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Sydney bushfires: Out of control blaze


Still Waters

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The most severe bushfire in a decade has hit areas in Australia, destroying dozens of homes as it sweeps across Sydney's north and south regions.

Hundreds of fire-fighters are now battling seven major fires across New South Wales. Residents who have not already been evacuated from surrounding areas are now being instructed to take shelter in their homes.

http://www.independe...de-8885845.html

Take care and stay safe, to all who are affected by this.

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Not affected myself as I live in Melbourne but one of our Sydney Tanker Drivers had to leave work as he was given an evacuation order for himself and his family. I won't know anymore till I hit work tomorrow but my thoughts are with him and all those affected.

Edit to add - things have gotten a lot worse and it is expected up to 100 homes will have been lost at least.

Here is a link to some photos

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/10/17/16/10/bushfires-ravage-nsw-destroy-homes

Edited by libstaK
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Sorry to hear this. Natch, it wasn't on the mainstream media. I spend a charming few days in Sydney back in 1971, King's Cross area. :tu:

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Latest -

ONE man is dead and hundreds of homes have been destroyed but the true devastation of the NSW bushfires may not be known for some days, and maybe not before a dangerous weather conditions fan the flames again.

Cooler conditions meant the bushfire threat had eased by late Friday, but there was still 94 fires burning across the state - 27 of which remain uncontained.

http://www.smh.com.a...1018-2vsbl.html

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I live in Canberra and smoke from the fires came over the city yesterday. This started panic as people thought fires were here too. The coming weeks weather is not going to help anyone.

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A massive fire burning in Australia's Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, was caused by explosives training being carried out by the Department of Defence, a probe has found.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) said the training exercise was responsible for causing the blaze, which has burnt out more than 46,000 hectares and sparked fears of it becoming a "mega-fire".

"The investigation has concluded the fire started as a result of exploding ordnances on the range on Wednesday," said an RFS spokesman.

Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill told ABC News that even though there was no fire ban on the day the fire started, the exercise should not have gone ahead.

"I would have hoped on a day like that which was a dry day, a hot day, with the winds, the Australian military would have known it wasn't a good time to be igniting," he said.

arrow3.gifView: Read more

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Love the understatement about "we didn't think it was wise to send teams into the firing range to deal with the fire" from the head of the rural fire brigade that I heard today.

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As I understand it Al Gore has inserted global warming into the debate about how early this fire season seems to be. Do Australians have any views about this?

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Our fire fighters are bandying about phrases like "unnaturally early" and "global warming" at the same time our resident overly-promoted village idiot (PM Tony Abbott) is denying it.

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Our fire fighters are bandying about phrases like "unnaturally early" and "global warming" at the same time our resident overly-promoted village idiot (PM Tony Abbott) is denying it.

:w00t: They should have kept him muffled, he only looked "electible" when he was silent.

Edited by libstaK
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As I understand it Al Gore has inserted global warming into the debate about how early this fire season seems to be. Do Australians have any views about this?

Well, there is this poem

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror

The wide brown land for me!

Full version here:http://australianpoems.tripod.com/mycountry.html

Fact is, Australians might be the last people on earth to notice that Global Warming has well and truly kicked in - our weather extremes are legendary. Having said that, every year for the past decade has practically been "the hottest summer on record" or so it seems, I am not looking forward to hearing that for the next 10 years, there is a limit to human endurance.

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Nah, for everyone else, it's dramatic climate change, for us it's Tuesday.

Hotter then it should be? It's Queensland.

Colder then it should be? Tasmania.

Unpredictable weather? Melbourne.

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The mountains are about 60 kilometers away from the inner city area where I live. Last week when the fires broke out the smell was so strong and intense you thought your back yard was burning.

Edited by Black Red Devil
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Sorry to hear this. Natch, it wasn't on the mainstream media. I spend a charming few days in Sydney back in 1971, King's Cross area. :tu:

You weren't working there were you? ;)

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You weren't working there were you? ;)

No, I was there on R&R from south of Saigon. It was a great time. :tu:

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As I understand it Al Gore has inserted global warming into the debate about how early this fire season seems to be. Do Australians have any views about this?

The temperatures have been really high over there, unusually high for spring. It usually occurs in summer, months away, both the fires and that sort of temperature.

Here in Melbourne it has been particularly windy thus far this spring.

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I just spent a week straight at our RFS station putting in 10 to 14hr shifts.

I'm training to be a station officer and while the fires have been on I've been working with another lady making up 200 ration packs a day and trying to organize all meals for whatever crews drop in. We had like an hours warning that we'd be serving dinner to over 110 firies.

Last Wednesday was meant to be D-day for this side of the mountain but luckily even with the extreme winds and temps things were ok. The wind direction changed from NW to W.

Currently we have been laid down while the interstate crews are here and back burning towards the MT VIc fire which is our greatest threat. The temps are so weird, I normally wear a jacket at night and throw a light polar fleece blanket on me.

The first Thursday was the worse, seeing Winmalee go up was awful I know a few people who lost everything. My best friend rang me at the station that evening to tell me and also to say her son had been in the house when the fire front went through. He rang her screaming and I had helped raise him so as she was sobbing so much I was just like "is he ok, did he get out?'. He's fine, they are all fine and that is the main thing, it did have me in tears as well though for what felt like ages I thought she was going to tell me he died. As a mum and also being close to this boy I just felt her fear and pain.

Currently the Blue Mountains fires are ok, cool conditions and no wind but like all Australians know our weather has always been unpredictable.

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I think we are being warned -- the way a volcano tells you it is about to erupt, we are seeing signs of trouble on a larger scale and we need to stop the political denials. I am not normally a doom-sayer and tend to brush off doomsters (especially the religious and political and economic ones), but the scientific evidence of warming is clearly there and needs more attention.

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It's been the opposite for us on the west. Much more rain during this winter, can't remember the last time we've had so much rain. It makes me glad that we don't get it too often.

And so far it's been a pretty cool Autumn.

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Are bush fires not part of the usual circle of life over there? Also I thought there was a law where you have to clear all trees and brush away from a house to a certain distance?

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Are bush fires not part of the usual circle of life over there? Also I thought there was a law where you have to clear all trees and brush away from a house to a certain distance?

Yes they are but they never start this early. A lot of people were caught off guard this season. The firefighters did a good job though.

I'm not too sure about the laws of clearing bush around your house but there is a fire ban.

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