Tag: Australia
Homes burn and firefighters entrapped in Victoria’s bushfires
Firefighters in Victoria, Australia have been very busy in recent days fighting numerous bushfires. Approximately 10 homes and 23 outbuildings have burned.
The Guardian reports that three crews from the Country Fire Authority were overrun by fire.
…Three CFA crews, in two separate incidents, were lucky to escape when their vehicles became trapped when a storm cell ran into the smoke plume at Scotsburn, pushing the fire to the west while the winds came from the north.
“That actually caught firefighters out,” Lapsley said.
The trapped crews activated the sprinklers over the trucks and huddled under fire retardant blankets until the danger had passed.
New South Wales fire mapping
The image above was distributed by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, showing a map of the Gold Mine Road Fire 17 km southwest of Towamba in the Yambulla State Forest. The map is part of the agency’s Common Operating Picture.
It was apparently obtained by infrared equipment that processed the data in a format we have not seen publicly in the United States. The black lines are most likely the path of the line scanner as the mirror rotated at thousands of RPM in a fixed wing aircraft. It’s interesting that the target discrimination marks (TDMs) only appear at the ends of each line, rather than at every heat source. The intensity of the heat is represented by a range of orange and yellow colors.
The U.S. Forest Service has been mapping fires with infrared equipment for at least four decades, but the folks down under also have very advanced IR systems.
10-year old praised for making bushfire preparedness video
When 10-year Toby Douglas’ house was threatened by a bushfire in New South Wales in 2013 he made this stop-action video to help make residents aware of an app distributed by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service and of the importance of having a bushfire survival plan. Last month the video was uploaded to YouTube, garnering much attention and praise for the young filmmaker.
30 fires burning across New South Wales
Firefighters in New South Wales, Australia, are battling 30 fires in their state, 17 of which are uncontrolled.
Below is an excerpt from an article at ABC news:
The Hunter region fire is burning west of Teralba on Rhondda Road behind a quarry and is sending large amounts of smoke over the area.
Paul Best from the RFS said the fire was being pushed east by westerly winds.“People in Teralba might start seeing some embers falling and they’ll definitely be seeing smoke,” he said.
“There has been a request for aircraft and there will be some aircraft attending that fire.”
A separate bushfire in the Upper Hunter is still burning near the Goulburn River National Park, covering 25 hectares. More than 20 firefighters are on the ground fighting the blaze at Gungal, with four aircraft involved in the operation. Strong winds are producing unfavourable conditions, pushing the fire closer to the national park.
Firefighters are also battling a blaze at Budda Creek, in remote bushland within Yengo National Park, in the Hawkesbury region of Sydney. That fire had burnt more than 220 hectares, the RFS said.
There are two fires burning in a similar vicinity, started by lighting strikes from storms that went through the area yesterday.
RFS Inspector Ben Shepherd said there would be a large concentration of firefighting efforts in the Hawkesbury region in the coming weeks, with large fires burning in the area.
The NSW RFS video below is from the Budda Creek Fire near Hawkesbury.
Fire Aviation has two videos of a DC-10 air tanker dropping on fires in New South Wales.
Two killed in South Australia bushfire
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized2 Comments on Two killed in South Australia bushfire From 9News:
“At least two people are dead and 13 people remain in hospital, five of them in serious or critical conditions, after yesterday’s devastating Pinery bushfire in South Australia.
South Australian premier Jay Weatherill confirmed “grave fears” were held for more people, with the full cost of the blaze still to unfold.
Watch the TODAY Show [for live stream occasional coverage of] the latest fire updates.
“We can’t be sure we have identified every single person in the fireground,” Mr Weatherill told a press conference this morning.
A 56-year-old woman was killed in a car in Hamley Bridge, while the body of 69-year-old man was found in a paddock in Pinery. Their families have been notified. Thirteen people remain in hospital, five of those of whom are in serious or critical conditions. One of those has burns to around 80 percent of their body. At least two of those injured
At least 16 homes have been destroyed.”
