A firefighter in Western Australia was killed by a falling tree branch at 10:30 a.m. Friday morning near the city of Quindanning (map). Here is an excerpt from a report in the Sydney Morning Herald:
The Association of Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades has expressed concern for volunteer firefighters and urged diligence, following the death of a firefighter on Friday.
Sixty-year-old Hori Clarke died when he was hit by a falling limb while clearing burnt trees and rubble with volunteer firefighters in Quindanning, in the state’s south.
AVBF president Mr Terry Hunter, who called Mr Clarke “a member of the AVBFB family”, said the tragedy was a difficult reminder of the many risks volunteers were exposed to every day when they went to work for their local communities.
Our sincere condolences go out to the family of Mr. Clarke and his co-workers.
Fire near Burrinjuck Dam, Australia, January 8, 2013. NASA photo by Astronaut Chris Hadfield
A large bushfire moving slowly to the north is impacting Mirranatwa in the Victoria Valley of Australia (map). Three fires have merged into one and are now being managed as the Grampians-Victoria Valley Complex of fires. As of 2:48 a.m. Tuesday February 19 local time it had burned 6,029 hectares (14,897 acres) according to the Country Fire Authority (CFA). The complex includes the fires formerly known as Clutterbucks Road, Jensens Road and Burnt Hut Track.
Personnel from CFA, Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria are concentrating on structure protection.
Here is a link to a CFA map of the fire.
Below is an interesting video report about the fire by News.Com.Au (where you can see a larger version of the video image):
Last week Wildfire Today reported on the possible closing of Australia’s Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre due to a lack of funding. The federal government has reversed their stance and is prepared to provide $47 million for another eight years of financing beginning July 1, while expanding their role to include floods, earthquakes, cyclones and tsunamis. The Centre has been actively involved in researching bushfire-fighting technology, extreme fire behavior, firefighter safety, and prescribed burning strategies. Shutting it down would be similar to the United States government closing the Fire Sciences Laboratories in Missoula and Riverside.
In order for the Centre to remain open, the states and territories will have to make similar funding commitments. If it continues to exist, it will be renamed the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.
The Boeing Company has filed patent applications in the United States (#20120261144 A1) and Australia (#2012201025) for an extremely complex, high-tech system to help manage wildland fires. Here is the complete abstract that, uh, sort of, describes the idea:
A method and apparatus for managing fires. A computer system is configured to receive fire related information from at least a first portion of a plurality of assets and analyze the fire-related information to generate a result. The computer system is configured to coordinate an operation of a second portion of the plurality of assets using the result.
Got that?
In studying the application, here’s what I was able to decipher. It would utilize many, many sensors and sources of information on the ground and in the air to detect new fires, coordinate fire resources, predict fire spread, develop a plan for containing the fire, help keep firefighters safe, and monitor the fire. It could even:
…analyze fire-related information to identify an undesired condition resulting from a fire for an operator at a location and direct heterogeneous group of vehicles to obtain information about the fire at the location. In particular, heterogeneous group of vehicles may be directed to obtain information relating to at least one of the safety of the operator at the location and containment of the fire at the location.
Sadly, the entire document is written like that. If I interpret it correctly, the system could detect that a firefighting resource was in an unsafe location based on the fire situation and proactively assign resources to collect information to help mitigate the “undesired condition”.
The system would gather information such as this, or from these sources:
Smoke levels
Carbon dioxide levels
Positioning data
Still images
Video
Infrared images
Weather data
Vegetation data
Satellite imagery
Historical data
Geographical information
Computer models
Manned and unmanned ground and aerial vehicles
Personnel
Radar systems
GPS
It would then go through a process similar to this, which is an image from Boeing’s patent application:
The bottom line? If it works, it might be very useful. Could the U.S. government afford it? Hell no.
DSE can now confirm the sad news of the death of two DSE fire-fighters at the Harrietville – Alpine North fire ground. Victoria Police investigators believe the colleagues were in their emergency vehicle, which was struck by a falling tree about 3.35pm today – Wednesday 13 February. Emergency services attempted to attend the scene but due to fire and difficult conditions in the immediate area were unable to. They reached the scene around 8.10pm. The deceased man is believed to be in his 30s from Corryong and the woman in her late teens, from Tallandoon. DSE is working closely with Victoria Police and our thoughts are with the families of our two DSE staff members, our staff and the community during this difficult time.
Our sincere condolences go out to the firefighter’s families and coworkers.
Screen shot of the FireReady app as seen on an Android device, not an iPhone
The Country Fire Authority (CFA) in Victoria, Australia has warned users of their mobile app that if they are using an iPhone or iPad with the most recent operating system, iOS6, some towns are not located correctly on the maps provided by Apple.
The FireReady app is designed to deliver timely information about bushfires and other emergencies to smartphone owners in Victoria. It can provide push notifications to let you know if there is a fire near your location.
Users report that some towns are located on their maps at the center of the district rather than the actual location. The CFA has contacted Apple Australia a number of times but they have not provided a solution. This is not just a problem for the FireReady Apple app, but similar inaccuracies have been found world-wide in Apple Maps. In November Apple fired two key managers responsible for developing the program, including their head of software development, Scott Forstall.
This malfunction only applies to Apple devices which are forced to use the problem-plagued Apple Maps. Those who have Android phones have the luxury of seeing Google Maps displayed by the app.
In addition to providing current information about ongoing bushfires, the app also allows users to upload photos of incidents. Below are two examples that were sent in on February 11 of the Shapparton fire.
