A 71 year old man was using a angle grinder in dry grass on a hot day four days ago at Flowerdale, 1 hour north of Melbourne. It is still not controlled and has so far, burnt 2000 acres.
His excuse is "I was repairing a fence" At that age, I would have though he'd have enough life experience to not use a angle grinder in dry grass in summer!
If the fence was in desperate need of repair, then surely he could have put up a temporary fence.
Angle Grinders were one of the things that were on the list of tools not to be used on high fire risk days when l was a volunteer firefighteer more than 30 years ago in Victoria...and not too far from that fire now.
I wonder how long that man has been on the land...a lifetime or not long...the footage didn't show any sort of firefighting equipment...but it did look fairly steepish.
Anywho, just yesterday here in Tas the same thing happened...a fire started on a fairly large fire on a nearby farming property...angle grinder again,
Pretty windy day too...that windy l pushed the abort mission button on a fly fishing mission and returned to base.
Bolted through the plumes of smoke and got home.
Anywho, we counted 4 helicopters doing the water bomber thang the rest of the day.
Same number as ten days ago, though l heard that was a abandoned campfire.
Angle Grinders were one of the things that were on the list of tools not to be used on high fire risk days when l was a volunteer firefighteer more than 30 years ago in Victoria...and not too far from that fire now.
I wonder how long that man has been on the land ...a lifetime or not long...the footage didn't show any sort of firefighting equipment...but it did look fairly steepish.
Could be wrong, but I seem to remember that he had an accent similar to that of a native of the country between Ireland and France, so probably never even seen dry grass? Cheers
A 71 year old man was using a angle grinder in dry grass on a hot day four days ago at Flowerdale, 1 hour north of Melbourne. It is still not controlled and has so far, burnt 2000 acres.
His excuse is "I was repairing a fence" At that age, I would have though he'd have enough life experience to not use a angle grinder in dry grass in summer!.
I think its become a general thing. Being able to perform risk assessment has become a lost art form these days.
Angle Grinders were one of the things that were on the list of tools not to be used on high fire risk days when l was a volunteer firefighteer more than 30 years ago in Victoria...and not too far from that fire now.
I wonder how long that man has been on the land...a lifetime or not long...the footage didn't show any sort of firefighting equipment...but it did look fairly steepish.
The footage I saw did show he had a reasonable size fire extinguisher on hand but claims the fire was away before he had a chance to use it. Landy
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In life it is important to know when to stop arguing with people
and simply let them be wrong.
Must be a retired Solicitor ( that wasn't you DMaxer? Was it? ;) took the handheld fire extinguisher to cover his backside, he knew it could get out of control. The Magistrate will agree that he took reasonable precautions as his life skills amount to people telling him porkies all day long and he believes most of them.
-- Edited by Kebbin on Tuesday 28th of February 2023 09:38:29 AM
