NSW Fires

[Fizzie]

Just reading this article this morning: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-10/victorians-in-rural-fringe-prepare-for-bushfire-season/11673826?WT.ac=statenews_vic

Vic not NSW, but the same thing applies - lot's of people moving out for a Tree Change don't have the faintest idea of fire safety

[MarkGU]

The rules are there to save everyone = the new person, and the experienced.. As you'd know Shit can go bad real fast on the fire ground really fast.. The training is there to save most peoples arses - the experienced people who have to save the nuffies..

Its interesting that only when there are insane fires like this people wanna stick up their hands... We had people turning up in their droves - telling us they were members of this RFS station and had 20 yrs experience when they didnt know what an AWG branch was. quick phone call to Rosehill at the time would prove they were full of Shit. You dont want people like that out in the field. You also dont know how people will react in a really code brown situation... You don't let novices hit the field on fires like these, its just asking for problems.

The numbers of people turning up at stations just expecting to be given keys to the truck and some PJs would shock you

Bird.
Did you not read the whole post?
Novices? Did you read the part about the 12 years experience??
I offered because the situation is at very critical stage, oh thats right, you've seen it 1 st up here.My apologizes.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Not bagging anyone who is in a BFB now, just saying what happened to ours, and looks like what happened to a lot of BFB over the years, ours went from around 40 active members to 4 in a mater of weeks and months. And they would only come to a fire if we were absolutely desperate, I have found the complete opposite on a couple occasions had one bloke who was our no 1 and was the fire warden for 30 years had the credentials as long your as your arm but was unpredictable and hopeless in the field, its why I gave it a away, I would rather work with a complete novice and teach him in the field what to do around a small bush fire than work with someone with an ego that thinks they no it all, and I gave it away because got sick of fighting fires for many days at a time along side blokes that were fully payed that did buggerall except drive up down on the black top, That did not sit well with me, thank firetruck the QLD laws have changed an urban boys can fight bush fires now, Craig

[McGirr]

Just reading this article this morning: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-10/victorians-in-rural-fringe-prepare-for-bushfire-season/11673826?WT.ac=statenews_vic

Vic not NSW, but the same thing applies - lot's of people moving out for a Tree Change don't have the faintest idea of fire safety

Why don’t they start doing the burn offs in some areas now.

I understand people need training and to follow the rules but if I turned up to offer my services to assist I would be happy to do anything to help. I know I would not have the experience to fight a major fire but maybe assist in other ways.

Mark

[alnjan]

Why don’t they start doing the burn offs in some areas now.

I understand people need training and to follow the rules but if I turned up to offer my services to assist I would be happy to do anything to help. I know I would not have the experience to fight a major fire but maybe assist in other ways.

Mark

Mark

Weather conditions just not suitable along with the resources are not there to put a trainee on the fire ground.  Saying that where possible as a means of controlling the bushfire there are back burning operations being done to help burn the bushfire out.   

[Hairs]

The rules are there to save everyone = the new person, and the experienced.

The numbers of people turning up at stations just expecting to be given keys to the truck and some PJs would shock you

Talking with a brirgrade captain yesterday, he said it overwhelming that people want to help,
But they need to go through the training, if they do have previous experience it means they will be certified easier to be able to be a valued member. 
At the moment they can help at the stations, until they gain their certification, then they can join crews.
Young Jack has his drivers license now, he will join our RFS and go through the training.

[alnjan]

Talking with a brirgrade captain yesterday, he said it overwhelming that people want to help,
But they need to go through the training, if they do have previous experience it means they will be certified easier to be able to be a valued member. 
At the moment they can help at the stations, until they gain their certification, then they can join crews.
Young Jack has his drivers license now, he will join our RFS and go through the training.

Yep as a former RFS member to rejoin I have to go through Training again and really that is the way it should be.  A fire ground is not the place to make mistakes. 

[McGirr]

Sorry to be a party pooper but we all knew the conditions were going to be very bad this year for fires and yet nothing has been done to alleviate it. It seems alot of the knowlegable people just sit around and wait for it like they cannot wait for it to justify their jobs.

And now it's the poor firefighters that have to go through this plus the people who lose their homes. It happens every year and nothing is done.

Surely there are smart people out there that can foresee this. Maybe not.

Sorry to say all this but it's true. It's only going to get worse unfortunately due to the lack of foresight.

Mark

[Hairs]

Completely agree Mark.

[alnjan]

Sorry to be a party pooper but we all knew the conditions were going to be very bad this year for fires and yet nothing has been done to alleviate it. It seems alot of the knowlegable people just sit around and wait for it like they cannot wait for it to justify their jobs.

And now it's the poor firefighters that have to go through this plus the people who lose their homes. It happens every year and nothing is done.

Surely there are smart people out there that can foresee this. Maybe not.

Sorry to say all this but it's true. It's only going to get worse unfortunately due to the lack of foresight.

Mark

The same as in Victoria.  I am sure someone from Victoria can give a more correct detail, but following whichever bushfire it was there was the Royal Commission.  Part of the Royal Commission was the reduction of fuel load, Controlled Hazard Reduction Burns, yet the State continually falls drastically short of it's Hazard Reduction Burns and continues to burn over the years.   NSW is just following their lead.   While ever the greenies/environmentalist continue to have their way with 'protecting' the environment with less or no Controlled Hazard Reduction Burns and the fuel load is allowed to continue to 'grow' we will continue to have bigger hotter bushfires with continued death and destruction. 

Fire needs three simple things, Oxygen, Heat and Fuel.  We can't do a great deal about reducing the oxygen level, we can't control the weather, despite what the Climate Changers say, that only leaves reducing the fuel load, that we can do something about. 

