Wildfire Today

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Wildfire Today

Tag: Australia

Firefighters stop a 16,000-acre fire in Western Australia

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,

Bullsbrook fire smoke

Firefighters have stopped the spread of a fire that burned 16,300 acres (6,600 hectares) in Western Australia north of Perth. At one point the fire was described as having an 18-kilometer wide front.

Bullsbrook fire map

Below is an excerpt from an article at Australia’s ABC news, published Sunday morning MST in the US:

A bushfire in the northern Perth suburb of Bullsbrook has been downgraded to a watch and act after firefighters controlled the blaze.

The fire was upgraded to an emergency warning on Sunday, after a wind change drove the blaze north-east, but at 9:00pm (AWST) the Department of Fire and Emergency (DFES) advised the fire was contained and stationary.

“Firefighters have been working very, very hard over night, strengthening containment lines – they’ve actually widened them considerably,” Mr Allen Gale, spokesman for WA’s DFES said.

“That’ll reduce the risk of fire hopping over into another area, particularly an area where there’s unburnt fuel.”

However, the fire is still not contained and remains a possible threat to lives and homes, the DFES said. Firefighters are expecting the wind to shift from south-westerly to easterly overnight, which means the fire may be moving in a westerly direction by morning.

Mr Gale confirmed it could be days before the fire is blacked out completely.

So far the fire has burnt 6,600 hectares of land and damaged two derelict homes and five sheds. On Sunday afternoon there was a risk the northern flank could become the new head of the fire and push north into suburbs including Chittering and Muchea, the Department of Fire and Emergency (DFES) said.

The video below shows a map of the fire from many different angles:

Bullsbrook fire radar Bullsbrook fire camels

Firefighters entrapped in engine near Perth, Australia

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , ,
Bindoon Bushfire Brigade truck damaged
The fire-damaged Toyota Land Cruiser, of the Bindoon Bushfire Brigade in Western Australia. Photo: Department of Fire and Emergency Services

From The Guardian:

“Two volunteer firefighters were trapped in a burning ute while fighting a bushfire at a Department of Defence facility east of Perth [ in Western Australia (WA)] on Tuesday. Emergency services minister Joe Francis said the Bindoon Bushfire Brigade volunteers were forced to shelter in their LandCruiser after being surrounded by flames.

It’s one of the most potentially serious incidents survived by firefighters in a week that has seen 40 firefighters injured while fighting the Sampson Flat fire in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, and a Victorian firefighter receive facial burns while fighting a grassfire.

Francis said he did not yet know how the volunteers had become trapped or why they were working in an area that became dangerous.

“Any fire is unfortunately very unpredictable in its behaviour,” he said.

“They were in a situation where they could not move their light tanker out of the way of the fire, the fire came towards them, and they deployed their fire protection gear.

“I can tell you they were in a situation they couldn’t get out of, otherwise they would have just driven away.”

Francis said the volunteer firefighters were “unharmed but very shaken”. The Department of Fire and Emergency Services is conducting a review into the incident.

The light tanker they were driving – a LandCruiser ute with a 600 litre tank on the back – is one of the WA fire trucks that has been fitted with extensive crew protection gear after the death of a firefighter in a burnover incident near Albany in 2012.

Wendy Bearfoot, 45, died and several other firefighters were injured after their trucks were trapped during the Black Cat Creek fire.

A Dfes review of the Albany incident found that WA was “out of step” with other states in providing crew protection in vehicles, and said all vehicles entering the fire ground should have one fire blanket per person and roll-down radiant heat shields “as a minimum requirement.”

The Barnett government committed to fulfil that recommendation at the 2013 state election. Francis said that so far all 1,200 fire trucks in WA had heat blankets, and “a few hundred” had heat shields and critical component lagging, which protects the electrical and mechanical components of the truck. He said the full fleet would be protected by the 2017 election.

The state opposition has criticised the government for the time taken to install adequate fire protection.”

Bushfires kill, but knowing exactly how might make them less deadly

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 1 Comment on Bushfires kill, but knowing exactly how might make them less deadly

The article below, dated January 8, 2015, was written by Justin Leonard, of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia.

