Bushfires near Tolmie

[DanP]

I wonder how many greenies and tree huggers are up there saving the trees?????

HA!!



Rob, Could you head out and find the nearest CFA/DSE bloke and tap him on the shoulder and tell them to get wriggle on? I'm getting smoked out up here...

Dan

PS I hope all those in affected areas are ok. It was pretty gusty up here last night, a nightmare for the fireies.

[dadpad]

I wonder how many greenies and tree huggers are up there saving the trees?????

My older brother is pretty dark green. Grows organic vegetables and saves rainforests. He's also captain of the yack CFA unit. Both his kids are members In fact one of his kids was on the telly doing a news interview from Whitfield or somewhere the other day. We make jokes about how black his overalls get from hugging trees affected by fire. I had to go to his place in '03 to look after it for him when the Mt pilot fire threatened cause he was too busy helping out other people. My brother and his family are some of the most dedicated volunteers I have ever known. they are also greenies.

Whats been your contribution?

[Iain]

Whats been your contribution?

I would imagine very little given his location.

[ozwinner]

The two photos show my temporary workshop .

Strewth Rob sounds as if you want it to burn down!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

Insurance job was it?

Al

[Wood Borer]

Strewth , give me a chance, we have only been here for 4 weeks, do you know how long it took to cultivate those cobwebs in Camberwell?

Al,

Dan, I reckon the smoke will be around for quite some time. It came in here about 1AM yesterday morning and hasn't cleared all day. It was so thick here today, I had trouble seeing the pencil marks on some dovetails I was cutting.

Ernknot, I was so sorry to hear about your fires down there in Tassie and the loss of property. Up here we have been fortunate that very few properties have been lost. I think that is due to being educated by the CFA, having much more warning than the Taswegians, not having the 100 Km/hr winds experienced in Tassie and just good luck.

We are stll safe, the immediate danger has passed up here however we are still being extremely vigilant, nobody up here is being complacent because it could still kick off. The cooler weather (2.5 degrees early this morning) is also giving the firefighters a good chance to backburn to reinforce the fire breaks.

[journeyman Mick]

I wonder how many greenies and tree huggers are up there saving the trees?????

In our local brigades there's a good representation of "greenie" tree huggers, or rather tree planters. We're working with the local treeplanting group to establish green firebreak corridors of rainforest trees which will eventually choke out the guinea grass and form a series of permanent fire breaks.

Heard yesterday that there's been some North Queensland rural firefighters head down south to help with the fires. My name used to be on the list but unfortunately I can't go as I can't leave SWMBO (seriously sick and needs me as carer). Hope weahter conditions improve for all the fire affected areas, but also that perhaps lessons will be learnt and local brigades and other management groups will be able to more easily get permission to conduct hazard reduction burns. I've spoken to NSW rurals who tell me it's not uncommon to wait three years to get permission. That's a lot of fuel that has the potential to create havoc and destrot lives and property.

I'll get off my soap box now.

Hope you and Meg are well Rob and that the fires settle down.

Mick

[dadpad]

smoke in Mansfield (near woodborer).

[Eastie]

Smoke in the outer east big smoke looking at the hill between Gumby and me. Any chance you left the stove on Gumby?

[Gumby]

oops, sorry about that

[Wood Borer]

The smoke is virtually non existent tonight. I may get an early night for a change as the wind is quiet also.

Here we have been getting the blame for the smoke in Melbourne when it is all Gumby's fault.

Meg was in Melbourne today and said it is clearer here than down there.

[Groggy]

Glad to see it ease up for you guys, get a good nights rest!

[scooter]

The smoke is virtually non existent tonight. I may get an early night for a change as the wind is quiet also.

Here we have been getting the blame for the smoke in Melbourne when it is all Gumby's fault.

Meg was in Melbourne today and said it is clearer here than down there.

Good to hear Rob, batching for a couple of days, mate

Glad things have eased a bit for you.

[Gumby]

Sounds good Rob.

We've had a bit of rain here tonight but not enough to bury those flames unfortunately, even if it gets to you.

Get some rest while you can. I think it's going to be a long summer. At least a lot of fuel has been taken away so the chances of you being threatened again would be much less than a few weeks ago.

I can't believe that they are busy making new containment lines around our major water supplies like the Thompson dam. Why wouldn't you do it well before now ? Why wait until it's almost too late. :mad:

[Wood Borer]

We've had a couple of spots of rain tonight - the smell of the rain on the dry soil is wonderful.

Tomorrow will be a testing time.

The poor people South of here in Gippsland are really copping it and a couple of the fires are suspected as being lit intentionally.

What would you do if you caught up with such people?

I'd take them for a sail across Bass Strait and discover in the morning that they must have fallen overboard during the night watch, the main boom can knock you overboard even on a calm night:eek:

Of course if the poor dears didn't fancy the water and sailing, we could go for a trip across the Simpson Desert - must have wandered off and left their water behind

Mutton Birding on Chappell Island in Bass Strait is fun too - they say the variant of Tiger snakes over there are more lethal than the ones on the mainland - I tried to use my mobile to call that emergency number 999, that's the number in the movies, but the venom did it's magic before the recorded message had finished playing.

Those poor arsonists with their brains in a knot should be shown compassion and I bags being first in line to show them compassion.

[journeyman Mick]

.................I can't believe that they are busy making new containment lines around our major water supplies like the Thompson dam. Why wouldn't you do it well before now ? Why wait until it's almost too late. :mad:

Gumby,
unfortunately in most states it's now not possible to conduct hazard reduction burns etc until a state of emergency exists (or you have all the neccesary forms filled out, in triplicate, of course, and signed off by all the relevant government departments ) It basically comes down to the philosophy with which bush fire fighting is approached, there's two basic philosophies: fuel reduction and fire suppression.
Fire suppression says "fire is bad mmkay" and you must extinguish any fire immediately (or quicker, if possible)
Fuel reduction says "well, until we can totally prevent all sources of ignition (arsonists, broken glass in the sun, sparks from machinery, fallen power lines, lightening strikes and carelessly thrown cigarette butts etc etc) then we have to accept that fires will occur, so therefore we need to reduce the fuel load to decrease fire intensity and danger.

Fire suppression means that fire departments can get lots of money for helicopters etc and run around looking like heroes.

Fuel reduction means people have to do alot of dirty unglamourous work, strategically burning off bits of the countryside which doesn't make them look like heroes and tends to make them unpopular with lots of people who ca't understand the rationale and who don't like the smoke it produces.

Guess which approach is gaining popularity?

Mick