Bush Fires Vic

Big picture gives a detailed view of the sad state the towns affected by bush fires last weekend in Vic is in!

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/bushfires_in_victoria_australi.html

One particular comment, which is in response to a previous comment, I took interest in:

#434. What an absolutely ridiculous comment and one that looks as though it's driven by ignorance. How about showing some empathy? You do understand the nature of bushfire in Australia, and the speed at which it moves? It's different to fire on any other continent. For a start, eucaplypt forest is highly inflammable because it is oil-rich, and there are hundreds of thousands of acres of it, what we call "bushland", and it's near impenetrable.

Australians are used to living with bushfire, and it's just another one of the frightening dimensions we see on this continent when it comes to the dangers of the human/mother nature interface.

Fires that seemed manageable on Saturday afternoon, and were being contained, and were of the kind we're used to dealing with most summers in Australia, were suddenly fanned by a howling south-westerly wind change that reached speeds of 100km/h, broke through containment lines and joined up to form what is known as a megafire. These fires are so intense they create their own weather patterns. They "crown", burning foliage at the top, shooting flames hundreds of feet into the air, and leap across open areas and containment lines. Temperatures at the base are around 900C, and about 2000C - yes, 2000C at the top. They move and destroy with the force of a nuclear blast.

The truth is, it all happened so quickly there wasn't much time to react. No satellite pictures would have made any difference. They were fanned on Saturday by the sudden wind change, and were a direct result of a range of other conditions (sadly, including arson) - including weeks of temperatures in the 40s (celsius), culminating in a maximum on Saturday afternoon of 47.9C at Avalon, outside Melbourne, and very, very low humidity.

Under Victorian state legislation, homeowners are allowed to lodge a fireplan to defend their homes, that requires a whole range of options that would normally help to make their homes safe in any normal bushfire. This wasn't normal. People who'd stayed to defend their homes report the sky suddenly turning black and embers and flames being upon them. They were the lucky ones. The others tried to run when they realised how ferocious the fires were and died in houses and cars.

You simply couldn't defend against this. It was the perfect firestorm, and one that broke the parameters of anything seen anywhere, including outside Australia, before.

Suggesting that lack of notification was the key factor in the deaths shows ignorance a) of the nature of this particular firestorm and b) the laws that require Victorians to make an early choice - to stay and fight or to move early to shelter.

Some actually died sheltering, such was the intensity of the inferno, and once the wind changed, and the fires merged, in the Strathewen Valley - the valley of death is what firefighters have called it - they were surrounded by "megafire' and there was no way out.

Triple-O operators, the equivalent of the US 911 emergency call, were actually on the line to people who had earlier thought they were safe but were now dying as they spoke as the megafire bore down on them.

You are completely downplaying the truth because you appear not to know the truth, nor do you appear to understand the true horror and the nature of what occurred here on Saturday. These weren't some meandering fires that you could just leaisurely pack up and drive away from.

And certainly the pictures do tell the story.