Fire rages through Australian Homestead

[bennyballbags2]

Eliminate fuel, get a sprinkler system and live to tell the story

[33noa33]

Use mighty power of nature

In the northwestern Australia, we have huge tides,

huge evaporation and huge dry rivers and lakes.

Evaporation is up to 4m per year.

Huge 12m tidal erosion can revive old dry paleo dormant once mighty rivers, creeks and lakes,

desalinate the country and change deserts to rain forests to provide more rain across Australia = less Bush Fires

World population is growing rapidly and we need more land, energy, food, water.

see: Mitic CLIMATE ENGINEERING

[Jeffe01]

Most important is to remember that to Stay and Defend, you MUST have also taken the time, energy, and money to PREPARE your property and yourself beforehand. Otherwise, as last year's Victoria fires tragically illustrate, you might end up roasted.

[russell2pi]

Those who stay to defend, if adequately prepared and educated about the correct strategy -- as demonstrated so well in this video -- survive.

A lot of the research that informs the stay and defend policy came from Ash Wednesday fires in the Otways and Mt Macedon. Macedon is a lot like Kinglake and Marysville and conditions were similar. Residents faced huge crown fires (fireballs) and most survived and saved their house. As did numerous people in Kinglake and Marysville on Feb 7th.

[russell2pi]

Thanks so much for posting this. I have been doing a lot of reading about bushfire survival but it is so much more useful to see it in practice.

I must say though, attitudes about fires being "unimaginable" and so forth are not helpful, as all they do is disempower people. John Webster points out in her book that the media have pushed that line for time immemorial. Those who listen to it flee, even at the last minute, and often end up barbecued.

(to be continued)

[snowking23]

Jeff it's Will Leavitt. That was an incredible video! Thanks for documenting it and posting it. I hope you and Carrie are doing great, miss you guys!

[bundarrah]

Jeffe, it's Phil Maguire. I wasn't referring to you with the "use your brains" comment but to J3sst44. The previous comments attributed to "bundarrah" were Louise. I don't have any substantial argument with what you've said.

I just want to point out the huge difference between the fire at Bundar which was defendable, as you proved, and that at Marysville which wasn't.

[Jeffe01]

Re: the only option being to flee: fleeing kills. Most deaths you've read about till now were those fleeing. Can't see, choking, superheated smoke, panicked drivers plowing into each other, trees falling. Those who really prepared rather than just thinking they had "a plan" with garden hose and flip-flops wouldn't have to think about it. The time to flee is when you hear it's going to be the hottest on record, in the middle of a record drought and your wood house is surrounded by landscaping.

[bundarrah]

Marysville was destroyed in a fire storm that was unimaginable in its intensity, surrounded as it was was by mixed species forest carrying a fuel burden that made the dry forests surrounding Bundar look like a golf course.

The fire was crowning in trees more than 200 feet high and gas was floating in the sky just waiting to be ignited into fireballs. In that situation your only option is to flee while you can because staying means death.

[Jeffe01]

Dear Bundarrah (Russell?)...don't know about "my brains", I have nothing to do with the DSE policies. If I had my way, they'd be letting the old Mountain Cattlemen drop their matches in the bush in the autumn on their way back down the hill like they used to. While I'm sure some fuel reduction burns do get away, if they were done properly with good backup, they'd be a lot better than what just happened. With time and effort (overcoming decades of neglect), none would get away into thick bush.

[bundarrah]

Jeffe, also please use the full quote if you're going to quote me. What I said was "in that situation your only option is to flee while you can because staying means death." Fleeing while you can means fleeing while it is still possible to do so. In fact, most deaths on Black Saturday were people not fleeing but people who had insuffiicient warning and were not able to flee.

[bundarrah]

Jeffe, you haven't seen Marysville after the fires. I have. I'm also vastly more familiar with the bush in both areas than you are.

If you'd tried your luck on Falls Rd, Marysville, on Black Saturday, you'd be dead by now. My experience of bushfires goes way back beyond yours. I was the reporter who was the with the CFA when 13 dead firefighters were discovered at Upper Beaconsfield the day after after Ash Wednesday.

You survived in 2003 due to a combination of preparedness and luck. Face i

[bundarrah]

Give us a run down on the amount of fuel reduction burns that have got away, destroyed private property and killed people?

What's the point of having bush that is dependent upon cool burning if you're going to destroy it in regular wildfires. Use your brains.

