Bushfires rage out of control across southeast Australia

[rooster59]

Bushfires rage out of control across southeast Australia

By John Mair and Will Ziebell

 

A resident uses a garden hose to wet down the house as high winds push smoke and ash from the Currowan Fire towards Nowra, New South Wales, Australia January 4, 2020. REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy

 

SYDNEY/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Bushfires burned dangerously out of control on Australia's east coast on Saturday, fanned by high temperatures and strong winds that had firefighters battling to save lives and property, as a change in wind conditions merged several large fire fronts.

 

By late evening, Victoria had 14 fires rated at emergency or evacuate warning levels, and New South Wales had 11 rated emergency, with more than 150 others burning across the states. New fires had started, and others had broken containment lines.

 

"There are a number of fires that are coming together - very strong, very large, intense fires that are creating some of these fire-generated thunderstorms," New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS) Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said at an evening briefing.

 

"And unfortunately we've still got many hours to go of these elevated and dangerous conditions."

 

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said conditions were deteriorating rapidly as a gusty southerly wind change pushed up the coast and smoke plumes from the fires triggered storms.

 

Authorities are worried the fires could turn out to be worse than New Year's Eve, when they burnt massive tracts of bushland and forced thousands of residents and summer holidaymakers to seek refuge on beaches.

 

In Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews said while conditions were difficult, the job of firefighters had been made easier by tens of thousands of people following advice to evacuate.

 

It may be Sunday or later before damage assessments can be made. Prime Minister Scott Morrison put the national death toll from the current fire season, which began in September, at 23. Twelve of those are from this week's fires alone.

 

In updates, the NSW RFS repeatedly delivered the same blunt advice to those who had not evacuated at-risk areas: "It is too late to leave. Seek shelter as the fire approaches."

 

Residents used social media to post photos of the sky turning black and red from the smoke and glare of the fires, including in the Victorian town of Mallacoota, where around 1,000 people were evacuated by sea on Friday.

 

The first of those evacuees arrived near Melbourne on Saturday morning after a 20-hour journey by boat and a second ship with about 1,000 people landed in the afternoon.

 

The federal government announced an unprecedented call up of army reservists to support firefighters as well other resources including a third navy ship equipped for disaster and humanitarian relief.

 

Andy Gillham, the incident controller in the Victorian town of Bairnsdale, said the area had avoided the worst of the fires on Saturday but stressed this was an exceptional fire season.

 

"In a normal year, we would start to see the fire season kick off in a big way around early January and we're already up towards a million hectares of burnt country. This is a marathon event and we expect to be busy managing these fires for at least the next eight weeks," he said.

 

* Click on links to see maps posted by emergency services in NSW and Victoria to predict the spread of fires on Saturday: https://bit.ly/2QnjU9L and https://bit.ly/2sL7dfR

 

Following are highlights of what is happening across Australia:

 

* Temperatures topped 113 degrees in much of the Sydney metropolitan area, with Penrith recording a high of 120 according to the BOM. Canberra, the national capital, recorded a temperature of 111.2 just after 4 p.m., which the chief minister said was a record for the territory.

 

*As the fires have flared, many towns have been isolated as major and minor roads are closed. Some fires are generating their own storm systems, which create the risk of lightning strikes generating new fires.

 

* A late southerly wind change on Saturday dramatically lowered temperatures, but also brought wind gusts of 43-50 miles per hour that caused some major fires near the border of Victoria and New South Wales states to merge and strengthen.

 

* In South Australia, two people died on Kangaroo Island, a popular holiday spot not far off the coast. South Australian Premier Steven Marshall said more than 247,000 acres have burned there, about one-quarter of the total area.

 

* Six people remain unaccounted for in Victoria, Premier Andrews said on Saturday, down from 28 reported on Friday.

 

* The focus on Saturday is preventing more loss of life, authorities said. National parks have been closed and people urged earlier this week to evacuate large parts of NSW's south coast and Victoria's north eastern regions, magnets for holidaymakers at the peak of Australia's summer school holidays.

 

* Morrison confirmed that his visit to India and Japan scheduled for mid-January had been postponed due to the fires.

 

* More than 13 million acres of land has been burnt this fire season.

 

(Reporting by John Mair, Will Ziebell, Sonali Paul and Melanie Burton; Editing by Grant McCool, Kim Coghill and Himani Sarkar)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-05

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[legend49]

This happens when you have a weak government who bows to Murdoch and big companies at the expense of emergency equipment and individuals.

[Mick501]

1 hour ago, legend49 said:

This happens when you have a weak government who bows to Murdoch and big companies at the expense of emergency equipment and individuals.

Which of the current governments policies do you suggest would have made a difference ?

