Tuesday 30th of April 2024
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decisions of the local idiots...

pyros

Firefighters are overstretched and facing a “desperate” summer, according to New South Wales Rural Fire Service group captains who have lambasted the state government over what they see as cuts to the organisation’s salaried staff.

Phil Holding, of the RFS south-west slopes zone, told Guardian Australia the NSW government was run by people who “don’t have the faintest clue” about firefighting, resulting in “big holes” in the fire service’s ability to function effectively.

“The premier has decided to have 10% savings from each department, which means getting rid of paid workers and leaving big holes in what’s left,” Holding said.

“Paid staff are a small proportion of the RFS but they provide the logistical support that’s essential. We’ve just lost our trainer of cadets, which I’m very annoyed about. That person has now gone, so there will be less training of cadets and without a culture of volunteering in schools, we’ll end up like other countries and have no one wanting to volunteer.

“That will be insane. It will basically mean that no one will be able to live in the mountains any more because it is completely uneconomical to pay all of the firefighters.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/07/bushfires-group-captains-angry-cuts

 

after hot spring?... burning summer?

 

"It's going to be wet, it's not going to be extremely wet," Dr Zmijewski said.

As of Thursday afternoon, NSW had 45 fires burning, 17 were yet to be contained, a spokesman for the Rural Fire Service said.

The rain will also cool daytime temperatures, which have continued to exceed long-term averages. The rain should also help farmers, with upper-soil moisture levels very low across much of NSW, according to the Australian Water Availability Project run by the CSIRO.

Record warm spring

Downtown Sydney is expecting a maximum of 27 degrees on Thursday, with a revised forecast of 31 and 25 degrees for Friday and Saturday before a maximum of 20 on Sunday. Penrith, in the city's west, will record 35, 38 and 29 degrees from Thursday to Saturday.

This month Sydney's daytime temperatures have been closer to the long-run average of 23.6 degrees for November and are not likely like match the abnormally warm maximums reported for the past four months, Mr Domensino said.

Even so, the rest of November needs to average just 22.4 degrees each day – well below average – for Sydney to avoid recording its hottest ever spring, said Aaron Coutts-Smith, head of climate monitoring at the Bureau of Meteorology.

So far this spring, average maximums are running at about 25 degrees; the previous record high was 24.2 degrees, set for the September-November period in 2002.

“After the hottest September and the second-hottest October, there's not a whole lot of work to be done to get to the hottest spring on record,” Mr Domensino said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/rain-to-douse-fires-cool-record-spring-heat-20131107-2x334.html#ixzz2jxNrWZnW

 

ill-equipped...

...

It holds 3,500 litres of water, plus a 40 litre foam concentrator storage unit.

There are several problems in using standardized, commercial, truck cabs and chassis units as a basis for frontline Bushfire Vehicles.  These shortcomings have been detailed in a 1999 paper by Bruce Paix, entitled Improving Burnover Protection for Australian Bushfire Appliances:

In this paper, weaknesses were identified in the following vehicle elements:

1. Vehicle Cabins: Windows and Door Trims

Commercial truck cabs have flammable vinyl/synthetic interiors. These can ignite and/or smoulder, giving off toxic vapours and smoke, forcing the fire-fighters to abandon their vehicle, which may well be their only refuge.

Vehicles such as the Leopard, Fireking and the Marder variants do not have“door trim” or “synthetic interiors” as they are designed to operate in dangerous fireground environments.

The Fireking has a specially designed interior that does not flame or produce toxic vapours. It also has no side doors, so there is no risk of door seals catching on fire and penetrating the cab.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/fighting-bushfires-in-australia-lessons-from-general-monash,5911

 

The same goes with "housing"... Most houses in fire prone environment are built like an urbanised suburbanical brick-veneer bungalow and have nil resistance to fire... If one wants to live in a forested volatile environment in this country one needs to build houses that are "fireproof" or have a bunker that can stand 8 hours of isolation and 48 hours of supplies. This is the future. Global warming is going to create more unpredictable massive fires and one has to come to terms with this.

Concreting the forested areas (which would defeat the purpose of living in forested areas) or build houses that have real resistance to fire (concrete, small windows, concrete slabs and roof, with no guttering, but special channels designed to collect water when it rains to fill tanks (concrete)...

Eventually, the insurance industry won't pay up, the government contribution will dwindle because of the size of disasters everywhere and more deaths will occur... 

bureaucratic delays...

 

Blue Mountains residents are frustrated by bureaucratic delays in letting demolition contracts, and have begun clearing their bushfire-wrecked homes.
In the 39 days since more than 200 houses at Springwood, Winmalee and Mount Victoria were destroyed, no demolition contracts have been let.
Blue Mountains Bushfire Recovery Coordinator Phil Koperberg confirmed on Sunday that at least a dozen householders had not waited for contractors and had started clearing properties.
He said it was difficult to explain the official delays but thought the NSW government had negotiated a better deal with Canberra by not rushing into a cost-sharing decision.

Mr Koperberg said insurers were now on board and it was likely only to be a matter of days before the demolition contracts were let.
"We had a large response to a community meeting at Springwood this morning and, by and large, people seemed happy with the state of progress, given that losing your home is not easy," he said.
However, the Blue Mountains-based Senator Doug Cameron slammed the delays, saying that contracts had been let within eight days of recent Tasmanian bushfires while in Victoria sites were being cleared within 21 days

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/fed-up-bushfire-victims-clear-their-own-homes-20131124-2y3ol.html#ixzz2lYtSqoZn

Gus note: November is on track to become the warmest November on record in Sydney... despite having not had many super-hot days in the last couple of weeks...

 

be prepared...

 

Australian fire services will need to double their numbers of boots on the ground by 2030 to cope with the increased bushfire risk caused by climate change, a new report says.

Be Prepared: The Changing Climate and Australia's Bushfire Threat is the first report from the privately funded Climate Council, born out of the axed Climate Commission.

At the report's launch in Sydney on Monday, co-author Professor Lesley Hughes warned the "context" of fire in Australia was changing.

"We've had since the 1960s ... a doubling in the number of extreme hot days," she said. "And when we get extreme hot days the risk of bushfires is greater."

Australia's south-east and south-west were experiencing "a long-term pattern of drying", putting large populations living near bushland at particular risk, she said.

According to the report, Australia has experienced its hottest 12 months on record and the fire season will continue to extend into October and March in coming years.

The report says by 2030 the number of professional firefighters should double the 2010 numbers, to keep pace with the growing population and bushfire risk.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/09/firefighter-numbers-will-need-to-double-by-2030-climate-council

 

See article at top.... Meanwhile:

An inquiry into a massive bushfire that started on a military base west of the Blue Mountains has heard Defence ignored advice to conduct hazard reduction burns.

It has been almost two months since a fire ignited during explosives training at the Marangaroo Training Base, near Lithgow.

The blaze, also known as the State Mine Fire, began on October 16 and tore through more than 50,000 hectares of bushland, destroying five houses.

It was finally declared extinguished on November 20.

The public inquiry has heard Defence will look at the events surrounding the fire and make recommendations into whether protocols need to be changed to prevent such an incident in the future.

It has heard Defence was warned that the base was at risk from bushfire including a blaze starting from demolition activities.

In his opening address Counsel Assisting Let. Colonel David Jordon said hazard reduction burning had not been done on the base for a considerable amount of time, even though the Rural Fire Service and a consultant suggested it.

He said there is also no permanent fire-fighting capability on the base.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-09/defence-warned-of-risk-before-bushfire/5144022