Australia bushfires

Why don’t they get the firefighting aircraft currently sitting on the ground , in many countries going through winter , for a start? The way I see it is , you can’t sort out climate change quickly. They are going to have to get the army or reserves trained in fire fighting and have them working with firefighters ....

The absolute pittance they have spent so far , versus the ecological damage done alone, is a bloody disgrace!

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Believe it or not a lot some of the smoke from the fires are creating pyronimbus clouds which are creating their own storm systems and that in turn is creating lightening strikes.

Other fires are caused by the wind carrying embers which in turn are igniting the land.

It's absolutely bonkers. Hell on earth.

I watched the BBC's news coverage of it and the reporter was standing outside well away from the fires but the sky was like a typical Irish winter's day as it was slate grey but instead of cloud it was smoke and it was blowing a gale, horrible for firefighters as the temperature is above 40c and embers are traveling miles on the winds and starting new blazes.
They spoke to residents of another community who had taken to the beach just before police were ordering a mandatory evacuation. In some areas people were told to stay where they were as there was literally no way out or no way to get to them.
Us living here in a generally wet country can't appreciate the scale of devastation as an area the size of Wales has either burned iris on fire.

I have a relative living in NSW and he said that so far he's escaped the fires but the worry is there amongst everyone.

The eucalyptus are a real problem. They are highly inflammable, very tall & produce extremely high temperatures. They also easily produce embers in the form of a ball of fire that gets carried by the wind.

The rebuild cost is going to be huge. There is also a serious problem with a shortage of water.

JJayoo wrote: »

These towns that have been hit by the fires are they situated in the middle of forests?

Not necessarily,some are near them alright but even if you have trees in your garden and everything is tinder dry then even a few embers can turn it into an inferno so it doesn't take much for a building beside that to go up in flames and the process continues.

Pauliedragon wrote: »

Instead of apportioning blame and political points scoring how about we just wish everybody over there the best and hope they get through as best they can. It ****s me that every time a disaster happens whether it's fire/flood/hurricane etc people are more interested in scoring against the other side rather than actually worrying about the poor ****ers on the front line. I lived over there for a long time and my only concern is the safety of everybody. Good luck lads and keep safe. We can deal with the political fall out once they have everything under control which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.

So.... Thoughts and prayers?

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Has the Austrailian pm asked for international help? They need it or more of it.

There's fire fighters from S. Africa, the U.S and NZ there.

Pauliedragon wrote: »

There's fire fighters from S. Africa, the U.S and NZ there.

They obv need more assistance the EU should step up.

Pauliedragon wrote: »

There's fire fighters from S. Africa, the U.S and NZ there.

There are firefighters from NZ in Oz every year.