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haydos25
1/1/2020 5:37pm
1/1/2020 5:37pm
Edited Date/Time
1/23/2020 10:01am
Happy New Year all. Just want to send out well wishes to any Aussie Vitards that may have been affected by the crisis going on at the minute. The worst bushfire season in history and it is seriously heart breaking to see some of the pictures coming out.
Point of reference for the overseas members.
2019 California fires 253,214 acres lost
2019 Amazon Fires 2.24 million acres lost
2019 NSW (one state of Australia only) 9.9 million acres lost
2019 All of Australia 12.35 million acres lost and almost half a billion animals killed, 1,300 homes wiped out and 18 people killed
We are only 1 month into our summer down here and traditionally January and February are our worst months for fires.
Keep those affected in your thoughts (and prayers if you that way inclined), especially the volunteer fire fighters, many of whom have missed out on festive season celebrations with their families to try and save those in need. True heroes.
Point of reference for the overseas members.
2019 California fires 253,214 acres lost
2019 Amazon Fires 2.24 million acres lost
2019 NSW (one state of Australia only) 9.9 million acres lost
2019 All of Australia 12.35 million acres lost and almost half a billion animals killed, 1,300 homes wiped out and 18 people killed
We are only 1 month into our summer down here and traditionally January and February are our worst months for fires.
Keep those affected in your thoughts (and prayers if you that way inclined), especially the volunteer fire fighters, many of whom have missed out on festive season celebrations with their families to try and save those in need. True heroes.
The California acreage is always deceiving to me, though. With the way the population is there, they can have not as many acres burned in a year but have massive losses of homes, and then the next year a lot of acres and drastically fewer homes.
We have some bad fire years up here, but our population is so relatively sparse that our homes lost is thankfully always small compared to there.
Are the biggest fires in Australia mostly staying away from big population centers? 1300 homes is obviously a lot, but for that kind of acreage it sounds like quite a bit less than I would imagine in California.
I was just on youtube to find some vids to share
The Shop
Fuck these guys and girls are absolute heros
https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au/
The other issue we're facing at the moment is 99.5% of New South Wales is in drought, the worst drought this century. There is just so much fuel on the ground that literally one spark can set the whole country on fire, with no rain in site its not a good time down here right now. The country is hurting big time.
Made me think of the book The Thornbirds.
Freakin fires can move so fast if you're caught off guard out there in the open, there's no way to outrun them.
Hope u guys down there in OZ take care.
I have no idea how the people closer to them dealt with it! My sister is done and keen to move and I don't blame her
I’m lucky my side of the street is cleared but across the road is all bush land and we’ve had a few dry lightning storms start fire but the boys have put them out like the hero’s they are.
Scary stuff for so many thoughts go out to all affected.
Some of the scariest shit I've ever seen and we were well over a mile a way and downhill.
Its a whole other world that these firies are dealing with, and to think they are doing it purely out of the kindness and dedication of their own heart with zero monetary benefit to themselves. Heroes is an overused term these days but not when referencing these guys and girls.
Stay safe mate!
We have small volunteer local fire departments, but any time that we get big wildfires the firefighters are paid, and paid well because of the inherent danger.
Not only are they not getting paid for this, they are also foregoing their regular line of work. So many are actually much worse off financially for what they do. Not to mention some of them also have homes that are in fire affected areas. Heard a few stories this season of guys who were on the fire ground saving homes whilst elsewhere their own homes were under threat or even wiped out.
They're a special breed those blokes and hundreds of thousands of people owe them a debt of gratitude.
Pit Row
At least in our area, as soon as the jurisdiction moves from the local fire department to the state or federal level, I'm told that the volunteers start getting paid prevailing rate. But for us, that's very few of the people actually fighting the fire. The majority are Forest Service employees, contractors, etc.
A couple of gums close to the house died.. fucken camphors are goin strong though haha pricks of things
Edit: Just googled it 'currently declared a noxious weed' So you were onto it
It’s back to that now, but worse. The grass is all dead or gone. No green. It all looks like straw or it’s dirt. So fucked.
I do think there is a cost to human atmospheric inputs, of course climate cycles and patterns repeat, but for all our sakes it’d be nice if it was a hoax, as we should be back to good rain soon... right? Right?
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