Fires

[motto (RIP)]

Perhaps we should try and get Kevin to change his last name Jan?
Seriously though, from the photographs the Jimmy seems to have survived the fire remarkably well.
Years ago I remember looking at a CCKW that had been through a fire which had caused the chassis to sag and the thing that stunned me was that the rear springs were also sagged and curved upwards at the ends. It's hard to imagine the intensity of fire needed to do that.
I also heard a story about a fellow out Whittlesea way that lost a collection of Jaguars in the Black Saturday fires of 2009. At least one of the cars had the aluminium engine melted away leaving the crankshaft still in situ.
No doubt there are many similar stories.

David

[Private_collector]

Guys, I don't know how you southern folk manage to get up after something like these fires.

The love of the land must be strong.

[Ryan]

Stay safe those mlu'ers that live in Gippsland, looking bad over that way.

I still say the RAAF should have a dedicated fire bombing sqn. Instead of giving away our hercs to indonesia and such, they could still have an important role nationally.

[Marc Montgomery]

just looked up the zigzag railway (burnt last year?).. amazing -and sad- to think that looters came in afterward..

It so sad to think of all the history (and hard work) gone in the burnt vehicles. I mean who cares if a 2010 or so honda or toyota burns...but original Jags, and all the WW2 stuff.. tragic.. once its gone...its gone forever

We in N Am hear so little of these major fires...the news being more concerned with
politicians antics on the national scene, and locally, fires, car accidents and robberies..and sadly most people if they bother to listen to any news, tend to listen to local news.

Of course Canada has hundreds (literally) of fires, many of them massive, across the boreal forest, but as these tend to be more northerly, there are very very few communities, and generally result in much less infrastructure and personal loss.

With global warming, these fires are only going to get worse in the years ahead (as told to me personally by scientists and climatologists)

[motto (RIP)]

Fifteen homes have been destroyed in the last 24 hours. The Mickleham fire has travelled over 40 km in the same time despite the cool change yesterday afternoon.
Hard to believe that people only 20 km away have faced and are facing disaster while we had a quiet, comfortable night.
There but for the grace of God.

David

Latest update, at least 20 homes gone.

[Keith Webb]

We were watching the Warrandyte fire from the paddock behind our place, could see the water bombers in action.

[lynx42]

Yesterday the Gippsland Historical Automobile Club Inc. held its annual display day at Morwell. A stinking hot day (42C and a strong North Westerly blowing) and the numbers were down by about 2/3's.

I took the 1977 Leyland truck and as the presentations finished, the CFA (Country Fire Authority) raced into our Club grounds and ordered everyone to evacuate. The Morwell-Hearns Oak fire had broken containment lines and was heading past us to the south and a very strong south west change was imminent. Almost everyone scattered fast to the east through Morwell and within 10 minutes the fire was at the Club grounds

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This was the only road out and was blocked within minutes.

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One member and his grandson stayed at the Club grounds and managed to save the property. The pony club on one side, the archery club on the other and the motorcycle club to the rear of our clubs 10 acre block all suffered badly as did the gun club further down the road.

Thanks to Ron and Aaron, the GHAC Club rooms were saved.

We were quite pleased to head eastward and none of our group were injured. Thanks CFA for your advice to leave.

The main Princes Highway and railway towards Melbourne, westward, were closed and hundreds of people were to remain in Morwell and Traralgon for the night. Some of our members from the west booked out a Morwell motel as they couldn't get home.

We were glad to get home and find that all was OK in our area.

Regards Rick.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Marc Montgomery

...
Of course Canada has hundreds (literally) of fires, many of them massive, across the boreal forest, but as these tend to be more northerly, there are very very few communities, and generally result in much less infrastructure and personal loss.
...

Wildfires are attacked immediately when they are encountered. The idea is to keep the burns supervised, but not to extinguish them completely. The forests need fire to regenerate. Fires are a provincial responsibity (as are forests). There are no-notice attack crews on standby throughout the summer, sitting with their kit loaded on contracted helicopters. The water bombers and spotter planes are on call if these hard-a$$ guys decide they can't steer it satisfactorily. Someone mentioned the big Martin Mars waterbombers on Vancouver Island in another thread.

There are behaviour and predictive models that use weather, soil moisture, forest floor compostion, slope and past burn history to predict where things will likely get more interesting. One big difference between US and Canadian firefighting doctrine is, the Americans dig huge firebreaks and let things burn down, while Canadians use hoses and pumps to extinguish the flames.