I can’t remember the small details of the Victoria one. What happened that the death toll was so high apart from the obvious? People caught short or ignoring warnings, or just deadly mother nature?
It happened a couple months before I landed here, but from memory a lof of the victims tried to shelter from the flames in their homes. By the time they realised their error, homes had been engulfed in a minute or two. A whole village was wiped out, with simply no way out.
yeah that’s a proper situation allright there akin to Greece where the fires literally drove folk into the sea as the flames relentlessly chased them down
I see some of the fires are at Noosa. Would people be safe if they retreated to a beach, or would the flames make their way that way? As in, would the fire not burn out once it hit the sand? But I’d guess the heat and smoke would be deadly enough.
Noosa an absolutely smashing spot. Mad to think fires there, as you said, with the beach there when you’ve real scrub in glasshouse mountains, Maleny etc not far.
1 Like
Wonder if we could bring over some of the arsonists next year to set fires off in Aherlow and reduce Tipp town to ashes.
I begrudgingly have to say Tipp are already masters of the ash.
1 Like
Has this shithole been burned down yet?
@mickee321 I don’t think you quite understand what is happening here. This is not an event. These fires have been burning for weeks and in the last week they have hit houses and people.
Australia is in a prolonged drought, especially the east coast. It did not rain here over winter. It hasn’t for years. Hazard reduction burns are increasingly difficult and the fire season is getting longer and longer. There is a massive amount of fuel. And it’s November, so the really hot days haven’t even arrived yet. It will get worse. There is no rain on the way.
The Bkack Saturday fires in 2009 werr the result of a combination of factors. VIC had a few weeks of extremely high temps. Hitting 40 every day. On that Saturday, temps went above 40, winds were high and the oil from eucalyptus trees evaporated, super charging the air. When fires started (arson, lighting strikes) the air was literally on fire. These fires move incredibly fast. The radiant heat from some of them killed people hundreds of metres away. It was a perfect storm. It could well happen again.
7 Likes
Maybe they should stop selling coal to the Chinese
1 Like
Australia will be unhabitable in a few years you’d imagine.
Maybe we should just leave it in the ground altogether.
This week has been a bad one for the lib/nat facist government and their mates in the climate change denial industry. While the deputy PM bangs on about greenies and the PM throws out his “now is not the time to talk” and "thoughts and prayers " lines, there is real anger in bith the cities and country about what is happening. Firemen are talking about climate change and how it impacts fires and people are waking up. It’s a pivotal moment.
1 Like
One of my bessiers was head of UK govt climate change advisory body. I said it here a couple of years ago, she told me that the trouble with global warming is that the effects of climate change won’t be felt initially by the major powers and first world countries, with the exception of Australia, who would start to feel it imminently. I was derided by the usual suspects. Australia is iirc number one in the world for greenhouse gas per capita, and they facilitate it further by selling their filthy coal to whoever will buy it.
1 Like
Would you like to move back to Ireland?
Mad Max was quite prescient
Weather
California is the new Australia guys, keep up.
God sounds like a complete cunt.