[Russell17au]

The changing of any policies of the current governments would be useless because there was too much damage already done to the fire reduction proccess. The changes needed to have been done by previous governments. What was needed years ago was to re-issue the cattlemen with the licences to graze their cattle in the National and State Parks and on Commonwealth land again like they used to up until around 2004 when the licences were withdrawn, as the cattle grazing acted as a natural fuel reduction method in areas that were hard to get into, plus do not reduce the funding for all the fire services so that they have enough of the proper equipement that is required plus some in reserve ready for major fires when they happen. What was also needed was for the Federal Government to declare a national state of emergency and have one single control body made up from all the states fire fighting authorities to take control of all the nations fire fighting and emergency services instead of individual states doing their own thing. There were additional fire fighting aircraft that were not being used in America and as a national emergency then it would have been easier for the Federal government to have gotten these extra aircraft earlier. It could have also brought the military into action earlier performing evacuation, road control, transport, stores delivery much earlier. These are naturally only my views of this matter but I did 25 years as a Senior Deputy Captain in the NSW Bush Fire Brigades before it was renamed and changed into the NSW Rural Fire Service

[Paul Henry]

"This happens when we have a weak Government." Little knowledge is dangerous !. State and local governments are responsible for emergency services, fire control and disaster planning. Only this week did the Federal Government get involved at the request of state premiers. So I guess Legend 49 is saying all state and local governments are weak. Did you vote in the last Federal,State and Local government elections. Better still did you stand for any of them to make them stronger.  

[brokenbone]

this is self inflicted by senile imbeciles

http://joannenova.com.au/2020/01/abc-deleting-facebook-posts-on-how-protesters-stop-prescribed-burns-more-worried-about-climate-change-than-wildfires/

 

[Russell17au]

1 hour ago, Paul Henry said:

"This happens when we have a weak Government." Little knowledge is dangerous !. State and local governments are responsible for emergency services, fire control and disaster planning. Only this week did the Federal Government get involved at the request of state premiers. So I guess Legend 49 is saying all state and local governments are weak. Did you vote in the last Federal,State and Local government elections. Better still did you stand for any of them to make them stronger.  

who the hell do you think you are. What I do and if I vote or not is none of your F****n business. There is one thing that you do know nothing about and that is the power of the Federal government when it comes to national disasters.

[Nyezhov]

Well your political fighting aside, this Yank sends prayers and would the Red Cross of Oz be a good way to help a bit? Or some other charity?

[Paul Henry]

Legend 49 has shown he is not a legend. I did not ask him if he voted and he has tasetely agreed that the Federal Government is not the first line of responsibility so why blame them.His aggresive response is one of guilt and and lack of control.Which again indicates a lack of self responsibility and shows its easier to blame than help. Cash donation are being received by all charities some people should put their money where their mouth is.

[Salerno]

8 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Well your political fighting aside, this Yank sends prayers and would the Red Cross of Oz be a good way to help a bit? Or some other charity?

Good on you. May be a bit of hassle from outside Oz but the Bendigo Bank in conjunction with the Salvo's always gets my vote:

 

"Bendigo Bank has partnered with The Salvation Army, to establish an appeal with 100% of donated funds going directly to communities in need."

https://www.bendigobank.com.au/appeals/bushfire-appeals/

[samran]

You can’t say we weren’t warned. The report was delivered in 2008. 

 

 

[Nyezhov]

6 minutes ago, Salerno said:

Good on you. May be a bit of hassle from outside Oz but the Bendigo Bank in conjunction with the Salvo's always gets my vote:

 

"Bendigo Bank has partnered with The Salvation Army, to establish an appeal with 100% of donated funds going directly to communities in need."

https://www.bendigobank.com.au/appeals/bushfire-appeals/

Thanks. Forgot about the Bell Ringers! Easy to do.

[samran]

1 hour ago, brokenbone said:

this is self inflicted by senile imbeciles

http://joannenova.com.au/2020/01/abc-deleting-facebook-posts-on-how-protesters-stop-prescribed-burns-more-worried-about-climate-change-than-wildfires/

 

Yep, these two old dears have been in charge of government! 
 

i mean where do you guys get this stuff - oh yeah that’s right, from a paranoid blogger. 

[Mick501]

24 minutes ago, samran said:

Yep, these two old dears have been in charge of government! 
 

i mean where do you guys get this stuff - oh yeah that’s right, from a paranoid blogger. 

I was sceptical from the appearance brut the article makes some excellent points.

[Mick501]

40 minutes ago, samran said:

You can’t say we weren’t warned. The report was delivered in 2008. 

 

 

Umm, we are in the middle of the main fire seasons.   Perhaps they should have warned about bushfires in the middle of fire season instead?

[brokenbone]

57 minutes ago, samran said:

You can’t say we weren’t warned. The report was delivered in 2008. 

