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):
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.
Gippsland Power Football Club, waiting to be evacuated near Mount Feathertop
An Australian rules football team had to be evacuated by helicopters when they found themselves out ahead of an advancing bushfire in Victoria near Mount Feathertop.
According to the Border Mail, 36 members of the Gippsland Power Football team were training at high altitude and had no choice but to be flown out by helicopters when a bushfre approached their location. They were participating in a preseason training camp at Mount Feathertop, which is 6,300 feet (1,922 M) above sea level.
The fire that threatened the Gippsland Power Football Club. Check out what appears to be flames hundreds of feet above the ground, and a spot fire quite some distance in front of the fire.
Here is an excerpt from an article at the Border Mail:
…[Team doctor Wayne] Thompson said he and the team were on the 22 kilometre Razorback Trail up the mountain and as they started climbing, smoke started getting thicker.
“There was just smoke and all of a sudden the smoke got a bit thicker and then we could see flames,” Mr Thompson said.
Flames were about four kilometres away and with mobile coverage, they were able to keep in contact with emergency services while a helicopter hovered overhead monitoring the fire.
About 3.30pm and with flames only 100 metres away, a bigger helicopter was bought in to airlift 15 people at a time from a track between Federation Hut and Mount Feathertop.
They were taken to Hotham Village along with other hikers that had been rescued.
Mr Thompson said constant contact with emergency services kept any panic at bay.
All of these photos are from the football club’s Facebook page.
A Coulson helicopter, a Sikorsky S-61N, prepares to evacuate the Gippsland Power Football Club
I have to admit, I had to do a little research to find out what Australian rules football is all about. Apparently they use a ball that appears similar to the American football used in the United States, but the game resembles soccer (football in Europe) more than American football. Here’s more from Wikipedia:
Peter Cramer, on the day he was presented an award for 20 years of CFA volunteer service, DSE photo
UPDATE: January 14, 2013. The deceased firefighter has been identified as Peter Ronald Cramer, 61, a 30-year volunteer from the town of Tyers, Victoria about 160km east of Melbourne. The latest information is that he been on foot identifying containment lines before he was found deceased on a track at 5pm on Sunday.
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A firefighter from Gippsland aged in his 60s died Sunday while working on a wildfire in Tasmania. The man was one of 70 from Victoria that had been sent to assist with the suppression of fires raging in the state. News.com.au reported that the firefighter was on foot conducting a backburning operation on the Forcett Fire when he was killed near Taranna, about 30 air miles southeast of Hobart (map).
The firefighter’s family has been notified but his name has not been released to the public.
The Forcett fire started on November 16 and has burned 24,040 hectares (59,404 acres) within a perimeter of 200km. It is being fought by 150 firefighters using 39 tankers and four aircraft.
Our sincere condolences go out to the firefighter’s family and co-workers.
Firefighters patrol a smoky section of Highway 97 on the Wenatchee Complex Fire. Photo by Jim Timaselli, USFS
Wenatchee residents endured heavy smoke
The residents of Wenatchee, Washington were exposed to extremely high levels of wildfire smoke for several weeks in September and October. The Wenatchee Complex fires, started from a storm that produced 4,000 lightning strikes, blackened over 56,000 acres.
According to the Wenatchee World:
… by Sept. 14, there were more than 1,100 micrograms of fine airborne particles per cubic meter. That’s more than eight times the level considered hazardous for human health. (For comparison’s sake, the clear-sky day of Dec. 19 averaged just 8.4 micrograms.)
Wenatchee’s smoke levels remained high for weeks, averaging 200 micrograms daily until Oct. 12 but never reaching that peak again. But in Cashmere, as smoke poured from canyon mouths and settled, 24-hour average particle counts there reached as high as 928 micrograms between Sept. 17 and 22.
Cashmere schools closed for three days while officials struggled to proof them against smoke, which had infiltrated the buildings and reached dangerous accumulations. Parents in other districts opted to remove their kids from school: Between Sept. 9 and Oct. 12, there were 3,400 more student absences in Chelan, Douglas, Kittitas and Okanogan counties than the same period in 2011.
Fire burns DNR facility in Washington
Yesterday a fire in a Department of Natural Resources maintenance facility in Forks, Washington heavily damaged a fire engine and destroyed three pickup trucks. All that was left of the structure was the four walls and a portion of the roof. Some components from the engine may be salvaged even though the roof collapsed onto the truck.
Colorado Springs to hold community wildfire meeting
In the wake of criticism following their management of the Waldo Canyon fire which destroyed 347 homes last June, the Colorado Springs Fire Department has scheduled a community meeting “to increase wildfire awareness and emergency preparedness in the community”, according to a news release from the city. In addition to encouraging their residents in high risk areas to prepare for the inevitable wildfires, the city has a lot of room for improvement in their training and preparedness.
Coulson modifies 2 helicopters for night flying
Coulson Aviation has modified two helicopters so that they can fight fires at night. More information is at FireAviation.com
Extreme fire danger in Victoria
Our friends down under in Victoria will be experiencing extreme bushfire danger in the southwest part of the state on Friday, with the danger in the rest of the state rated as severe. Temperatures will be above 40C (104F) until the middle of next week. Heat health alerts were issued by the chief health officer for the central and north central districts, taking in Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Marysville and other townships.
Video of helicopter crash in ocean off Brazil coast
The four crewmembers of a fire department helicopter walked swam away from their helicopter after it crashed into the ocean off the coast of Copacabana beach in Brazil. Check out the video HERE. The crash occurred while they were attempting to rescue a stranded swimmer.
The Rio de Janeiro state fire department blamed the incident on an undetermined mechanical failure.
