Fires around Sydney

[Stickman1990]

4 minutes ago, NoWhiners said:

I meant to ask--are the Blue Mountains on fire?  Such a nice area, with all the trees and natural formations.

Yes they are - and have been for weeks 

Have a look at that map I posted a link to earlier and zoom in

[ilikeanswers]

7 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

When we were on the Amazon (I added 1 pix because it is my favorite of all we took), we saw smoke from some of their fires. It is crazy what they are doing there, intentionally ruining their environment and air, so they can feed cattle. And their president won't do anything to stop it. 

 

I remember a documentary where a British fire fighter went to live and work with some Amazon Forest fire fighters. It is consider one of the most dangerous jobs in the world with a high death rate and after watching the docco I could understand why. The equipment was old and completely inadequate, one point there was a raging fire and all they had was the equivalent of a garden hose. Safety equipment was patched up, the teams were tiny, the pay negligible and forgot about any compensation for death or injury. On top of that they were tasked with investigating illegal logging like they didn't have enough to do😟 and the illegal loggers are known to shoot at them😳. And this was all before the current president. But the passion of the fire-fighters was really touching🤗. They really cared about the forest and the head fire fighter had this whole proposal about how to improve fire fighting in the Amazon and combat illegal logging. I'm guessing none of those dreams came true though 😔. 

[MicCanberra]

38 minutes ago, NoWhiners said:

I meant to ask--are the Blue Mountains on fire?  Such a nice area, with all the trees and natural formations.

 

Mic--how bad is Canberra? Will schools close or emergency procedures in effect? Is drinking water OK?

Some parts of the blue mountains are burning but they are the west side rather than the east (tourist side).

Canberra is okay at the moment apart from the bad smoke that just doesn't seem to move on. Our water is fine, although with the drought, is down to around 20% capacity in the dams.

[NoWhiners]

3 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Some parts of the blue mountains are burning but they are the west side rather than the east (tourist side).

Canberra is okay at the moment apart from the bad smoke that just doesn't seem to move on. Our water is fine, although with the drought, is down to around 20% capacity in the dams.

 

wow--are there restrictions on water usage there? I guess wind would be bad, as far as spreading fires. Must be hard on people with lung/breathing issues.

 

[MicCanberra]

6 minutes ago, NoWhiners said:

 

wow--are there restrictions on water usage there? I guess wind would be bad, as far as spreading fires. Must be hard on people with lung/breathing issues.

 

Yes, very hard to breathe even without have a pre existing issue.

[GUT2407]

2 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

 

Sounds like good times 😀 Do you all still talk about that office stay?

Yep, the kids were about 8 & 10, still think it was a camp out, a few years earlier we were trapped on the freeway by fires eventually were able to turn back (coming home from Sydney) -and spent about a week living in a 8’ x 12 room on Richmond RAAF base, they still talk about that as if it was an adventure holiday and it was at least 25 years ago.

[GUT2407]

There is also a conversion the can fit to c300s to make them water bombers, only about 6 mill per plane and fitted in about half an hour, they could retrofit Hercules fleet for less than one or two new water bombers and have a couple of hundred bombers

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, GUT2407 said:

There is also a conversion the can fit to c300s to make them water bombers, only about 6 mill per plane and fitted in about half an hour, they could retrofit Hercules fleet for less than one or two new water bombers and have a couple of hundred bombers

Fire chiefs have said that they have enough physical resources at the moment. It is a retired fire chief who has said that we need more water bombing aircraft.

 

Those Fire chiefs have been quoted as saying that they can use only a limited number of water bombing planes at a time due to the danger of having too many aircraft in the air in smokey conditions. They have also said that, although water bombers play a part in fire fighting, it is men (or women?) on the ground who are needed to do the majority of the fire fighting.

[By The Bay]

4 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

There is also a conversion the can fit to c300s to make them water bombers, only about 6 mill per plane and fitted in about half an hour, they could retrofit Hercules fleet for less than one or two new water bombers and have a couple of hundred bombers

The RAAF has fleet of 12 and are operated from RAAF Base Richmond by No. 37 Squadron. Not all of those would be available, due to other roles and serviceability. Where are the couple of hundred going to come from?

[Stickman1990]

7 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

they could retrofit Hercules fleet for less than one or two new water bombers and have a couple of hundred bombers

Got a source for that Conversion?
 

 RAAF have 12 Hercules ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_Royal_Australian_Air_Force_aircraft ) - so how do you get to a couple of hundred bombers? 

[in rod we trust]

we do need a lot more fire fighting , planes helicopters etc .. but the problem is the state and federal gov think it will rain , and they don't want to spend the money to maintain them its all about there budget  .. we have a some  but what we really need is land management .. and more breaks ,  newer and better trucks proper built bush fire trucks ,  but we are just going around in circles .. instead of giving more money to fire fighting services they rip apart the budget and give them less..  the biggest problem with buying better fire fighting equipment is the state and federal government cant sell the fire fighting services , like they sell everything else.. they will only spend money on things they can sell off to foreign investors.. 

[GUT2407]

3 minutes ago, By The Bay said:

The RAAF has fleet of 12 and are operated from RAAF Base Richmond by No. 37 Squadron. Not all of those would be available, due to other roles and serviceability. Where are the couple of hundred going to come from?

Gee are they down to 12 now, they used to have way more. So my bad,

[Stickman1990]

Just now, GUT2407 said:

Gee are they down to 12 now, they used to have way more. So my bad,

Still interested in details of this amazing conversion that can be done in 30 minutes - forgive for being a little curious as to the validity of your claim...

