Wildfire Today

NSW Premier says “there isn’t much left” of Balmoral

Bill GabbertDecember 22, 2019December 22, 2019WildfireAustralia, New South Wales1 Comment

A survivor rode out the fire storm in a coffin-sized kiln

Many structures have been destroyed by the rapidly spreading Green Wattle Creek bushfire in the small community of Balmoral, New South Wales. Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said “there isn’t much left” of the town in the Southern Highlands 49 air miles southwest of Sydney, Australia.

The fire burned through Balmoral twice, once on Thursday and again Saturday when it was pushed by strong winds that accompanied a frontal passage. The town, population 426 in the 2016 census, has about 150 homes.

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service reports that the Green Wattle Creek Bushfire has burned 474,000 acres. About 12km to the north is a huge blaze that is the product of four bushfires burning together — Gospers Mountain, Kerry Ridge, Little L Complex, and Three Mile. These five fires southwest and northwest of Sydney have burned a total of 2,228,000 acres (926,000 hectares).

Satellite photo of Balmoral, NSW. Google Earth. Jan. 3, 2019

As the Green Wattel Creek Bushfire burned through Balmoral Steve Harrison, a 67-year old artist, a potter, survived by climbing into a small kiln.

The day before I had actually built myself a small kiln down the back — a coffin-sized kiln — just big enough for me to crawl inside. I was in there for half an hour while the firestorm went over. That was my plan B.

Previously he had installed pumps and sprinklers to protect his home. Before the fire approached he and his wife wrapped their home in aluminum foil. The house survived, but his potting shed was destroyed.

Aviation rescue crews from the military have been checking homes and removing people at risk when there is no other option.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Tom. Typos or errors, report them HERE.

Changes at Wildfire Today

Bill GabbertDecember 21, 2019December 21, 2019Uncategorized10 Comments

You might have noticed that there have been some changes at Wildfire Today over the last week. I wanted the site to load faster and it needed a facelift so I hired a graphic artist and a software developer to tweak the layout, the back end, and the header at the top of the page .

We didn’t shut down the site to do this, so you might have seen some unusual behavior off and on. It was kind of like changing the oil strainer on a Martin Mars while in flight.

I think it’s very close to complete, but if you run across something that appears to be broken or does not work well, let us know in a comment on this article, or contact us by email.

Here is a list of what has changed:

Faster. The site loads more quickly.
New Site Search. The previous Google-powered search function that showed ads is replaced by a customized advanced search with filters; pull-down lists that can help zero in on what you’re searching for. You don’t have to select any of the filter items; you can simply enter a term in the search box. You may restrict the search to a particular year or a month. On the “Countries” list the United States is not listed, so if that’s where you think the target may be, just leave that at “Countries”. If you want to narrow the search to one of the other 10 countries in the pull-down list, you’re free to do that. Provinces in Canada and Australia are in the “States/Pr” list along with the 50 U.S. states. “Topics” is a selection of 21 of the most commonly used tags (what the article is about). Tags make it easier for you (and Google) to search for a topic. To date we have used over 1,500 different tags. Some are obviously used more often than others.
Sort by seven commonly used topics. In main navigation at the top of the page you can click on “Articles” to see posts on one of seven of the most-frequent topics, including recent fires. It uses tags that are applied to articles. Not all articles on Wildfire Today are represented by these seven tags.
Lazy Loading of images. The images “lazy load”. That is, the ones that are lower down don’t load into your browser until it appears that you are about to scroll down to display that image. So initially you only load what you need, then the loading stops. As you scroll down, more images download. You don’t have to download six articles if you’re only going to view one or two.
New Header. The header image at the top of the page is new and consumes less vertical real estate.
The main navigation (Home, Articles, Documents, etc.) was moved to the very top of the page and embedded in a dark background. It now remains visible as you scroll down the page.
Less white space. There is less empty space at the top of the home page, and the mostly empty column on the left is gone.
Info at top of article. Below the headline for each article you will now see the original posting date for the article, the category if applicable, tags, and a link to view or leave comments.

Fires west of Sydney burn over 2 million acres

Bill GabbertDecember 21, 2019December 21, 2019WildfireAustralia, megafire, New South Wales2 Comments

The Gospers Mountain Fire northwest of Sydney, Australia has burned 1.1 million acres

bushfires New South Wales map satellite photo — Satellite photo showing smoke from bushfires in New South Wales, Australia Dec. 21, 2019 local time.

Firefighters in New South Wales, Australia had another challenging day Saturday as a weather front came through which changed the wind direction. The 17 mph northeast wind shifted at about 5 p.m. local time to come out of the south at 36 gusting to 45. The only factor that was in their favor was the relative humidity was not extremely low — 46 percent rising to 80 percent after the frontal passage.

Major changes in wind direction can force a wildfire to begin spreading in a different direction. If it is unexpected, firefighters at the heel of a fire can suddenly be facing a fire spreading toward them. On the Yarnell Hill Fire in 2013 a passing thunderstorm forced a wind direction change that entrapped and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. The wind shift in New South Wales Saturday was predicted — as was the passage of the thunderstorm at Yarnell Hill.

Very early Sunday morning local time the New South Wales Rural Fire service provided updated information: “Both the Gospers Mountain fire in the Hawkesbury area and the Currowan fire in the Shoalhaven area have been downgraded to Watch and Act. The winds from the southerly change have now eased, reducing the erratic fire behaviour.”

