Re: Bushfires everywhere

"Sean A. O'Hara" wrote:
> 
> Trevor & Moira -
> 
> It is interesting that this topic would come up now.  Recently, in
> discussion with a representative with our local water utility's water
> conservation unit, I was informed of the interest in the emergency
> preparedness & fire prevention unit in reviving the firescape garden here
> in Oakland, on Lake Merritt.....  The original garden was created in response to the October 1991
> Oakland 'Firestorm', where 1.5 billion dollars (US) in damage was done,
> thousands of homes lost, 25 people killed, and 150 people injured.  Living
> fairly close to the area effected, and as both my wife and I worked with
> survivors, this event is still vivid in my mind after 9 years.  It was
> perhaps the worst of city fires in our nation's history - certainly the
> worst in our area since the 1906 earthquake.

Sean this sounds so very similar to the great burn near Adelaide in
South Australia many years ago now, which was popularly known as Ash
Wednesday. I saw the area several years later and  many areas in the
adjacent hills, though much of the vegetation had recovered, still had
numerous large burnt -out properties where the houses had not been
rebuilt, a very sad sight.
> 
> While there were a variety of factors which caused this fire to rage out of
> control, from weather conditions (dry winds from the interior deserts) to
> lack of preparedness (narrow, poor roads in the hills) to negligence (the
> fire was apparently 'put out' the day before, and no one monitored it over  night to be sure it was!),

This monitoring seems to be a very important part of the control. In our
local area we actually have a volunteer "Bushfire Fighting Force" one of
whose duties is just this kind of surveillance. (the main cause for
worry is apparently old stumps, which can smoulder on for days and only
take a rise in the wind to get them going again)

 one of the main contributors in many people's
> minds was the huge 'fire load' that had built up of over many years.  The
> area in which the fire started was thick with Eucalyptus and Pine, and
> there was debris several feet thick in some areas. 

They are certainly much more conscious of this hazard in Australia.
When visiting a country property (smallholding) in West Australia about
a dozen years ago I remember helping our hosts to pick up twigs and
other flammable debris along their boundary plantings, the clearing away
of these materials before the fire season being a legal requirement. In
addition, in some bush areas we visited controlled "cold burning" was
taking place. This is done while the material is still too damp to start
a proper fire, but simply burns off any light trash on the surface.

Moira

-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
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