Comments on: More fire updates…

By: Helen

Helen — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:13:03 +0000

Poor frogmouth. He must have come quite a way. I hope this might cheer you up a little.

By: laura

laura — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:48:47 +0000

This morning when I went out in the yard to let the chooks out I found a singed tawny frogmouth, in shock, face down on the ground next to the chook water trough. The vet rang to say they euthanased it.

By: FF

FF — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:53:28 +0000

Oh, and the kicker. Sedimentary charcoal research by Scott Mooney, Kate Redford and Gary Hancock found that only *one* large fire seems to have occurred in today’s Royal NP boundaries in 1600 years prior to 1930.

By: FF

FF — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:36:45 +0000

Get this. The NSW Department of Environment & Climate Change which is currently boasting that it deliberately burnt 400,000 hectares of bush in the last five years as part of its “hazard reduction program” does not collect readily accessible data revealing what proportion of prescribed burning is by aerial bombardment by incendiary devices in national parks as opposed to anything resembling mosaic-like, limited targeted fires lit by ground staff.

Of course, one must surmise that the bulk of the deliberate destructive burns are indeed achieved by aerial means which raises a zillion questions about containment and unintended impacts which are not even addressed by it and other agencies, I’d wager.

The Royal National Park south of Sydney hasn’t burned since 1997. Why? Because it was largely destroyed by the deliberately lit 1994 bushfires which destroyed 90% of it and then the deliberately lit 1997 fires which burnt again 70% of it and because it has since been repeatedly subjected to massive controlled burning courtesy of government environmental agencies whose overwhelming priority is to ensure that it never, ever, threatens southern Sydney again.

Great work, fellas.

By: zorronsky

zorronsky — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:53:58 +0000

Add to that Ambi the multiplying effect of fire burning up hill and settlements on the crest…

By: Ambigulous

Ambigulous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:24:47 +0000

Phil Cheney’s warning, tucked away on an ABC website:

“In absolute terms, the combination of drought, temperature, relative humidity and wind speed that makes up the fire danger index of 100 has been exceeded on Ash Wednesday in 1983. Although I suspect that the wind speed recorded at Melbourne in 1939 – that McArthur used as a measure for the index – was lower than the wind speed that would have occurred in the mountainous regional areas of Victoria.

Nevertheless, the weather conditions of January 1939 still remain as a benchmark for the worst possible weather conditions. There were three days of extreme fire danger that occurred within a week. We have not seen such a prolonged period of extreme weather in 100 years of weather observation. We do not know the frequency at which these conditions will recur. What I do believe is that these conditions will happen again, and when they do, any bushfires that happen to start will be just as extensive and just as severe as 1939.”

at http://www.abc.net.au/blackfriday/aftermath/pcheney.htm

By: Ambigulous

Ambigulous — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:09:10 +0000

included here – photos of 1939 fires
http://museumvictoria.com.au/forest/fire/people.html

By: Huggybunny

Huggybunny — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:38:48 +0000

Chris, All electrical installations fall under one standard or another. Inspectors for standards compliance are independent and licenced and there are independent testing bodies.
Standards committees are drawn from the Industry, Academia etc – as they should be- but that sometimes stuff gets through or the problems are not recognised. There are international standards bodies and international standards as well.
A designer of these systems either conforms to the standards or can expect a visit to the coroners court at some time in his/her career.
Yes commercial interest sometimes impedes safety.
I agree about the management system/s.
It seems to me that refuges are high on the list as well as some serious “terraforming” by the planting of non Eucalyptus to soften the effect of the fires, also some rules about building. Half buried structures with windows with shutters – stuff like that. 1m of wet or dry earth is an excellent fire stopper.
Huggy

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:59:02 +0000

The problem is that conservative design and prudent maintenance are not exactly the prime aspect of private enterprise. Unfortunately profits are maximised by skimp.

Agreed! Standards like this should be managed by an independent body with national, not state based coverage. It shouldn’t be left in the hands of the owners whether they be government or private. We’ve seen how governments both Labor and Liberal are also willing to let infrastructure run down.

I think we do need to be careful not to concentrate too much on the cause of the fires however. We need to design the management of the system – planning, housing design, evacuation/notification procedures etc on the basis that fires will start during very bad conditions.

By: Huggybunny

Huggybunny — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:30:12 +0000

The length of the catenary in a power transmission system is a design decision that is part of a complex design process that includes maintenance programs and cost. Some owners have been forced to fit fiberglass spreaders to their catenaries after the public has observed spectacular showers of sparks during high winds.
Cost is an input to design, there is often a serious fight between the bean counters and the engineers. For example the flux density of a transformer may be an esoteric mystery to most but the decision can have huge cost and energy loss ramifications when translated into actual installations.
Like-wise the culture of the organisation that owns the asset will determine the intrinsic safety of the asset. The old SECV may have had its faults but penny pinching at the expense of lives was not one of them.
The standards for power transmission lines may well be inadequate for eucalyptus forests that are on the edge of ignition and should be modified in the light of this experience.
The problem is that conservative design and prudent maintenance are not exactly the prime aspect of private enterprise. Unfortunately profits are maximised by skimp.
Huggy