****

The latest round of bushfires, which claimed 27 homes in the Adelaide Hills, has once again highlighted the importance of planning for the worst. Mercifully, no human lives were lost, and it will be important to learn whatever lessons we can to avoid future tragedies.

My colleagues and I analysed 825 deaths in 260 Australian bushfires from 1901 to 2011, and our research has revealed some compelling evidence to help guide residents to plan for future bushfires.

Justin LeonardMost people (58%) lost their lives when caught out in the open. Strikingly, 72% of those people were within 200 m of their own homes (this statistic is based only on cases where details are accurately known).

I encourage you to imagine what circumstances and decisions might have led to these outcomes. Do a large number of people simply wait to see if the fire is really going to arrive on their doorstep?

Bushfire deaths within a house are most prevalent during our most severe fire events, representing 75% of all fatalities during bushfires that occurred on days with “catastrophic” (code red) fire danger conditions. This is despite them representing only 27% of all bushfire deaths.

Of those who died inside homes, 92% were in rooms that did not have a door that led directly to the exterior of the house (once again, this is based only on cases where circumstances are accurately known). This raises uncomfortable questions: why did these people apparently not try to leave the home as the house fire developed? Were they monitoring the conditions outside as the fire passed? Had they thought about which exit was the safest?

Homes under attack

When a fire arrives at a property, the house will experience “ember attack”. This attack is strongest as the main fire arrives and will persist for a long time after it has passed, and may also start to happen before the fire actually arrives. If the house is close enough to the bush it may also be affected by radiant heat, and if very close then direct flame contact is possible, although most houses are lost without any direct interaction from a bushfire front – which goes some way to account for the seemingly random loss patterns that occur.

Continue reading “Bushfires kill, but knowing exactly how might make them less deadly”

Excellent helmet cam footage of fire near Adelaide, Australia

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 3 Comments on Excellent helmet cam footage of fire near Adelaide, Australia

Shot by volunteer firefighter, Ben Wilson, aka Bilson Photography, on Friday the 2nd of January, 2015. As seen on South Australian News.

The video shows some very good nozzle work and the value of quick-connect hose fittings. It could be a good training film for fighting fire in the wildland-urban interface.

South Australia: 30 homes feared burned in bushfires

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,
South Africa bushfire
Photo by PressTV.

From the BBC:

More than 30 homes are feared destroyed in South Australia as crews continue to battle out-of-control bushfires. More than 800 firefighters are tackling the blazes, which have been burning for several days in the hills around the city of Adelaide. Officials say the fires are the worst in the area since the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983, which left 75 dead.

Cooler weather may help firefighters tame the flames, which have been fanned by high winds and temperatures.

But South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill said the situation remained critical.

“We’re by no means through this particular emergency,” he said.

The two large air tankers under contract in Australia were recently relocated from Avalon to Edinburgh, presumably to be closer to the fires near Adelaide.

South Australia: bushfire causes thousands to evacuate

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags ,
south australia firefighters
New South Wales firefighters en route to assist in South Australia.

Thousands of Australians fled their homes Saturday as strong winds pushed bushfires across vast stretches of South Australia and Victoria.

From the BBC:

Firefighters are battling out-of-control bushfires threatening homes in South Australia and Victoria.

Police have declared a major emergency and told residents that their lives are at risk.

South Australia’s fire chief said the blazes in the Adelaide Hills, northeast of Adelaide city, were the worst since the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983.

Those fires left 75 people dead and caused devastation across parts of Victoria and South Australia.

“At the moment, we have a fire which is extremely dangerous and it is burning under extremely adverse conditions,” South Australia fire chief Greg Nettleton was quoted as saying.

“Right at this moment, residents in the Adelaide Hills are being confronted by a fire which hasn’t been seen in the hills since the 1983 bushfires of Ash Wednesday,” Nettleton said.

Crews have also been fighting bushfires in Victoria but all warnings have now been downgraded as a cold front moves into the area.

“Hopefully tomorrow and the next few days the fire danger will ease as this cold front passes through Victoria,” a spokesman from the area’s fire authority told ABC news.

So far about five homes have been confirmed destroyed but authorities said that dozens more were feared lost.