Australian bushfires

Threepwood · 7 Jan 2020 at 11:22

Evangelion said:
This is a NASA composite image

This is really confusing me, I thought there were deserts in Aus? That image makes it look like every single part of australia has been on fire at some point during the time frame? How do deserts set on fire? Sorry, confused.

mmj_uk · 7 Jan 2020 at 11:44

Evangelion said:
Only 24 confirmed as arson, out of ~150 fires nationwide.

Confirmed being the operative word. There could be upwards of a quarter to half that were arson and it's still not as bad as 1974 but what the hell it must be climate change because Greta Thunberg and the usual experts who get funded to preach alarmism said so.

Washout · 7 Jan 2020 at 14:19

mmj_uk said:
Confirmed being the operative word. There could be upwards of a quarter to half that were arson and it's still not as bad as 1974 but what the hell it must be climate change because Greta Thunberg and the usual experts who get funded to preach alarmism said so.

Hang on, you're either saying there isn't climate change (man made or not) or that the climate getting hotter than ever and a prolonged drought isn't a major factor in huge swathes of land catching and staying on fire?

Which is it?

Would you tell those that lost homes or family that people talking about the climate are being "alarmist"?

Supercow · 7 Jan 2020 at 22:41

NVP said:
It's like "God" doesn't want you guys to have a country anymore... did you legalise gay marriage recently?

Don't even start - plenty tards here are claiming that.

NVP · 7 Jan 2020 at 23:13

The_Abyss · 7 Jan 2020 at 23:47

My stupidly brave nephew is still working out of 376 Merewether, now long over his 30 days paid service.

It is apocalyptic.

Sankari · 8 Jan 2020 at 01:23

border-collie-saves-sheep-fire-australia-4-5e143c4e21890-700.jpg

This is Patsy, a 6 year old Kelpie/Border Collie cross.

She rounded up a flock of sheep, and brought them to safety while her owner fought off the fire.

The_Abyss said:
My stupidly brave nephew is still working out of 376 Merewether, now long over his 30 days paid service.

It is apocalyptic.

Your nephew is a legend, please send him my thanks.

Rroff · 8 Jan 2020 at 02:15

The_Abyss said:
My stupidly brave nephew is still working out of 376 Merewether, now long over his 30 days paid service.

It is apocalyptic.

Whelp that looks like something out of a movie.

Yadda · 8 Jan 2020 at 02:33

The_Abyss said:
My stupidly brave nephew is still working out of 376 Merewether, now long over his 30 days paid service.

It is apocalyptic.

*snip*

Those blokes should never have to buy a beer ever again.

Evangelion said:
*snip*

This is Patsy, a 6 year old Kelpie/Border Collie cross.

She rounded up a flock of sheep, and brought them to safety while her owner fought off the fire.
*snip*

A little star.

Sankari · 8 Jan 2020 at 02:43

Current status of the fires:

Sankari · 8 Jan 2020 at 02:48

Threepwood said:
This is really confusing me, I thought there were deserts in Aus? That image makes it look like every single part of australia has been on fire at some point during the time frame? How do deserts set on fire? Sorry, confused.

The deserts are not bare sand, they have scrub.

mmj_uk said:
Confirmed being the operative word. There could be upwards of a quarter to half that were arson

No there couldn't, because the causes of the other fires have been identified. Most involved lightning strikes, either from natural weather patterns or local weather generated by the biggest fires.

Angilion · 8 Jan 2020 at 03:22

Threepwood said:
This is really confusing me, I thought there were deserts in Aus? That image makes it look like every single part of australia has been on fire at some point during the time frame? How do deserts set on fire? Sorry, confused.

The image is a heat composite image, using data gathered from devices sensitive enough for some types of large roofs to register due to being heated by sunlight. It's not a fire composite image. There are a lot of misleading and/or misunderstood maps about, as you'd expect from the internet. Huge areas have been on fire at some point in that time frame, but not every single part of Australia.

StriderX said:
Convenient for the idiot PM, he can now just blame it all on them and no longer take any responsibility.

He mishandled approximately everything to do with the crisis. It won't matter who or what he blames for the fires. Even if aliens landed in Canberra and broadcast on every Australian TV channel saying that they accidentally started all the fires with their warp drives and they're really sorry about it, he'd still be blamed for his response to the fires.

