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.
The Supreme Court in Victoria, Australia has approved a payout of A$494 million ($406 million) to survivors and families after 119 people were killed, more than 1,000 injured, 125,000 hectares (309,000 acres) burned, and 1,172 homes and properties were destroyed in a bushfire in Victoria on February 7, 2009.
Below are excerpts from an article at ABC.net.au:
The action, which involved about 5,000 people, was taken against power distributor SP AusNet and asset manager Utility Services Group. The defendants have denied liability.
The case came about after the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission found the Kilmore East-Kinglake bushfire was caused by an ageing SP AusNet power line.
Parties including SP AusNet and the Victorian Government had agreed to the $500 million settlement but it required the court’s approval.
SP AusNet has agreed to pay $378.6 million, while Utility Services Corporation Ltd will pay $12.5 million.
The Victorian Government, which includes Victoria Police and the Country Fire Authority, have agreed to pay $103.6 million.
At least one of the fires exhibited very extreme fire behavior, as we reported on May 21, 2009. Fire behavior expert Dr. Kevin Tolhurst determined that spot fires occurred a record 35 kilometers (21 miles) ahead of the main fire.
Scam Alert: Investigators for the RCPD would like to inform the public of a possible scam targeting local businesses. An individual has been soliciting donations for an organization called ‘Atta Katta Wildland Fire Suppression.’ The Rapid City Police Department has reason to believe that this organization is fraudulent. If you’ve been solicited for a donation to this organization, please contact Sgt. Warren Poches at 394.4134.
Moonlight fire scandal continues to grow
The accusations of prosecutorial abuse, fraud, and government coverups related to the 2007 Moonlight Fire in northern California are gathering more nationwide attention. Here is how an article by Kathleen Parker begins:
First there’s the spark, then the conflagration, followed by the litigation and then, surely, the movie. Call it “Moonlight Fire,” and prepare to suspend disbelief. The story is a doozy — a tale of corruption, prosecutorial abuse, alleged fraud upon the court, and possible government cover-ups in the service of power and greed. All the script needs is a Forest Service employee urinating on his bare feet in his lookout tower just as the fire was beginning.
What?!
This is what a real-life ranger discovered when she went to the tower to pick up a radio for repair. She also reported spotting a small glass pipe and smelling marijuana. As for the urinary exercise, the lookout said he was treating his athlete’s foot. But of course.
So goes one of the more colorful anecdotes surrounding the 2007 California wildfire that burned up to 65,000 acres — 45,000 of them on federal land — in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains…
A fierce wildfire that scorched part of Yosemite National Park burned less intensely in places that had fires in recent years – a finding that researchers said Wednesday supports a belief that controlled burning often curtails extreme fires.
The U.S. Forest Service study focused on areas of the Rim Fire that burned 400 square miles in Stanislaus National Forest, Yosemite’s backcountry and private timber land.
It was the largest fire in the recorded history of the Sierra Nevada. It destroyed 11 homes and cost more than $125 million to fight.
Areas hit by the Rim Fire within Yosemite had burned within 14 years and experienced less intense flames, said U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station, which authored the study.
Researchers recommend that forestry agencies with shared borders and interests combine their efforts to conduct controlled burns during moderate weather conditions, giving them the best chance for to avoid massive high-intensity fires.
Night flying helicopters in southern California
An article at The Coast News reports on the two night-flying helicopters operated by the city of San Diego.
10-year high for people charged with lighting fires in Victoria
The number of charges for lighting fires on days of total fire ban or during bushfire danger periods has reached a 10-year high, as police crack down on the foolishness that has sparked destructive blazes since Black Saturday.
There were 227 charges for lighting a fire on a total fire ban day or in a fire danger period last year, an increase of more than 17 per cent compared to the previous year and more than five times the number recorded in 2010-11.
While most of the fires raging in Victoria this week are believed to have started because of lightning strikes, Emergency Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said some of the 350 blazes burning on Wednesday would have been caused by people ignoring the volatile conditions.
“It wouldn’t all be lightning. There would have been some foolish behaviour…
Homes burn in Victoria bushfire
Four homes burned in a bushfire in the Creighton’s Creek area of Victoria. State Control Centre spokesperson Leigh Miezis said 1,500 firefighters are currently battling the blaze.
The video below was filmed by Jacob Haddrill in Creightons Creek. He saved his cattle but his feed and fencing was damaged in the fire.
In spite of these very impressive photos of a bushfire in Australia, the reports we have seen indicate that it started Sunday morning and had been knocked down but not contained by nightfall — no homes had been lost at that time. The fire was fought by several fire crews and water-dropping helicopters. It burned at least 140 hectares (346 acres) northeast of Perth in Western Australia.
Bushfire northeast of Perth in Western Australia. Photo by Cate White.
A firefighter was killed December 9 in South Australia. Below is an excerpt from an article at news.com.au:
Country Fire Service volunteer Brian Johnston would have marked 50 years of fighting fires in 2015 — a heroic milestone cut short by a tragic accident Tuesday afternoon.
The 65-year-old, who was a member of the Millicent Brigade and Deputy Group Officer of Wattle Range, was killed when he was hit by a truck while preparing to fight a grass fire at Rendelsham in the state’s Southeast late yesterday afternoon.
Mr Johnston was standing behind the CFS utility he had been driving on the Southern Ports Highway, about 12km northwest of Millicent, and preparing to fight a fire when another truck attending the blaze crashed into him.
Shortly before the crash, at about 4.30pm on Tuesday, CFS fire trucks had been called to a grass fire in the area.
Mr Johnston, who had retired just 12 months ago from an extensive career at the Kimberley Clark mill in Millicent was the second CFS volunteer to be killed this year, after father-of-two Andrew Harrison was killed while fighting a fire at Nantawarra in October.
CFS chief officer Greg Nettleton said the tragedy had happened in low visibility, due to smoke from a the nearby fire Mr Johnston was fighting.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Johnston’s family and co-workers.