[Jeffe01]

If you look, you can see all around us that the fire storm is just as "unimaginable". A mixed forest with high fuel burden. 100 not 200 foot high trees perhaps, but what we didn't catch on film was the 30 seconds when fireballs galloped across the mountain. Sorry, we are in the real bush, unlike upstream properties in the "golf course". After driving through the Marysville area post fire, I can assure it was no worse than what hit us (tho our 12 acres were spared the worst due to PREPARATION.

[bundarrahbabe]

Just lucky there wasn't a fireball, as then no amount of preparation would have helped, as those in Marysville and Kinglake etc found out on Black Saturday 2009.

Everything would have been incinerated.

However, your video IS evidence of the benefit of clearing away ground fuel.

[boopoop1]

That would have to be the Bundar from 2003?

Reckon the frigging Greens would have learnt by now that less fuel equals less fire, but nope. Now we've had Black Saturday let's see what happens.

Glad your place was saved.

[J3sst44]

What's the point of having bush if you're just gonna have it all burnt anyway? If you live in the bush, run the risk of fire, it's part of Australia.

Also, so many "controlled burns" go out of control anyway, just like the one in Wilsons prom a couple of years ago.

[bundarrah]

But that shows your lack of understanding of the Australian bush. For thousands of years it's been burnt regularly by the Aborigines.

The white man in their wisdom put a stop to it (by now, in the area of this video, burnt by mountain cattlemen) in about 1919. Twenty years later the hideous 1939 fires.

Regular burning and forest management then started again. Stopped in about 1981 by the Kirner govt. 22 years later...the result is this video.

The nature of the bush changes with hot fires.

[J3sst44]

Yes, but in those 20 year gaps, imagine all the times a "controlled" burn would result in an out of control bushfire, as I said, these burns go out of control often, and what is the point of having bush, if you're going to burn it all the time anyway, out of it's natural cycle.

Anyway, every few decades, there is bound to be a day of extreme danger like such. Fuel reduction or not, these fires will happen, and it will cause devastation, so why risk starting firs which could go out of control.

[Jeffe01]

See the world around us in flames, but the earth nearby not. We did indeed have a defensible space. As well as most of the other requirements to prepare to defend. Green trees don't burn unless there's fuel underneath to ignite them (as you can see in the vid). Our trees were left with green leaves, the only ones for 2.5 million acres. And we didn't lose our home, either. Not luck... preparation (and cahones?)...my wife's ,... not mine!

[stokesj86]

You had two to three weeks to prepare and you didnt give yourself and defensible space? cutting trees away from the house etc? lucky lucky

[mikeleza]

amazing video.... although I think you are lucky to survive... many others were not.

[jus10yeah]

dont look like they did a great job 181 people died seems to be more dead and they did a good job no they fucking didnt

thats why i only worried for the animals whites deserve that they put aboriginals through hell now they burning in hell KARMA

[ourvh]

well done you brave people

[Borealis77]

Jeff, I want to congratulate everyone who had the courage to confront the power of fire, the images

are terribles

is a difficult decision to take him to stay to fight the fire imminent.

greetings and good luck

Hernan from Buenos Aires-Argentina

[fieldofsky]

Thanks for posting this video - it was far more informative than any TV coverage. I admire your courage although at first I thought you were fools about to die.

[TeresaRawrx18]

Oh fuck! that shit is spreading fastI hope your safe!

[saosinissik]

NICE BIKE NICE JOB!!!!!!!!!

[aplusmedia]

done well there fellas

[schalkeno1]

ffffffffffffaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr­rrrrrkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!

[Jeffe01]

Good idea...!

Hopefully, though, it won't! We now have a wooden deck (with sprinklers...)

Jeffe

[Jeffe01]

In Victoria, they cannot legally force you to evacuate...only suggest. All those who stayed saved their homes. My neighbors who fled lost theirs. No guarantees either way, but all studies show that if you've PREPARED your property to be defensible, like we did, your chances are excelelent. If you rely on crossing your fingers and ignore the reality of your choice to live in an area that can catch fire, then good luck! We did everything suggested by the experts...and did just fine, as you can see

[volfirie]

Correct Jeffe - and we don't even suggest unless there's plenty of time. To attempt to run when you can see 30 metre flames is bloody dangerous, it's way to late to leave!

You did pretty well there - though I'd suggest dragging the hoses inside with you if it happens again!

I did three tours to the north east and two to the far east in '03. It was interesting...

[akron1000gpm]

Great video. Gives the public an insight into how little it takes to defend a property instead of running and leaving the property at the mercy of the fire. Thanks.

[blackhotmetal]

are you kidding? i was there and we were told to evacuate and when the sky is bright orange and you can see 30 metre high flames, instinct tells you to get the hell out of there.