Bushfire season

dorian · Guru

Bushfire season

rmoor · Senior Member

Yes we can.
A farmer at golf last weekend told me they went on a quick trip up through the wheat fields broad acre regions in Nth Western NSW into Southern Queensland.
Said there were no crops in and the ground had a foot of grass cover that was matted in most areas.
She commented one spark and the whole lot goes up.
If anyone knows the danger, people off the land do.
So you are most likely on the money, this could be a bad one again.

deverall11 · Guru

rmoor wrote:
...as.
She commented one spark and the whole lot goes up.
...

Yes and we witnessed a smoker throw a lit cigarette out the window of a moving car

and start a grass fire.

What ever happened to commissioning indigenous people to do controlled cool burn.

Cassie63 · Senior Member

Controlled cool burning is one of many options/tools to limit bushfires.

Brodie Allen · Guru

A total fire ban nationally would be a good start.

B

-- Edited by Brodie Allen on Sunday 20th of August 2023 12:02:57 PM

Cassie63 · Senior Member

Wouldnt work, to many jurisdictions. Would need to have exemptions and permit systems in place. Rural landscape is far different to the urban interface.

Plain Truth · Guru

Brodie Allen wrote:
A total fire ban nationally would be a good start.

B

-- Edited by Brodie Allen on Sunday 20th of August 2023 12:02:57 PM

Why?

Greg 1 · Guru

Controlled burns are the way to go. They have been very successful in reducing fuel loads in the Perth Hills area where I live. The worst fires are where this has not been done and the fuel loads are huge.

Mariner30 · Senior Member

There's been plenty of Royal Commisions into the cause and consequences of major devastating, horrific bushfires for many, many decades...
Various State Governments and their various departments have not heeded past lessons learnt from the 1930's on.
Or followed the recommendations from those RC findings,

The amount of actual fuel reduction burnoffs barely reaches a quarter of what these departments are required to do, under their own ' mission statements '

Regardless of what ever ' new age trendy name ' they give hazard reduction burns this week.

There...thy sermon is overth.

-- Edited by Mariner30 on Monday 21st of August 2023 04:44:46 AM

Gundog · Guru

Brodie Allen wrote:
A total fire ban nationally would be a good start.

B

-- Edited by Brodie Allen on Sunday 20th of August 2023 12:02:57 PM

Sorry but your wrong its local governments in conjunction with the regional fire authorities decide fire danger periods, total fire ban periods are when climatic conditions require them.

Most Bush fires do not just start without human intervention, either accidentally or on purpose. How long would you impose a total fire ban period and where ?

If you imposed a national fire ban, you could see a lot of free camping area closed.

Tony LEE · Guru

Don't see any link between free camping and fire bans. Quite a few very busy free camps have introduced permanent campfires bans so why not a national camp fire ban to benefit the general environment if for no other reason. Those desperate for the ambience of a camp fire can bring their own propane fired unit.

Tony LEE · Guru

At a camp lecture by rangers in Canadian national Park, we were told that less than 5% of forest fires were started by humans and the rest were from lightning strikes. I'd suggest the same applies in Australia.

Mariner30 · Senior Member

Tony LEE wrote:
At a camp lecture by rangers in Canadian national Park, we were told that less than 5% of forest fires were started by humans and the rest were from lightning strikes. I'd suggest the same applies in Australia.

Strange the Canadians didn't mention fallen powerlines, pole fires...where conductors spark after drizzle and cause mayhem out in isolated backblocks.

Or folk using angle grinders, chainsaws , old tractors etc etc or even just folk driving around on overgrown bush tracks after dry weather etc etc.

Some people may not have even known they accidently started a fire with their exhausts.

Cuppa · Guru

Mariner30 wrote:
Tony LEE wrote:
At a camp lecture by rangers in Canadian national Park, we were told that less than 5% of forest fires were started by humans and the rest were from lightning strikes. I'd suggest the same applies in Australia.
Strange the Canadians didn't mention fallen powerlines, pole fires...where conductors spark after drizzle and cause mayhem out in isolated backblocks.

Or folk using angle grinders, chainsaws , old tractors etc etc or even just folk driving around on overgrown bush tracks after dry weather etc etc.

Some people may not have even known they accidently started a fire with their exhausts.

The risk of any fire spreading & getting out of control , however started, seems to be getting higher each year at an alarming rate. I have little doubt that records will be broken this year... again.

I have no problem with a national blanket ban on camp fires in addition to all other measures to reduce risk. Pretty sure that after all the flooding & excessive rainfall we've seen in many parts of the country have fuel loads ready to burn which will be at very high levels.

It's not like a catastrophe will come as any surprise, but as long as science continues to be ignored/dismissed the risks grow ever more inevitable year by year.

Gundog · Guru

I find it ironic that people here are make outlandish statements about the upcoming bushfire season, first off I will identify that I have been a qualified firefighter, in the CFS in South Australia and the CFA in Victoria.

The single biggest issue with fuel loading in the bush/forests has nothing to do with climate change, or any other snow job that the looney enviromentalists spew, its the increased fuel loading the state government parks and wildlife departments and local greeny majority councils that wont allow fuel reduction burn offs.

I have no issue with campers having a camp fire as long as it complies with the current fire restriction at the time, but I will make a warning if you have a campfire make sure its out properly before you leave, that means pouring large amounts of water on the fire, dont think its out and leave it as is or just over it with dirt, because it could become an underground fire getting into the roots of trees or grasses and become a bushfire.

Brodie Allen · Guru

Gundog wrote:
Brodie Allen wrote:
A total fire ban nationally would be a good start.

