[SOC] Re: Bushfires

[Ian C. Purdie]

Rob Matherly wrote:

> They actually did a story on it on ABC news today.  "Massive fires in
> Australia, firemen say they have them contained."   Boy, that's some goooood
> reporting...

Ah well...

Ironically in contrast, some of Australia's top journalists were directly
affected as they live in Canberra, the nation's capital.

Here are just some of the horrifying stories:

[Story 1]

"It came on hot 100kph winds, the mercury pushing 48C and humidity down to 12%.
A fierce 35 km wide fire front fed by forests of pine and eucalypt."

"Canberra was trapped in its path."

"The fire raged out of the bush, slamming into the southwestern suburbs with
such speed and force firefighters could do nothing."

"Duffey was one of the first places hit. It rained burning embers on the
suburb's terracotta tiled roofs, the afternoon sky turned a hellish black and
the streets were gridlocked with frightened families."

"The noise was terrible."

"People on ordinary streets died in their ordinary homes. House after house
exploded in flames. And the same was happening in suburbs across the city."

[/Story 1]

Our local [my area] firefighters had just arrived not long before after a trip
of about 500 Km - their report:

[Story 2]

"They will all tell you they have never seen a fire like it."

"The 38 men from the Hunter, Cessnock and Maitland group who were the first
Rural Fire service volunteers to arrive from outside Canberra told their stories
of terror as high winds whipped the flames."

"There were birds falling out of the sky as we were overrun by the firestorm."

"The fires came up from the south of the city and continued along its
southwestern fringe as the group continued battling."

"The group Commander said cars and trailers were blown around by the force of
the fire and crews had no time to evacuate. They huddled under their trucks and
passed fire blankets to people trapped."

"We had to hunker down, pull the crews together and by 1:30 p.m. it was like
midnight."

"The fire blew windows in and took doors off. Gas meters exploded in balls of
fire. We actually had to turn our [fire] vehicles into the wind, because it was
blowing them on their side."

"You could see fires 30M above the trees and the ground was actually rumbling."

"The Commander was left with the clothes he was wearing as the fire destroyed
[fire] gear he had used for almost 30 years. We couldn't get back to them, but
that was our last post, it was supposed to be a safe area in open country [now
that's real, real scary]."

"Other volunteers told how a 5,000 litre tank was blown 100M into the door of
their [fire] truck after bouncing off another, as cars and trailers were blown
around."

"Trees up to 1M wide were picked up and thrown onto homes as the crews were
forced to hold onto their trucks or duck under them as gravel and tree branches
struck them. They hung onto the truck as the fire roared past, before a calm
period, and just as they recovered from the first onslaught a second front came
upon them."

"It was more like a fire hurricane than a fire storm. I told the chief, if we
don't meet again it's been nice knowing you."

[/Story 2]