Australians ordered to flee flames as fires rage in east and west

[snoop1130]

Australians ordered to flee flames as fires rage in east and west

By Colin Packham

 

A resident fights a grass fire in the Hillville area near Taree, NSW, Australia, November 13, 2019. AAP Image/Dean Lewins/via REUTERS

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian officials on Wednesday ordered residents and tourists to get out of the way of fast-approaching flames as firefighters struggled to contain more than 150 bushfires raging on both the east and west coasts.

 

While cooler weather overnight brought some relief for firefighters in New South Wales (NSW) state, of which Sydney is capital, attention shifted to its northern neighbour, Queensland, where more than 80 fires threatened lives and homes.

 

Authorities issued a “leave immediately” warning, the highest level, for several areas including Noosa, a beachside holiday destination 150 km (93 miles) north of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland.

 

“We’re expecting people to listen to the warnings and work on their bushfire survival plans and, if in doubt, now is the time to leave,” said Greg Christensen, mayor for the Scenic Rim regional council in Queensland.

 

“This is a very challenging season,” Christensen told reporters. “You haven’t had bushfires like these bushfires before.”

 

A private water-bombing helicopter crashed while battling a fire west of Brisbane, though the pilot escaped with minor injuries, Queensland Fire & Emergency Services said.

 

Across the country, in Western Australia, officials were responding to two emergency bushfires that had destroyed two homes and damaged another.

 

The fires have sparked increasingly acrimonious debate over climate and fire-prevention policies, with the ruling conservative Liberal Party and the minor opposition Australian Greens exchanging barbs.

 

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce was among those who have suggested that climate activists were at least partly responsible for the fires by lobbying to reduce so-called back burns, fires deliberately lit to clear dry undergrowth.

 

Independent lawmaker Zali Steggall said it was very “unbecoming of our parliament” for Joyce to make such remarks.

 

“We do need to adapt and plan for these situations,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “What we want is a consensus moving forward on how to come up with a plan that adapts Australia to a warming climate.”

 

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, meanwhile, said linking the fires to the government’s support of the coal industry was “the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital city greenies”.

 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has declined to comment on climate change during the crisis, has called for moderation in the debate.

 

‘WE NEED RAIN’

 

Bushfires are common in Australia’s hot, dry summers, but the ferocity and early arrival of the fires in the southern spring this year has caught many by surprise.

 

The blazes have claimed three lives and destroyed about 2.5 million acres (1 million hectares) of farmland and bush, fuelled by extremely dry conditions after three years of drought, which experts say has been exacerbated by climate change.

 

Some 300 homes have been destroyed in NSW alone in recent days as flames stretched from the state’s north coast to within metres of homes in Greater Sydney.

 

By Wednesday afternoon, insured losses from 450 fire-related claims in NSW and Queensland was estimated at A$50 million($34.28 million), according to the Insurance Council of Australia.

 

There is unlikely to be a near-term respite from hot and dry conditions.

 

“We will not have all these fires contained and locked up for many, many weeks,” NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters in Sydney.

 

“Unfortunately, what we need is rain.”

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-13

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[GreasyFingers]

Barnaby is not my favorite politician but is right in this case. I used to live on the north coast of NSW and looking at the maps the fires were predominantly in National Parks ans State Forests. 40 years ago State Forest did regular controlled burns and we still had bad fires but nothing on this scale.

[Cats4ever]

38 minutes ago, GreasyFingers said:

Barnaby is not my favorite politician but is right in this case. I used to live on the north coast of NSW and looking at the maps the fires were predominantly in National Parks ans State Forests. 40 years ago State Forest did regular controlled burns and we still had bad fires but nothing on this scale.

He is not mine either. You should have a look at the calendar - the time for controlled burns is really constricted by dry and warmer winters (plenty of professionals and experts have been quoted on this) . The whole area that is being burnt was not really high risk bushfire country. I live central west Victoria and we have traditionally been a higher risk. This winter there has been a bit of rain, after a long dry summer. When it heats up soon, it won't take long to dry out.

[samran]

52 minutes ago, GreasyFingers said:

Barnaby is not my favorite politician but is right in this case. I used to live on the north coast of NSW and looking at the maps the fires were predominantly in National Parks ans State Forests. 40 years ago State Forest did regular controlled burns and we still had bad fires but nothing on this scale.

My brother in law runs logging trucks and contracts to the state government during bush fire season.

 

As Cats4ever wrote (as a Tigers supporter I can't believe I wrote that!!!), there is simply not enough of a window when the conditions are 'just right' to do enough of what you say. And with climate change, the dry seasons are longer and the winters less wet. Getting 20 degree days in Melbourne at the end of August are becoming more and more common. Add to that, its not really possible to do 'controlled' burning in isolated or rugged terrain.

[GreasyFingers]

8 minutes ago, samran said:

My brother in law runs logging trucks and contracts to the state government during bush fire season.

 

As Cats4ever wrote (as a Tigers supporter I can't believe I wrote that!!!), there is simply not enough of a window when the conditions are 'just right' to do enough of what you say. And with climate change, the dry seasons are longer and the winters less wet. Getting 20 degree days in Melbourne at the end of August are becoming more and more common. Add to that, its not really possible to do 'controlled' burning in isolated or rugged terrain.