B

-- Edited by Brodie Allen on Sunday 20th of August 2023 12:02:57 PM
Sorry but your wrong its local governments in conjunction with the regional fire authorities decide fire danger periods, total fire ban periods are when climatic conditions require them.
Most Bush fires do not just start without human intervention, either accidentally or on purpose. How long would you impose a total fire ban period and where ?
If you imposed a national fire ban, you could see a lot of free camping area closed.

No, just don't lite fires outside without proper commercial containment systems and for "comfort".

Time and again i see the firebugs rape the landscape, light a fire and piss off inside the van.

And fine bogans severely that don't comply. Better that than horrific fires that takes lives and property.

You've seen the pics - even in far out country areas - hundreds of poor fused cattle huddled against

the fence line - smoking remains of houses . . .

And NATIONALLY. Only fires allowed have a permit.

Wait till you have been in a bushfire - you will tend to agree I'll guarantee.

B

Plain Truth · Guru

Tony LEE wrote:
At a camp lecture by rangers in Canadian national Park, we were told that less than 5% of forest fires were started by humans and the rest were from lightning strikes. I'd suggest the same applies in Australia.

canadian fires.JPG

Gundog · Guru

Brodie Allen wrote:
Gundog wrote:
Brodie Allen wrote:
A total fire ban nationally would be a good start.

B

-- Edited by Brodie Allen on Sunday 20th of August 2023 12:02:57 PM
Sorry but your wrong its local governments in conjunction with the regional fire authorities decide fire danger periods, total fire ban periods are when climatic conditions require them.
Most Bush fires do not just start without human intervention, either accidentally or on purpose. How long would you impose a total fire ban period and where ?
If you imposed a national fire ban, you could see a lot of free camping area closed.
No, just don't lite fires outside without proper commercial containment systems and for "comfort".
Time and again i see the firebugs rape the landscape, light a fire and piss off inside the van.

And fine bogans severely that don't comply. Better that than horrific fires that takes lives and property.
You've seen the pics - even in far out country areas - hundreds of poor fused cattle huddled against
the fence line - smoking remains of houses . . .

And NATIONALLY. Only fires allowed have a permit.

Wait till you have been in a bushfire - you will tend to agree I'll guarantee.

B

I dont have to wait been there done that.

Southern Cruizer · Guru

Spent many years in a bushfire brigades and experienced the lot. Houses burnt, sheds, machinery, stock and even loss of life of another firefighters not being able to get away from the fire. Even been in an old petrol Austin firetruck back in the 80's surrounded by fire and somehow we didn't go up. No fancy sprays etc to wet you down in those days. Lightening strikes for the 2 big ones I have been in but hundreds of others were either machinery or humans at fault. Hazard reduction burns are the way to go, preferably by the aboriginal elders who know how to do it the right way. They've been doing it longer than any of us have been alive, so why not let them do it instead of these ones who sit behind a desk and tell the fire brigade trucks where to go and howto do it.
My rant is over but I have been on and around farms all my live so have had plenty of experience

Cuppa · Guru

Izabarack · Guru

deverall11 wrote:
What ever happened to commissioning indigenous people to do controlled cool burn.

Two issues spring to mind. Local First Nations people arouind here would not know where to start. No traditional knowledge on when or where to burn exists. Vegetation diversity has changed lots in the last 50 or so years. Climate change and traditional weather patterns have changed the landscape to the point where any traditional land management routines are not applicable. First Nations people did not need to ever worry about today's built environment. If local aboriginal people lit a fire in the past, they mostly did it just as they left the area to follow seasonal food sources. Today's land managment through controlled burn attempts need to protect housing evelopments, for example, and consider man made fire breaks like roads and other transport corridors. The conditions here are already dangerous as I help put out a grass fire next door in grass recently mowed. Sparks from the mower blades hitting rocks sparked that fire. A pole fuse melted and sparked a fire that destroyed fencing on my property.

Second issue is judgements around the competence of local and Rural fire birgades to prepare fire sites and to prosecute 'controlled' burns. My local Rural Fire brigade has stuffed up so many times in recent years. Fires getting out of control resulting in structure losses has been a problem here. Smoke hanging around for weeks has resulted in health problems and hospital admissions for Asthma. Different preparations for weather mediated burns and for fuel mediated burns is a science poorly understood in msot communities. Council has created a massive death trap here by encouraging lots of housing development in one particular area that only has one road in or out. Apparantly, several deaths in the Maui fires involved people trapped in cars caught in a raffic jam.

All considered, a controlled cool burn anywhere near where I live is a fantasy no local wants.

Izabarack · Guru

Bushfire alerts have just been issued in my local area. Despite the stated concerns, a controlled burn was planned in a 50 + acre conservation reserve near my property. The fence line to the 50 or so acres are surrounded on 4 sides by second generation Re growth bush. Absolutely zero point in trying to mitigate bushfire risk in the general area by burning off one small patch, especially as no predictably effective firebreak can be established. The track record of the local authorities is poor. The Numpties in charge had not even done a tree species survey as part of their survey. One species of tree in the area has been identified by CSIRO bushfire propagation research as a really good way to turn a ground fire into a crown fire because of the properties of the bark of this particular species of tree. There are several other issues to be listed in the poor preparation for a controlled burn here.

In light of BOM predictions of higher than normal temperatures and below average rainfall leading to major bushfire danger conditions, disaster management plans seems to be a better use of resources, at least near where I am living. Access roads in and out of my local area are limited in their capacity, yet local council has not planned for any major evacuation need. I have an underground bunker to shelter in and the family is already prepared to bug out at the first smell of smoke.