Victorian Fires.

Finally I get to do something to help!

Am being deployed to the fires tonight, probably round the Healesville area, will be releaved and get back after the nightshift.

Promise to be careful, will let folks know when I'm back in one piece.

Dont forget your flashhood!

Human life is far more important than that of a koala, but this is still a cute story:

Koala with scorched paws rescued from Australia's wildfire wasteland by firefighter

An up close photo:

Local CFA firefighter David Tree shares his water with an injured Australian Koala

It's interesting (and this isn't an attack) that while 300 people are probably dead, the same photo of a Koala gets linked to twice by different people in the same thread.

There was a bad cynical joke going round during opposition to the Iraqi war, that we should post pictures of dead cats and dogs to get people to oppose the war. I wonder why we find it easier to relate and sympathize with animals than people.

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Originally posted by Malacasta
It's interesting (and this isn't an attack) that while 300 people are probably dead, the same photo of a Koala gets linked to twice by different people in the same thread.

There was a bad cynical joke going round during opposition to the Iraqi war, that we should post pictures of dead cats and dogs to get people to oppose the war. I wonder why we find it easier to relate and sympathize with animals than people.

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That's exactly why I started with the caveat that I did. This is the same reason why Michael Vick is a horrible demon but Leonard Little's multiple DUIs, one of which resulted in the murder of a wife and mother, is forgiven.

For me personally, it is a little easier (or less difficult to be more correct) to read stories about koalas and other incidental issues, than having to read stories such as this:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/ev...0210-83kj.html

No doubt as time goes on I'll start reading the other stories, but right now I do not want to read about people that most likely shopped at the same supermarket I do, or had kids at the same creche I do. It's just too difficult.

I was listening to 774 on the way into work. They were talking about how asbestos explodes and the fibers just go everywhere, in bushfire heat.

One of my cousins had a nervous breakdown (as in, a serious one and still on medication one) after 2 of her kids played on some asbestos sheeting out the back.

Imagine these people going out to their ruined houses, to be poisoned by asbestos and then get mesothelioma in the future. Apparently a lot of the houses would have been build with asbestos.

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Originally posted by Malacasta
Imagine these people going out to their ruined houses, to be poisoned by asbestos and then get mesothelioma in the future. Apparently a lot of the houses would have been build with asbestos.

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Sounds to me like that problem is only going to occur once people start going back to their houses (when things are calmed down, and the panic has settled). Shouldn't be too hard to take precautions. What would be more worrying would be all those firefighters, trying to contain a fire, and having to go "Wait, is that house going to throw asbestos around?". That would be awful.

Regarding animals: I think it's of note that certain animals are coming to humans for help, when normally they wouldn't. Quoting from that article:

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"I love nature, and I've handled koalas before. They're not the friendliest things, but I wanted to help him," Tree said.

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It's one thing for a cat or dog to be helped by a person; it's quite another for a koala or a possum. His description "not the friendliest things" is understatement... a koala, raised in the wild, is not going to accept help from a human unless in the most drastic need. The same with possums; we have a few around our house, but normally they're not much interested in talking to us. But on one of the 43 degree days this January, we had _two_ of them come up to our window (we have massive great wall-sized windows) looking for water, which we were able to provide. (Poor things were so dehydrated. Hardly able to drink once the water was there for them.)

So... how is it that these "dumb creatures of the wilds" know that the humans have water? Somehow they figured that talking to people would benefit them. Hmmm.

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Originally posted by Rosuav
So... how is it that these "dumb creatures of the wilds" know that the humans have water? Somehow they figured that talking to people would benefit them. Hmmm.

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Animals know humans have food and water because food and water are given to animals by humans. Think about it...

Back safe and in one piece.

Was actually in the same area as that Koala. Not sure if it is the same one but one of the CFA (fire) stations has one living there at the moment. I think it is being tended to by Healesville Sanctuary (wildlife park) staff. All the animals have apparently been evacuated from the sanctuary itself.

At this stage in the game the work is consistent, but not necessarily 'urgent', and the biggest danger is falling limbs from trees. Containment lines are being established, at times well ahead of the fire. Focus is on protecting water catchments that feed up to 50% of Melbourne's water and townships between the two main fire complexes. The fire fronts themselves are large, measuring in the hundreds of kilometres all up.

Fortunately weather has been most favourable in playing into firefighter's hands providing good conditions for backburning. In most cases the fire itself is in inaccessible regions, meaning there is a lot of waiting till it burns to containment lines to see if they hold - which under forcasted conditions shouldn't be a problem - mostly. Activity in the Healesville area has been downgraded, and our Taskforce was actually sent back home at 2am this morning.

The downside is due to the size of these things it is quite probable that the fires will remain active for the remainder of the fire season, or until some significant rain anyway. We just hope that we don't get a repeat of anything coming close to the weather conditions of last Saturday - sadly there is still real potential there for up to another month and a half.