[Hairs]

that only leaves reducing the fuel load, that we can do something about.

You are 10000000% correct mate.

[speewa158]

BUT  the 1/2 Wit Greens ask , Where will the beetles, lizards  & snakes live if you do a cool burn  ?
No Stuff it let the fuel load build up  ,,, let the intensity increase ,,, Rip it up the bush as the management has not been taken care of  . The Greens are sadly not on the Big Red Trucks on fire ground as they are sitting Safe in an apartment in town . Ordering a coffee  while others fight their fight  .………………………………………..

[Paddler Ed]

And the right continue to decimate public services unless there is something in it for their mates to make some money from.

Chronic underinvestment in the National Parks staff levels to keep budgets balanced (and only investing in areas with high tourist numbers), a reliance on volunteers for fire response outside of the metropolitan areas and this is what starts to happen, all conspiring on working against being able to do anything.

[Hoyks]

I was down in Yerranderie talking with the caretaker and he pointed out that all the forest through there is new growth. There are a few trees that are a few hundred years old, but even in the photos back at the turn of last century there were very few big trees, the place wasn't a forestry/logging area and no sign of mass ring barking or clearing.

The early explorers described it as grazing land and it was cattle country, by all accounts silver was discovered by some aboriginal stockmen putting in fence posts.

But now we don't have mosaic burning and the place is thick with 60-70 year old trees, there is hardly a blade of grass to be found and the few roos left get by with grazing on the camp ground and the air strip as that's all there is to eat.

Declaring a Wilderness area to protect the wild life is a nice idea, until it all goes up and all you have left is a scorched sterile wasteland. Then when it does rain you get alkaline sediment that kills whats survives in the creeks.

Plants can recover from a low intensity fire and animals can get out of the way, but what I saw up near Forster where the fire was hot and doing several km/h... not so much. Its going to take years for that ecosystem to recover.

[Bird]

Yep as a former RFS member to rejoin I have to go through Training again and really that is the way it should be.  A fire ground is not the place to make mistakes

Even worse when you were a trainer but if things have changed since I left in teh late 90's so training would be a cakewalk, except BA these days, too unfit

[Bigfish]

Interesting view on fires from an experienced person....

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/this-is-not-normal-what-s-different-about-the-nsw-mega-fires/ar-BBWxUfn?ocid=ob-fb-enau-307&fbclid=IwAR1hp-bg4q-BQaKr_QHxOZnma2nX9PnzD8ZDlqbXI5c7Q38aTu5O8OQrGjw

[alnjan]

Interesting view on fires from an experienced person....

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/this-is-not-normal-what-s-different-about-the-nsw-mega-fires/ar-BBWxUfn?ocid=ob-fb-enau-307&fbclid=IwAR1hp-bg4q-BQaKr_QHxOZnma2nX9PnzD8ZDlqbXI5c7Q38aTu5O8OQrGjw

And this one 

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/rural-firefighters-heartbreaking-plea/news-story/602b8b84c7092a232fd6fdceecb37f86?fbclid=IwAR33t1PMnC_xfPtRhxx7zkwXDxy5utSpVth500JG7_eIvJqwsMBaW6yCGLw

[alnjan]

A local update for tomorrow.  Best advice they give is to be east of the Highway in a suburban area.  Not sure how that will go.

https://www.facebook.com/coffscouncil/photos/a.730174680478307/1435632606599174/?type=3&theater

[vern]

A local update for tomorrow.  Best advice they give is to be east of the Highway in a suburban area.  Not sure how that will go.

https://www.facebook.com/coffscouncil/photos/a.730174680478307/1435632606599174/?type=3&theater

It's going to be an interesting day. Hopefully it doesn't make it that far.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[alnjan]

It's going to be an interesting day. Hopefully it doesn't make it that far.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Yep we have packed some stuff in the caravan and wait and see what happens where and when as to which way we go or stay

[Bird]

A local update for tomorrow.  Best advice they give is to be east of the Highway in a suburban area.  Not sure how that will go.

https://www.facebook.com/coffscouncil/photos/a.730174680478307/1435632606599174/?type=3&theater

I would have thought anywhere green would be potential fire risk -0 infact, anywhere in any colour on the map

[alnjan]

I would have thought anywhere green would be potential fire risk -0 infact, anywhere in any colour on the map

Yeah I think the eastern fire break will be tested again

[alnjan]

The predicted fire zones keep bigger

[tryagain]

I drove down to the central coast and back over the weekend, was pretty surreal on Friday going down with dark red skies for large sections of the trip down where we had to put our lights on.
I think we might have been the last car through before they shut the highway for Johns River on Sunday on the way north as well, the fire seemed a couple of hundred metres off to the east and a spot fire had just started on the western side of the highway, wasn't sure whether to be happy that we just made it through before the cop car parked in the middle of the road behind us, or to be nervous about what we were about to drive into. 

[Bird]

Here's the latest from the RFS on the fire situation:
There are still 54 fires burning, 26 uncontained, and now 13 at a 'Watch and Act' alert level.
There have been no new fires yet, including in the catastrophic areas and around Sydney, but the fires on the North Coast are increasing in activity.


I think theres a bit of histeria involved here + media throwing some manure in there... I mean Sunrise only had 9 people "LIVE ON SCENE" this morning...

 but its probably a good thing to put the wind up some people... mates dad is still bolted in his living room at Laurieton refusing to leave.
but heard something on the radio this mornin that its now a law or the cops have the power to force you to go and you dont, you get arrested... maybe a good thing.

Dont hang around, GTFO early.