The largest fire in NSW started two months ago. The huge Gospers Mountain Fire northwest of Sydney has burned 1,156,000 acres. It has merged with three other fires, Kerry Ridge, Little L Complex, and Three Mile, to cover a total of 1,742,000 acres. The Green Wattle Creek Fire southwest of Sydney has been mapped at 467,000 acres to bring the five-fire total to 2,209,000. If they continue spreading as they have for weeks, the Green Wattle Creek Fire could merge with the other four.

We tend to call fires that reach 100,000 acres “megafires”. We need a new term for million-acre fires.

This is not normal.

bushfires New South Wales map — Map of bushfires in New South Wales showing projected spread and ember attack, Dec. 21, 2019.

There are other large fires north and south of Sydney and also in Eastern Victoria.

And then there is Western Australia. Last weekend the country’s new-to-them 737 air tanker, N137CG, flew 2,000 miles west across the continent to assist firefighters dealing with a fire about 100 miles south of Perth.

There were more injuries to firefighters Saturday, including one who was hit by a car during very smoky conditions. Thankfully he was not seriously injured.

Very impressive fire behavior in New South Wales https://t.co/PyM3vpIKNe

— Wildfire Today ? (@wildfiretoday) December 21, 2019

Saturday in New South Wales to be “tough day” for firefighters

Bill GabbertDecember 20, 2019WildfireNew South Wales, South Australia

Projected fire spread December 21, 2019. NSW RFS.

From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

“Today is going to be a tough day,” New South Wales Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said Saturday morning.

He said temperatures are expected to soar above 40C, humidity is predicted to drop below 10 per cent and there will be average winds of 30 to 40 kilometers, with gusts of up to 75 kilometers per hour.

“That’s obviously going to be very dangerous in areas where we have active fires.”

He said there are already “significant fires burning” in the Shoalhaven, Illawarra and Southern Ranges areas where the catastrophic fire ratings were issued.

“We can’t guarantee that every time someone wants a fire truck, we can’t get one there. Don’t expect a plane to be overhead straight away and don’t expect a helicopter. Don’t wait for a warning. Think about what you are going to do if you are in the path of the fires.”

The RFS said conditions will deteriorate around lunch time and if anyone is planning on leaving or moving around, they should do so before midday.

Five firefighters in Australia entrapped, with three suffering burns

Bill GabbertDecember 20, 2019December 20, 2019WildfireAustralia, entrapment, injury, New South Wales

Two of them were airlifted to a hospital

map fires Australia December 19 — The red dots represent heat detected on bushfires by a satellite at 1740Z December 19, 2019. NASA.

In addition to the rollover of a fire truck on December 19 in New South Wales that killed two firefighters and injured three, in a separate incident the same day five firefighters were entrapped by fire, injuring three firefighters. Two males, age 36 and 56, were airlifted to a hospital after suffering face, airway, and other burns.

“Given the serious potential for airway burns, the advice is… they’ll be intubated,” said New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons

A third person, a 28-year-old female, was transported by ground ambulance after suffering smoke inhalation and less severe burns.

Both incidents occurred on the Green Wattle Creek Bushfire in the Lake Burragorang area. The fire is more than 176,000 hectares (435,000 acres) in size and is out of control.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Karl. Typos or errors, report them HERE.

Firefighters killed in New South Wales identified

Bill GabbertDecember 20, 2019December 20, 2019WildfireAustralia, lodd, New South Wales5 Comments

They were members of the Horsley Park Brigade

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) has identified the two volunteer firefighters that were killed December 19 while working on the Green Wattle Creek Bushfire near Buxton in southwestern Sydney.

Firefighter Andrew O’Dwyer, 36, joined the Service in 2003, and is a member of the Horsley Park Rural Fire Brigade.

Andrew O'Dwyer firefighter killed — Andrew O’Dwyer with his daughter Charlotte.

Firefighter Geoffrey Keaton, 32, joined the Service in 2006 and is a Deputy Captain of Horsley Park Rural Fire Brigade, and a former member of Plumpton Brigade.

Geoffrey Keaton firefighter killed — Geoffrey Keaton and his son Harvey.

A spokesperson for the the NSW RFS said, “That tree came down in front of that truck, the truck impacted that tree and then rolled resulting in fatalities to two of our firefighters.”

The incident occurred just before midnight at the end of a long shift. Both of them, members of the Horsley Park Brigade, were in the front seat of the truck and died at the scene. Three other passengers were injured and treated at the scene by paramedics.

RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said, “They work together, socialize together, they’re very interactive together. Their respective partners and wives shared a lot in common with their camaraderie and connection with the brigade,” he said.

“Geoff has a young son Harvey, and Andrew has a young daughter Charlotte, and both of those children were born two days apart back in May so they’re 19 months of age, which is just terrible.”

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said: “I don’t think you can think of a worse set of circumstances to see two young fathers lose their lives in this way.”

On the night of Mr. Keaton’s death, his father John was fighting a a very large fire in Gospers Mountain northwest of Sydney, while his son was at the Green Wattle Creek Fire.

Andrew O'Dwyer fire truck — Andrew O’Dwyer (far left) is seen with colleagues in front of the truck he was riding in at the time of the accident.

The NSW RFS has created a dedicated bank account to collect donations for the families.

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