fire maps

While looking around the CFA Victoria website after posting the story in the post below I ran across this very useful video on homeowner safety as it pertains to wildland, or bushfires.

Here is the link to CFA.Vic Youtube page.

Labels: Australian Bushfires, Defensible space

From AAP (Australian Associated Press) Via Yahoo! News;

"On Saturday afternoon, Country Fire Authority volunteer firefighters were called by residents worried about a large plume of smoke coming from a BMX track near Bendigo in central Victoria.

When they arrived at the Strathfieldsaye track, they found a car that had been deliberately set alight and about 250 people, many of them drunk.

"They threw stubbies at the volunteer firefighters, physically fought with them and got on the fire truck and attempted to interfere with its operations," Bendigo Sergeant Tony CommadeurAAP.

"The CFA called for assistance from police, one car drove into a volatile situation where a main bunch of 10-15 people surrounded them in a semi-circle and were closing in.

"They were told to back off, they didn't, so we used capsicum spray on one and then they got the message that we were not going to take it."

Sgt Commadeur described the incident in which volunteer emergency workers were physically attacked while trying to put out a dangerous fire as "outrageous".

"One CFA guy pulled up pretty sore, he was dragging people away from the truck after they jumped on it to interfere with their equipment," he said.

"They turned on him and hit him.

"It's disgraceful, no way in the world is that behaviour normal, to be intimidating towards or assault sacred volunteer community personnel such as CFA, SES (State Emergency Service), paramedics who are protecting lives and property......."

Disgraceful indeed. The CFA are the best bush firefighters in the world, on par with California's wildland firefighting professionals. These are the guys Aussies count on when the blue gum stands begin exploding as fire races through the countryside!

Labels: Australian Bushfires

Australian firefighters in New South Wales have been issued speeding citations for rushing to fires and other emergencies according to AAP via Yahoo! Australia.



It's true here as well that firefighters and paramedics must obey all laws of the road but I've not heard of anyone being cited responding to an emergency.......at least in my experience.

Labels: Australian Bushfires

AAP reports via Yahoo News the town of Priory in NE Tasmania is in danger of being consumed by a wildfire fanned by gale force winds.

"Firefighters are racing to combat a major bushfire burning out of control and threatening a small town on Tasmania's north-east tip.

The fire, estimated to have burned more than 200 hectares of forest, began about 1pm Sunday near Ericksons Road at Goshen, north-east of St Helens, Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) spokesman Shane Batt said. "The fire is burning out of control. It has jumped the Tasman Highway and is encroaching on the town of Priory," he told AAP.

Fire crews have been sent to Priory to support units already on the scene and a helicopter has been sent to try to define the boundaries of the blaze, although the area is blanketed by thick smoke."

Tasmania Fire Service has a nice interactive fire map of ongoing fires. Check it out!

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Labels: Australian Bushfires

The Australian reports the tragic ending that befell 3 truckers caught on a highway in Western Australia on New Years Day 2008.

Three men died and another was injured when an inferno engulfed a truck convoy in the West Australian Goldfields after drivers were told it was safe to drive through a bushfire.
Police found their bodies in two burnt-out trucks amongst a one kilometre stretch of blackened trailers, melted aluminium and twisted metal on the Great Eastern Highway between Southern Cross and Coolgardie about midnight

They were among 15 trucks allowed through a roadblock at 8pm on Sunday even though a potentially dangerous weather change was expected at 9pm.

Some drivers made it to Southern Cross, where one man is believed to have been treated for burns.

But when the fire struck the rest 75km east of Southern Cross they were trapped.

Three died but the rest managed to unhook their trailers and flee back to Coolgardie in their prime movers.

One was John Savage who said the speed of the fire was unbelievable.

"Within 10 seconds she swept over the top of me and I saw another truck pass me," Mr Savage told Network Ten.

"I was on my own for about 20 minutes with my air line, my scarf, Coca Cola, just pouring it over my head, sucking in air as much as I could."

John Goudy said the experience was "just horrible"."

So the new year begins.

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Labels: Australian Bushfires

Labels: Australian Bushfires, Firefighter Bloggers

I'll post more as I can and will focus on the Southern Hemisphere, particularly Australia's notorious bushfire season.
I'm attempting to place a new video player on the side panel but there may be compatibility issues with Blogger. We'll see. Here is a direct link to the video player featuring the clip of the fire North of Sydney.

As always this is a work in progress!

Labels: Australian Bushfires