Fires!!!
Wow, I’ve been under a rock all day. I just found out the state is ablaze as the sun set.
Sisters in-laws live in Balmoral Village - they live in the street the fire is burning. (The fire near Bargo that has closed the Hume Hwy). Last we heard they are safe and have evacuated.
The Springwood fire is devastating.
I’ll be on half alert tonight watching for embers falling. There is very dry fuel on the ground on the other side of the firebreak surrounding our property. And I could see smoke in 3 different directions before it got dark.
While typing this PP called in tears of worry - she has a great fear of bushfire after having to drive through one last year.
It’s very sad. My heart goes out to those under threat and those who have already lost property. I tip my hat to the brave firefighters out there on the front lines. 
And it’s 7 degrees and rainy in vic, I think hotham reported -16.5 today, yep that’s a minus sign!!
Mother Nature you crazy!!!
And it’s 7 degrees and rainy in vic, I think hotham reported -16.5 today, yep that’s a minus sign!!
Mother Nature you crazy!!!
This, I opened this thread to write this ^ 
Crazy stuff…
It got pretty cold in the Blue Mountains last night and it was cool at home after dark following a day of +30 with really strong, hot wind.
It’s a smokey morning but thankfully no wind.
I might clean out the gutters today.
They should make examples of these arseholes that light these fires!!!!!
They should make examples of the officials that created the red tape that prevents the rfs from hazard reduction!
Australia is a volatile landscape whose vegetation emit flammable vapour, fire is a natural part of our country, fires have been started by people here for 5 thousand years - I’m NOT defending firebugs - but our country does yearn to be burt.
On a day like yesterday +90% of the fires weren’t lit by people, but by natural processes and fueled because of government red tape!!!!!
I agree that they need to do more hazard reduction, and especially in the cooler months!!!!! For some reason they always start doin more when it’s hot and windy?????
But, I’m sick to death of everyone (Mainly the Media) blamin the Fireys, or the Govt, etc etc!!!!!
If these jerks didn’t light the fires in the first place, there’d be no reason to even start the finger pointin games they play these days!!!!!
They don’t even put these scumbags faces on view so the public can see the arseholes that cause so much grief and misery!!!!!
On a day like yesterday +90% of the fires weren’t lit by people, but by natural processes and fueled because of government red tape!!!!!
I can’t see that it would be +90% of the fires were started by natural causes?????
I heard the one at Springwood was caused by a powerline that was blown down in the wind.
The wind is a natural, but the powerline is man made, so does this cancel each other out meaning that particular fire was cause by a ManTual ??
I am liking the way you are thinking 
Mantual 
Or a Naterson!!!!!
I guess the same can be said for a discarded piece of glass magnifieng sunlight on dry leaf litter or sparks that are thrown when a piece of rock falls from a vehicle and hits the road.
Without eucalyptus vapor the huge firestorms that consum places like Australia and California these fires wouldn’t be so volatile and destructive.
Remind me what electrostatic effect happens on dry windy days? - oh, I remember! DRY LIGHTNING.
I’m sure we’re all aware that without INTENSE FIRE much of our vegetation simply can’t reproduce; small burns and hazard reduction is not enough.
I recall being educated: that before 20,000 years ago (or something) our landscape didn’t rely on fire, it was around this time the aboriginals started using fire as a hunting tool and the landscape was changed forever, many species became extinct and the foliage that relied on fire dominated.
Without mankind purposely lighting fires our country would have very different landscape and animals.
I think we are seeing the result of that after the alpine fibres of 2003. Much of the mountain ash isn’t regenerating, nor the snow gums. Instead, there’s the pioneer species like acacia growing thick. Good for nitrogen fixing and replenishing that burnt soil, wonder what will come next.
Indigenous australians used fire as a tool to control their landscape, granted. Before that, there would have been lightning starting fires. Is the problem that the country was much cooler then, so any fires started would have been running in a cooler regime?
http://www.ga.gov.au/hazards/bushfire/bushfire-basics/causes.html
Bushfires can originate from both human activity and natural causes with lightning the predominant natural source, accounting for about half of all ignitions in Australia. Fires of human origin currently account for the remainder and are classified as accidental or deliberate. Fires lit deliberately can be the result of arson or designed to achieve a beneficial outcome but experience sudden adverse weather conditions which results in their uncontrollable spread.
Unfortunately deliberate and accidentally lit fires are more prevalent near populated areas and have a disproportionately higher risk of infrastructure impact. Arsonists place people and property at serious and unnecessary risk, particularly when igniting fires on extreme fire weather days.
I think we are seeing the result of that after the alpine fibres of 2003. Much of the mountain ash isn’t regenerating, nor the snow gums. Instead, there’s the pioneer species like acacia growing thick. Good for nitrogen fixing and replenishing that burnt soil, wonder what will come next.
Indigenous australians used fire as a tool to control their landscape, granted. Before that, there would have been lightning starting fires. Is the problem that the country was much cooler then, so any fires started would have been running in a cooler regime?
I think the main reason there is a struggle for regrowth is that the 2006 fires came next. From what a college told me if there is another big fire with in 4 years of the the first one it pretty much stuffs up the regrowth process. If its after that it has a much better chance of regrowing back to its original state