[GUT2407]

Just now, Stickman1990 said:

Still interested in details of this amazing conversion that can be done in 30 minutes - forgive for being a little curious as to the validity of your claim...

I will find the link, I read just yesterday but I know that It was considered when I worked at Richmond back in the 90s.

[By The Bay]

1 minute ago, GUT2407 said:

Gee are they down to 12 now, they used to have way more. So my bad,

They have 8 The C-17A Globemasters and the newer C-27J Spartan to complement the C130J's.

[MicCanberra]

22 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

There is also a conversion the can fit to c300s to make them water bombers, only about 6 mill per plane and fitted in about half an hour, they could retrofit Hercules fleet for less than one or two new water bombers and have a couple of hundred bombers

Yes, but then it is declared as a state issue. The defence force is only supposed to support the aftermath and clean up. I really do not know why that is the case.

[OzKiwiJJ]

15 minutes ago, in rod we trust said:

we do need a lot more fire fighting , planes helicopters etc .. but the problem is the state and federal gov think it will rain , and they don't want to spend the money to maintain them its all about there budget  .. we have a some  but what we really need is land management .. and more breaks ,  newer and better trucks proper built bush fire trucks ,  but we are just going around in circles .. instead of giving more money to fire fighting services they rip apart the budget and give them less..  the biggest problem with buying better fire fighting equipment is the state and federal government cant sell the fire fighting services , like they sell everything else.. they will only spend money on things they can sell off to foreign investors.. 

You'll be pleased to hear that there is a FB fundraiser, started by comedian Celeste Barber, that has already raised over $20 million for the NSW Rural Fire Service. The should buy them a few more trucks etc. Actually I hope the money raised is shared with fire services throughout Australia not just NSW.

Edited January 5, 2020 by OzKiwiJJ

[MicCanberra]

20 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Fire chiefs have said that they have enough physical resources at the moment. It is a retired fire chief who has said that we need more water bombing aircraft.

 

Those Fire chiefs have been quoted as saying that they can use only a limited number of water bombing planes at a time due to the danger of having too many aircraft in the air in smokey conditions. They have also said that, although water bombers play a part in fire fighting, it is men (or women?) on the ground who are needed to do the majority of the fire fighting.

One per fire wouldn't get in the way of each other.

[in rod we trust]

we need to have at least 10-15 aircraft in each state not 15 if we have that in the whole country ..

 

the smoke that has been blowing around towns and cities is probably the longest and worse I have seen ..  

[in rod we trust]

15 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

You'll be pleased to hear that there is a FB fundraiser, started by comedian Celeste Barber, that has already raised over $20 million for the NSW Rural Fire Service. The should buy them a few more trucks etc. Actually I hope the money raised is shared with fire services throughout Australia not just NSW.

 depends on who is managing the money … there have been donation's and money rasied for farmers and drought and yet a lot of that money is being withheld   so I hope these organisation are going to give the money and not take half for themselves .. not to mention the projects that nsw liberals has undertaken and the budgets they estimate for them is almost double ..  just have to look at the stadium , the trams, nbn, all of them have doubled  all that wasted money on rubbish , instead of putting it where its needed 

Edited January 5, 2020 by in rod we trust

[Kiwi Kruzer]

It’s Sunday afternoon here in Auckland and now it’s our turn for the smoke . The sky has turned a real spooky sepia colour and what we thought were clouds is grey smoke .

 

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12298143

 

here is a couple shots from the Queens Wharf cam ,one at midday and the other at 3pm

 

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

And that is how bad it has been here and worse for weeks.

[NoWhiners]

2 hours ago, GUT2407 said:

Yep, the kids were about 8 & 10, still think it was a camp out, a few years earlier we were trapped on the freeway by fires eventually were able to turn back (coming home from Sydney) -and spent about a week living in a 8’ x 12 room on Richmond RAAF base, they still talk about that as if it was an adventure holiday and it was at least 25 years ago.

 

I love these kinds of stories. Every family have them and some become a tradition, even including short code phrases. Your might be "looks like another office night" or maybe "another RAAF stay". These are the moments that tie families and generations together, and provide light moments when we need a break from life--or fires.

[in rod we trust]

they should be getting these jets and asking for there help

 

https://www.smh.com.au/national/russian-offer-of-fire-jets-rejected-20091020-h6xt.html

[NoWhiners]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

Fire chiefs have said that they have enough physical resources at the moment. It is a retired fire chief who has said that we need more water bombing aircraft.

 

Those Fire chiefs have been quoted as saying that they can use only a limited number of water bombing planes at a time due to the danger of having too many aircraft in the air in smokey conditions. They have also said that, although water bombers play a part in fire fighting, it is men (or women?) on the ground who are needed to do the majority of the fire fighting.

 

Well yeah, can't have too many planes or choppers in the air at the same time, but they could have a sort of high-tech bucket brigade. Send up one wave, then while they refill or rest, send up another wave, and alternate. I am not a firefighter or an expert in fighting fires, but it seems to me that if you can drop water or retardant on areas, that would be a big help. And people on the ground can build firebreaks and save homes and people, but still having air drops of water and retardant should help.

 

I did watch the efforts to stop a really big fire in southern Colorado about 10 years ago. We were camping on the side of the mountains when it started, the camped on the other side when the fire jumped the ridge, and then back to the original spot again, over a 3 month period. Lots of choppers dropping water and retardant.

 

Lots of natural events are scary but fire scares me the most.