If they were allowed to do it in the old ways they could, especially near habitable areas.

[samran]

3 minutes ago, GreasyFingers said:

If they were allowed to do it in the old ways they could, especially near habitable areas.

Liability risk would be huge, not only financially but to life. Still doesn't change the fact that the window for these things is tiny anyway.

[thaibeachlovers]

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce was among those who have suggested that climate activists were at least partly responsible for the fires by lobbying to reduce so-called back burns, fires deliberately lit to clear dry undergrowth.

If backburns have been reduced for any reason, the blame for the excessive conflagrations must rest with those responsible.

Australia has a natural history of bush fires. Humans must work with nature and not against it. The results are plain to see.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, samran said:

My brother in law runs logging trucks and contracts to the state government during bush fire season.

 

As Cats4ever wrote (as a Tigers supporter I can't believe I wrote that!!!), there is simply not enough of a window when the conditions are 'just right' to do enough of what you say. And with climate change, the dry seasons are longer and the winters less wet. Getting 20 degree days in Melbourne at the end of August are becoming more and more common. Add to that, its not really possible to do 'controlled' burning in isolated or rugged terrain.

It's not possible to stop fires. So, either burn off ( or remove somehow ) the fuel for wildfires or see the situation as it is now repeat endlessly.

[samran]

37 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

It's not possible to stop fires. So, either burn off ( or remove somehow ) the fuel for wildfires or see the situation as it is now repeat endlessly.

I think the point is that its getting even harder to stop them.

[emptypockets]

The biggest problem is the inner city Greenies who have absolutely no idea about real-life outside of a city. They only know the BS brainwashed into them. In many areas THEY , that is their policies implemented by local councils for are the direct cause of these terrible fires. Their policies for not permit common sense fire reduction burns and do allows the fuel load to increase and the fires to reach impossible to manage levels.

Of course of the 'rare and endangered' species they care souch about have been wiped out in the conflagrations.

Idiots.

 

I think the only bloke whose house survived the last terrible fire event was the guy who told the Greenie council to get stuffed and cleared a fire break around his property. Many people died in that fire. 2009 Marysville? I think. Might have the name wrong. Terrible loss of life.

[samran]

I’m not a fan of the greens by any means but tell me where in rural Australia have they been in charge of local councils. Also explain to me how they’ve been in charge when it’s been a conservative government in Australia at the federal level for the past 23 of 28 odd years with your Pauline Hanson’s and Cliver Palmer parties who have held the balance of power in senate in recent history. 

[thaibeachlovers]

19 hours ago, samran said:

I think the point is that its getting even harder to stop them.

I agree, so either people stop building in/ leave fire prone areas, or they do something to remove the fire risk. Is there any other option?

Sooner or later insurance companies are going to say no more anyway.

[beautifulthailand99]

20 hours ago, emptypockets said:

The biggest problem is the inner city Greenies who have absolutely no idea about real-life outside of a city. They only know the BS brainwashed into them. In many areas THEY , that is their policies implemented by local councils for are the direct cause of these terrible fires. Their policies for not permit common sense fire reduction burns and do allows the fuel load to increase and the fires to reach impossible to manage levels.

Of course of the 'rare and endangered' species they care souch about have been wiped out in the conflagrations.

Idiots.

 

I think the only bloke whose house survived the last terrible fire event was the guy who told the Greenie council to get stuffed and cleared a fire break around his property. Many people died in that fire. 2009 Marysville? I think. Might have the name wrong. Terrible loss of life.

Yeah the townie greenies that will be it - Badja Sparks is a longtime resident of Wytaliba. His home was badly damaged in last Friday’s fires.

 

Wytaliba had been back burning before fatal fire: Sparks

 

“Today is not the day to talk about climate change.”

No, yesterday was, or the day before, or the month before, or the year before. But it didn’t get a mention.

Now we have the reality, and the mention it gets is: “Don’t talk about it now.”

So the politicians (and the media) turn the talk to hazard reduction burns, or the lack of them, as something else to blame on the inner-city raving lunatics.

We had a bushfire two months ago that burned most of our property. It didn’t matter. It burned again.

This is climate changed. We’re in the worst drought recorded. A million hectares of bush has burned. Barnaby says it’s Greens voters and the sun’s magnetic field.

Pray for rain. Pray harder for leadership.

 

https://www.gleninnesexaminer.com.au/story/6492701/opinion-we-did-burnoffs-badja-sparks-hits-back/?cs=13312

 

 

[Odysseus123]

As various posters have pointed out the last few seasons have been extremely dry-and that includes the winter months

Most of the country around here has been destocked,rivers have ceased to flow,the dams are empty due to the prolonged drought and the bush is tinder dry-once lush valleys are looking like Martian landscapes etc,etc.

 

All it needed was a spark..

 

I passed thru' Hillville and Krambach just one day before the forests exploded.

 

Scapegoating the Greenies (a tried and true fallback position of the NCP)

won't work in this case.

 

This is not how the bush/farms should look like in spring.