Aussie Fire & Deaths

Officials have come under criticism for failing to notify residents of the danger or evacuate towns facing high fire risk on Saturday. Australian fire authorities rarely order mass evacuations but advise people to establish a fire plan that involves either leaving early or staying to defend their homes with hoses, pumps and generators.

Many of those who survived the most devastating fires said there was no time for an orderly evacuation and witnesses said several people died while sheltering in homes that collapsed in a matter of minutes.

Mr. Brumby has called for a royal commission, the highest level of government inquiry, to review the state’s response to the fires. One question will be whether officials should have greater power to force residents to leave their homes in times of high fire danger.

The premier and fire officials defended the existing approach, saying no one could have predicted the ferocity of Saturday’s fires. However, Victoria’s main fire authority updated its safety warnings to clarify that “leaving early means going to safe places on all days when there is a fire risk.”
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See in bold, it is called traditional plan we have in Australia and I mentioned earlier that they are at the moment working on a new system to improve better for the future bushfires - the government doesn't want to see this again. In my hometown of Canberra, we have experienced the same thing 6 years ago.
 
JClarke said:
See in bold, it is called traditional plan we have in Australia and I mentioned earlier that they are at the moment working on a new system to improve better for the future bushfires - the government doesn't want to see this again. In my hometown of Canberra, we have experienced the same thing 6 years ago.
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I still find it odd. I'm sure Australia's had its share of firestorms for quite a while. Don't you think they would have come up with some system especially after 3 worst firestorms? :scratch:
 
Wow is that for serious?
They failed to notify citizens, wonder why?

That's like, the first hurdle you have to overcome.

People first, fire second.
 
I don't really know why, but they need to improve the system. I believe the fire was too much for them.
 
JClarke said:
See in bold, it is called traditional plan we have in Australia and I mentioned earlier that they are at the moment working on a new system to improve better for the future bushfires - the government doesn't want to see this again. In my hometown of Canberra, we have experienced the same thing 6 years ago.
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I hope that Australian national emergency plan might follow Califorina s Fire Incident Service in the future.
 
JClarke said:
I don't really know why, but they need to improve the system. I believe the fire was too much for them.
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yes but after 3-4 worst firestorms in the history and they STILL haven't come up with better system??? very puzzling.... this is a serious negligence on government's part and looks like some heads in Ministry of Interior will roll.
 
Like what Chevy57 said, they should. People chosen their options to remain behind. We have lost ONLY 3 people in our 2003 Canberra bushfire. BUt this one is the worst one I have ever seen.
 
Australia vowed to push through stalled plans for a national fire warning system on Thursday, though questions remain over whether coordinated alerts could have saved lives in the country's worst-ever wildfires.

Australia feels new urgency for fire alert system

Attorney General Robert McClelland said a plan for a telephone alert system had been before the government since 2004, but that state governments had not endorsed it and that changes were required to federal privacy laws that bar private numbers from being handed out.

McClelland said he backs sending a barrage of automated warnings to all phones in an area where there is an emergency.
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What wrong with being not clear if a phone warning system would have saved lives?
 
Byrdie714 said:
How is the weather forecast looking down under?
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The weather's cooling down now, the CFA (Country Fire Authority) and the other figefighters are getting the fire under control. One new fire has broke out. The police revealed a computer image of a wanted man responisble for the fires.

And Chevy57, the government system is being delayed due to the privacy breach of the telecommunications -- some of them preferred private.
 
JClarke said:
And Chevy57, the government system is being delayed due to the privacy breach of the telecommunications -- some of them preferred private.
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That s delayed due since 2004. I think that they must do to work with emergency alert system for telecommunications this year. no delay.
 
that is what they will be doing this year, they want to have it set up for this year's bushfire season in (October 2009)
 
JClarke said:
that is what they will be doing this year, they want to have it set up for this year's bushfire season in (October 2009)
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I hope that they would take time to set up it this year!
 
Official Google Australia Blog

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1. not many roads in those area has high-density of vegetation (especially trees)
With their escape route blocked by downed power lines and a tree, they took shelter first at a school, then - when that burned - in an exposed cricket ground ringed by trees, where they found five others.

"All around us was 100-foot (30-meter) flames ringing the oval, and we ran where the wind wasn't. It was swirling all over the place," Barber said. "For three hours, we dodged the wind."
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2. environmental factors -
Jim Andrews, senior meteorologist at accuweather.com, said the combination of record high heat, high winds, gusts and low humidity created a perfect storm scenario for the fires. "I cannot fathom in my mind anything more, hellish, firewise," he said.

"Last Saturday we had the most intense fire weather conditions we have had in forecast history," David Packham, a research fellow in climatology at the School of Geography & Environmental Science at Melbourne's Monash University, said in an e-mail to journalists on Monday. He said the heat and a recent lack of rain made it clear days before the weekend that "conditions were in place for a disaster to occur."
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as you can see - probably the biggest factor of high casualty is the lack of roads which were surrounded by heavy vegetation and trees. With high-speed wind and dry spell, the fires were able to jump all over, creating Wall of Fire... so this is basically the Highway of Death. The people were trapped from all directions.
 
That's correct, Jiro and they are in the country area, not in the metropliatian area, if you know what I mean?
 
Ash Wednesday 1983 Bushfires - 75 dead

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Black Saturday 2009 bushfires - 181 dead

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