Under a Blood Red Sky: Photos of the Canberra firestorm

[Lancer]

Dominic is a hero!

[Alexander's Horse]

Here's a photo of an area that was not as fortunate as we were - the suburb of Duffy. Lots of homes lost here, whole streets wiped out.

The toll so far for Canberra is 4 dead, 260 injured and 400 homes lost. Its just sinking in.......one of the worst fire disasters in Australia's history.

[MattyBoy]

Dominic claimed today he saved us from the roundabout fire with his little spray bottle - who am I to argue with such a satisfied little fire fighter?

It's amazing what you can achieve if you believe in yourself!

Melbourne's currently covered in heavy smoke from Victorian fires, but apparently that is coming from a few hours away (Mt Beauty, Hotham, etc).

Scary pictures, Horse. I would have sworn that you took them after dark.

[Case]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Just remember, whatever else happens, save your hard drives!

On Sunday morning I was kicking myself for not thinking of that on Saturday.
Like Horse and his family, my family also prepared for evacuation by loading up the car with offical documents and valuables. However, all I contributed were some clothes and my various documents (passport, university results, etc). It never occured to me that the easily transportable computer CPU contained literally hundreds of irreplacable things (especially university related stuff) which I greatly value

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Under a blood red sky - What a great reference to U2.

[Hueij]

Australia signed the Kyoto protocol yet?

[Alexander's Horse]

This guy heard the evacuation order a bit too late.

[orange]

ah HA! It's all MOBIUS'S fault!

[Alexander's Horse]

I've certainly passed his name on to the Police

[Lancer]

Is the story about how to prevent this happening again? Clearing a safety zone, that sort of thing?

[ravagon]

You've some quite amazing photos there horse.
You might want to think about submitting them for publication somewhere...
The news coverage last night (Aired after the cricket ) didn't do nearly as good a job.

Glad to hear everyone's ok.

[Alexander's Horse]

Thanks - nothing could have stopped this fire. There's a lot of complaints and criticism today about inadequate warning and preparation by the authorities but really nothing could have been done. The situation was chaotic, the fire was out of control in just about every area.

I saw a mountain, Mount Taylor near my home, literally explode into flame, no fire front, just spontaneous combustion. No amount of fire breaks or fireman could combat that.

Houses lost is now confirmed as over 400. (402)

[Case]

Originally posted by Lancer
Is the story about how to prevent this happening again? Clearing a safety zone, that sort of thing?

There is a bit of discussion about that. Canberra was deliberatly planned so that the bush continued into the suburbs (the 'Bush Capital' policy). For 70 years it's been a nice feature and hasn't caused any major problems, but it now seems likely that the policy will be modified.

As the western suburbs which were seperated from the bush by open fields seem to have suffered far less damage, I suspect that the main reaction to the fires will involve implimenting a permenant buffer zone around the outskirts of Canberra.

However, as AH said, there's nothing which really could have been done to prevent that fire causing major damage. Given it's speed and intensity the best possible outcome would have been to 'only' lose the streets closest to the bush.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Sava
how did that crap start anyways?

Prolonged draught + high temperatures + lightning storm + high winds =

BTW Horsie, your little firestorm made national TV news here in the U.S.

[Alexander's Horse]

BASKETBALL

Canberra Cannons “thrilled” by crowd support
by STAFF REPORTERS


"The kind of red hot action sought by Cannons fans"
The embattled Canberra Cannons NBL team received a huge boost on the weekend when more than 7,000 people turned up for a practise session leading up to their match against the Melbourne Tigers this Friday night.

“We’re absolutely thrilled,” said a spokesperson, Doug Dunk. “There were so many people that they were spilling all over the court. Many were carrying sleeping bags and changes of clothing; clearly they were prepared to camp overnight to ensure tickets to Friday’s big game if necessary. The players were totally inspired.”

The Cannons train in a large basketball and recreation centre near the Canberra suburb of Duffy and said they were astonished to arrive at training to find a huge crowd already gathered.

Dunk said the Cannons had not realised the level of support that the team enjoyed in the outer western and southern suburbs of the national capital.

“There were entire families sitting together, from grandparents to little kids. It was wonderful,” said Cannons guard Tim Leanpole.

“All the players said that everywhere they went, they could hear the crowd talking about how we were ‘hot’ or ‘on fire’. Others were crying, I guess in appreciation of our finely honed basketball skills. We were genuinely touched and I’m telling you, we can’t wait to hit the boards against the Tigers and honour this support.”

It is believed five NSL teams have applied to transfer into the area.

Homes destroyed count has now reached 450

200 houses destroyed in the suburb of Duffy alone.