G-MAN2004 · 8 Jan 2020 at 04:30

I wonder if all the idiot activists who protested against controlled burns back in September have still got their homes.

Oh no, we can't start fires as that would contribute to climate change! Well played.

Sankari · 8 Jan 2020 at 05:15

G-MAN2004 said:
I wonder if all the idiot activists who protested against controlled burns back in September have still got their homes.

A tiny handful of irrelevant people protested against one small controlled burn in Gippsland. Their protest was rightly ignored, and the burn went ahead anyway. As a result, they still have their homes.

It's worth noting that Australia's Green party supports controlled burns. Unfortunately climate change is reducing the window in which prescribed burns can be safely conducted.

The aptly-named Deb Sparkes is the coordinator for the Centre of Excellence for Prescribed Burning and said the amount of time available for burning is getting smaller.

"With climate change, what we're seeing is that the summer season is getting longer so it's staying too dry for too long for [prescribed burning authorities] to undertake their prescribed burns," Ms Sparkes said.

"That little window between the bush fire season is shortening so we're either going to lose the window altogether, especially if winters stay dry, or we're going to have to shift our thinking to doing prescribed burning in winter."

...Ms Sparkes said winter burning can present other issues.

"We have the shorter days in winter, so therefore they may not have that opportunity to burn as much land as they wanted during the daylight hours before the fire behaviour dies down," she said.

"Also, having crews out mopping up in the dark is a safety risk to our crews."

FFA Victoria's Darrin McKenzie said that in his state the shortening burn window was limiting their ability to implement their burns, as well as their ability to manage the impacts on things like community events.

(Source).

Threepwood · 8 Jan 2020 at 08:59

Evangelion said:
The deserts are not bare sand, they have scrub.

Yeah, I looked at images of Aus deserts online and saw many that had no scrub too, but...

Angilion said:
The image is a heat composite image,

... Now I understand why the dark areas look like they do, I wondered if it was burnt. Thanks.

Sankari · 9 Jan 2020 at 09:58

Local firies in the NSW town of Batlow have saved their community against all the odds.

The people of Batlow were told their town was "undefendable" when a bushfire raced toward them last Friday, but the local Rural Fire Service brigade had other ideas.

The southern NSW town is now charred by flames that destroyed the old hospital, blew up the petrol station and burnt 17 houses in town and an untold number of outlying properties.

But the members of the Batlow brigade know it could have been much worse.

"We didn't lose any lives, that's the main thing," says Brian Droscher, the equipment officer in the local brigade. "And we saved houses. We had a big fight but it was worth it."

The fire surprised the small brigade last Saturday when it whipped through the surrounding valleys rather than coming over the hill to the south of the town, as expected.

Here's a snippet from the Overclockers Australia forums, in which one of our members (a Batlow resident) describes the loss of his house:

VincentHanna · 9 Jan 2020 at 16:27

mmj_uk said:
Confirmed being the operative word. There could be upwards of a quarter to half that were arson and it's still not as bad as 1974 but what the hell it must be climate change because Greta Thunberg and the usual experts who get funded to preach alarmism said so.

You might want to watch this....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world...tralia-fires-debunking-arson-emergency-claims

Deleted member 77746 · 9 Jan 2020 at 16:37

There is no way this is arson, not this size. It's fake news going around that it's arson.

Unluckyalf · 9 Jan 2020 at 22:02

Threepwood said:
This is really confusing me, I thought there were deserts in Aus? That image makes it look like every single part of australia has been on fire at some point during the time frame? How do deserts set on fire? Sorry, confused.

Yeah, im 99% certain that that NASA composite image is fake. There are no bushfires up in Darwin, at least none within the rural area as the NT still performs backburning which the other states dont do enough of. The map Evangelion posted is probably the most accurate.
On the arson side of things, in the NT they have just charged a volunteer firefighter with lighting 17 fires.

Orionaut · 9 Jan 2020 at 22:11

mrbell1984 said:
There is no way this is arson, not this size. It's fake news going around that it's arson.

Yes/No

The main problem is basically the build up of burn/deadwood (IE Fuel available to be burned) and the ease with which it can be ignited. Once it gets going nothing can stop it.

If you were an arsonist at the Buncefield depot. It would only have taken one match to create armageddon!

(I lived in SW surrey at the time and I am sure I saw smoke from this! It was 50 miles away so this is quite credible)