 

 

if you look at history of victoria you know its a cycle,

1906 january nearly the entire state was ablaze,

that is 4 times more area ablaze then january 2020, in other words its a downward trend, the report got it 180 degree wrong

 

black tuesday, January 23, 1906, so-named because on that day almost the whole of the State (of Victoria) was ablaze”

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiIoLD80urmAhXs7nMBHYAxA-QQFjACegQIAxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fams.confex.com%2Fams%2Fpdfpapers%2F155748.pdf&usg=AOvVaw26tndfMUmTIlmaBoeR-3kr

[Olmate]

1 hour ago, Paul Henry said:

Legend 49 has shown he is not a legend. I did not ask him if he voted and he has tasetely agreed that the Federal Government is not the first line of responsibility so why blame them.His aggresive response is one of guilt and and lack of control.Which again indicates a lack of self responsibility and shows its easier to blame than help. Cash donation are being received by all charities some people should put their money where their mouth is.

Get your replies in the right order pal,and say sorry!

[Olmate]

53 minutes ago, samran said:

Yep, these two old dears have been in charge of government! 
 

i mean where do you guys get this stuff - oh yeah that’s right, from a paranoid blogger. 

Hope they didn’t live in the scrub like the baby birds then? Check your bloggers re the number of fauna killed by the fires then have a think about your response...

[mikey00]

If you're not from Aus, then you don't know every year there are $%#^heads that deliberatley light fires. Following article says 56 being charged, I've read anotherone where more than 200 people are being investigated.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nsw-firefronts-uncontrollable-as-state-braces-for-heatwave/news-story/4f006855e6b1598ba3a6d53c66391516

 

That along with idiot greenies who have banned controlled back burning and other prenventitive measures in winter has created this mess.

[Scott]

Troll post removed.

 

[simple1]

9 hours ago, mikey00 said:

If you're not from Aus, then you don't know every year there are $%#^heads that deliberatley light fires. Following article says 56 being charged, I've read anotherone where more than 200 people are being investigated.

 

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nsw-firefronts-uncontrollable-as-state-braces-for-heatwave/news-story/4f006855e6b1598ba3a6d53c66391516

 

That along with idiot greenies who have banned controlled back burning and other prenventitive measures in winter has created this mess.

"as firefighters try and beat back the bushfires, a familiar blame game began with critics pointing fingers at “greenies”, claiming they get in the way of hazard reduction efforts that might have reduced the size and scale of the disaster. these are very tired and very old conspiracy theories that get a run after most major fires,” says Prof Ross Bradstock, the director of the centre for environmental risk management of bushfires at the University of Wollongong, who has been researching bushfires for 40 years.

“They’ve been extensively dealt with in many inquiries.”

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/12/is-there-really-a-green-conspiracy-to-stop-bushfire-hazard-reduction

[thaibeachlovers]

11 hours ago, samran said:

You can’t say we weren’t warned. The report was delivered in 2008. 

 

 

Obviously the people that should have done something didn't.

A lot of people will be very nervous about the coming investigation.

[samran]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Obviously the people that should have done something didn't.

A lot of people will be very nervous about the coming investigation.

Hmm let’s see, a conservative government since 2013 and before that a climate skeptic conservative opposition which destroyed any chance at consensus on doing anything on the issue.

 

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-24/10-years-of-climate-change-inertiaand-the-role-of-andrew-robb/11726072

[samran]

2 hours ago, simple1 said:

"as firefighters try and beat back the bushfires, a familiar blame game began with critics pointing fingers at “greenies”, claiming they get in the way of hazard reduction efforts that might have reduced the size and scale of the disaster. these are very tired and very old conspiracy theories that get a run after most major fires,” says Prof Ross Bradstock, the director of the centre for environmental risk management of bushfires at the University of Wollongong, who has been researching bushfires for 40 years.

“They’ve been extensively dealt with in many inquiries.”

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/12/is-there-really-a-green-conspiracy-to-stop-bushfire-hazard-reduction

The satirical Betoota Advocate on point this morning.

 

“This heatwave has been blamed on The Greens, who have aided the sun in being hot, by opposing the LNP's big push to adhere to Aboriginal land management practices”.

https://m.betootaadvocate.com/breaking-news/greens-anti-back-burning-agenda-blamed-for-record-high-temperatures-in-penrith-on-saturday/

 

[tomazbodner]

14 hours ago, samran said:

You can’t say we weren’t warned. The report was delivered in 2008. 

 

 

So basically in 35 years fires may be year-round, if I read this correctly.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, tomazbodner said:

So basically in 35 years fires may be year-round, if I read this correctly.

Not if preventative measures are followed in future, no matter the cost.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, samran said:

Hmm let’s see, a conservative government since 2013 and before that a climate skeptic conservative opposition which destroyed any chance at consensus on doing anything on the issue.

 

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-24/10-years-of-climate-change-inertiaand-the-role-of-andrew-robb/11726072

Any that prevented appropriate measures to prevent the current situation happening should be held accountable, whatever political persuasion they happen to have.