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Subscribe to RSSHouses destroyed by a bushfire are seen in ruins in Dunalley, Australia, Jan. 5. Over 100 homes have been destroyed in Australia's island state of Tasmania, with police saying that thousands of residents have been displaced by dozens of bush fires, driven by record high temperatures last week across the country.
Chris Kidd / Pool via Reuters
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Once again the curse of the summer bush fires has arrived here. It is perennial as the rain and as day turns to night. So glad no one has been killed this time. Properties have been lost, they can be rebuilt, but lives can never be replaced. We will stand quietly by our fellow Aussies and with encouragement they will get through this. Fear not Tasmanians, there is a whole country behind you. My State is also burning and not far from my home. I am watching the fire closely as I have the greatest respect for Mother Nature and all her forces.
shona1 you are correct whether we're Croweaters, Victorians etc we are ALL Australians. As we saw with the Queensland floods a couple of years ago or "Black Saturday" the one thing that all victims of bushfires know is that their fellow Aussies will dig deep to help them.
Evening Aussie...yes just watching the smoke coming over now. I am in Victoria..the sun has now turned blood red and everything has a "yellow glow"...Have friends in the path of this fire so hope they get out while they can..going to be a long few days/weeks here as they can only fight it from the air as the ground is swampy and there are no tracks etc into the National Park. No matter where we are or which State we are in, we will always stick together and support each other....
I feel for anyone that loses there home or business.
Here's my question though.
When you know there's a flood coming you always try to prepare for it with sandbags etc right?
But with a wild fire or forest fires people do very little, I say this because there are products out there which when applied to a persons home or business it protects that structure from burning but yet these stories are still all over the place.
Why doesn't the maker of this product (which MSNBC did a story on a couple years ago) doing more to get the word out that there is a way to save your property!
I'm glad that no one lost there life due to these fires as well.
If the magnitude of the fire was as large as implied, the only effective way to completely wipe it out would be with enough seaplanes with seawater reservoirs to make a lot of repeat trips. As much as I know.
Always sad to hear someones house burned down. Condolences.
Forest fires are part of the natural cycle. Many forests depend on occasional fires to clean up the dead-fall and underbrush. Especially in drier climates. It doesnt rot without the rain and moisture. So it can pile up over decades. Then a lightning strike or something, and POOF!!!
If you live in a dry wooded area, susceptible to fires, you should clear 50 ft of land around your home. Minimum. Its a good idea to use metal siding too. Even though its kind of fugly, lol.. Its "Burning Ember" resistant. A lot of the houses I see burned in these kinds of events, havent done that. Sometimes you can see they were surrounded by brush, right up to the house. And then they wonder why their house burned... Create a fire break, and you might not have to live through the same disaster as these people.