Riding bushfires in Australia
#1
02-11-2009, 04:11 AM
Riding bushfires in Australia
For those of you who know me and seen my previous photo posts on sensational country roads in Australia - here is an update after the bushfires. Currently about 300 dead, many hundreds hospitalized with horrendous burns, whole country towns wiped out, many thousands of acres of countryside destroyed....
See / Click here.....
http://picasaweb.google.com/Naga.Tha...eat=directlink
See / Click here.....
http://picasaweb.google.com/Naga.Tha...eat=directlink
Last edited by Naga_Thai; 02-11-2009 at 04:28 AM.
#2
02-11-2009, 05:45 AM
Martin - I'm horrified at your losses.....................
Surely the Govt must declare this a national disaster and vote funds to help the area recover ?
Your pictures brought the anguish home to me in a stark and awful realisation of just what you folks are going through.
God be with you................
Surely the Govt must declare this a national disaster and vote funds to help the area recover ?
Your pictures brought the anguish home to me in a stark and awful realisation of just what you folks are going through.
God be with you................
#3
02-11-2009, 06:26 AM
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Its all very sad ..
These are the first big Victorian fires that I have managed not to have found myself involved in directly..
The Black friday Fires here in Aus, when I was only a 17year old junior fire fighter up in the Mt Dandenong Ranges was my first experience of this terrifying type of situation.
Myself and many other fire fighters were nearly killed on many occasions, trapped in 150ft + tall forest that had turned into an inferno ..
In the Ash Wednesday Fires here in Aus only 20 years ago my family and our entire town were only saved by weather / wind changes late into the second day , that caused the wild fire to spare the small town of Warburton where we lived (except for about 12 homes that were lost) , but in doing so , it went further on and destroyed many other towns and killed many local residents and fire fighters ..
It is very hard to comprehend the extent of the terror these eucalypt wild fires can generate unless you have been trapped within them ..
I have spent the majority of my life up in the mountain and faced these events on many occasions and this time I am very thankful to be clear of them ...
Our government has declared these areas disasters and have pledged to rebuild and support everyone that has been effected..
Our whole country has actually gotten behind this effort .
From my personal experience with wild fires , I fear we are not past this by any means and if the weather does warm back up with north winds increasing , more trouble will be heading our way..
These are the first big Victorian fires that I have managed not to have found myself involved in directly..
The Black friday Fires here in Aus, when I was only a 17year old junior fire fighter up in the Mt Dandenong Ranges was my first experience of this terrifying type of situation.
Myself and many other fire fighters were nearly killed on many occasions, trapped in 150ft + tall forest that had turned into an inferno ..
In the Ash Wednesday Fires here in Aus only 20 years ago my family and our entire town were only saved by weather / wind changes late into the second day , that caused the wild fire to spare the small town of Warburton where we lived (except for about 12 homes that were lost) , but in doing so , it went further on and destroyed many other towns and killed many local residents and fire fighters ..
It is very hard to comprehend the extent of the terror these eucalypt wild fires can generate unless you have been trapped within them ..
I have spent the majority of my life up in the mountain and faced these events on many occasions and this time I am very thankful to be clear of them ...
Our government has declared these areas disasters and have pledged to rebuild and support everyone that has been effected..
Our whole country has actually gotten behind this effort .
From my personal experience with wild fires , I fear we are not past this by any means and if the weather does warm back up with north winds increasing , more trouble will be heading our way..
Last edited by CBRclassic; 02-11-2009 at 06:42 AM.
#4
02-11-2009, 06:40 AM
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(Was) A beautiful area.
I have spent many days holidaying / 4wd up around their Marysville in particualr was a favorite destination and a lovelly top down cruise in the Beetle, a very sad time indeed.
Brings back bad memories of the Geelong fires in which my friend lost his little brother (he was one of Firefighters who was killed) It changed my friend completely and in fact changed all of us.
Sad now :-(
With your permission Martin I shall forward the link to some friends here?
I have spent many days holidaying / 4wd up around their Marysville in particualr was a favorite destination and a lovelly top down cruise in the Beetle, a very sad time indeed.
Brings back bad memories of the Geelong fires in which my friend lost his little brother (he was one of Firefighters who was killed) It changed my friend completely and in fact changed all of us.
Sad now :-(
With your permission Martin I shall forward the link to some friends here?
#5
02-11-2009, 06:47 AM
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its horrafying to watch this going on from here in england, we moan about bad wether and a bit of snow..while you have so many lost and now they are saying it was deliberate on some part?????? a life sentence for every life lost.
hope no more of our brothers and sisters out there get hurt or worse...
john
england
hope no more of our brothers and sisters out there get hurt or worse...
john
england
#6
02-11-2009, 12:43 PM
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Sorry to hear about the losses in the area. They believe global warming to be a big element as well as the idiots lighting them. here is a link to some pictures I had seen in a local newspaper if anyone is interested.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200..._australi.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200..._australi.html
#7
02-11-2009, 11:34 PM
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Terrible to see this, my condolences to your country Martin.
This must force all of us to create some moral conscience, how many of us will trow a hal lite cigarrete but out in the road? how many of us will dispose of empty oil cans in forest areas???
Hopefully this will be prevented as much as possible in the future
This must force all of us to create some moral conscience, how many of us will trow a hal lite cigarrete but out in the road? how many of us will dispose of empty oil cans in forest areas???
Hopefully this will be prevented as much as possible in the future
#8
02-12-2009, 05:00 AM
As "Classic" stated,with warm weather predicted for the coming week,with Northerly winds..............Yet Hell could be revisited..
The State of Vic is TINDER DRY,never seen it this bad,so much fuel lying in the Forests.
It neednt be an arsonist,a lightening strike could start it all again.
We know & have been told that we would have been wiped out on 7/2/09 had we had a blaze in our Forrest.We were spared fortunately that terrible day.
The State of Vic is TINDER DRY,never seen it this bad,so much fuel lying in the Forests.
It neednt be an arsonist,a lightening strike could start it all again.
We know & have been told that we would have been wiped out on 7/2/09 had we had a blaze in our Forrest.We were spared fortunately that terrible day.
#9
02-12-2009, 02:55 PM
Words fail me .
All I can say is the forest will grow again , the houses can be rebuilt , I'm sure everyone down there will pull together.
The real losses are the lives of so many innocent people , If any of these fires were started deliberately............!!! As I said , words just fail.
All I can say is the forest will grow again , the houses can be rebuilt , I'm sure everyone down there will pull together.
The real losses are the lives of so many innocent people , If any of these fires were started deliberately............!!! As I said , words just fail.
#10
02-13-2009, 11:01 AM
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