Surviving the Fireball

Dramatic eyewitness account: Daryl Hull's survival strategy of swimming in a lake as a fireball burned several metres above his head, and set alight the whole surrounding town of Marysville, Victoria, Australia.

Today Mr Hull was being examined under oath at the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission http://royalcommission.vic.gov.au/

Mr Hull's video camera footage was also part of today's evidence, but unfortunately was not filming as he swam for survival in the middle of the lake.

Would combustion engineering experts please review Mr Hull's testimony, and answer this question: do fireballs suck fuel into the air, and do they, according to credible eyewitness reports, exhibit many of the characteristics of a FLUIDIZED BED FURNACE? Can fuel "self levitate" due to the mass updraught within the entire plume, and also gain extra "lift" when an ember is aflame (aka "firebrand") in zones of higher oxygen content?

see also video footage at http://youtube.com/user/PlushPrincess2 where sustained combustion appears to be occurring at great height above the ground in the "smoke" plume of a "blowup" fire event (firestorm?)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• combustion
• fluidized
• bed
• fireball
• firestorm
• mega-fire
• blowup
• fire
• pyrocumulonimbus

[voltscommissar]

"stop interrupting" Who, me? ;-)

[ROBwithaB]

I hope the fire scientists are listening to these survivor accounts. Enormous amounts of valuable information are likely to emerge.

(e.g. the fire-tornadoes; the dense, roiling black smoke; blue flames; the "ceiling" of smoke; the "breathing" of the sky before the sky "ignited") all of these things say something very specific about the behavior of the fire and provide insight into appropriate strategies.

I hope they're listening.....

Let the man have his stay. Stop interrupting.