Need a bigger shovel! So ahh hows that snow working out for y'all?.

[Ian Moone]

For all my crowing about shoveling sunshine off the driveway, it seems I need a bigger shovel - coz I obviously wasn't shoveling fast enough to keep up!

Right now a little snow wouldn't go astray!

Oops burnt out the bridge!.
https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/12472666_1159521877393304_6704009821387127913_n.jp g?oh=5ee3dd2b01fd4015c9b24bd7a39e846d&oe=571443FD

From 60 miles away!
https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/1170756_217912168551770_5199856456808082989_n.jpg? oh=0011c6803c84f50bc0daa1d579126375&oe=5742FA4E

Aerial view of pyroclastic cloud formation.
http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/1/4/y/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gm0r5l.png/1452302259887.png

A whole town - 120+ houses lost in 7 minutes.
http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/2/a/c/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gm0r5l.png/1452302354652.jpg

Historic old timber town completely gone.
http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/2/2/1/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gm0r5l.png/1452294541558.jpg

Both highways connecting the states 2 largest city's cut.
https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10152627_518444161663879_3983468512353373826_n.jpg ?oh=e7414620e8ec3f7f8230e380f288cc15&oe=56FEBFB7

Over 200 fire appliances on the fire line.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpl1/v/t1.0-9/12509885_675210862581934_7404140681596002330_n.jpg ?oh=77255b12cca2e8f1f38afaa40d6ab923&oe=57094ED8&__gda__=1459692628_afdbb2fae0874cb37dd9fdbaabb1945 7

Over 64,000 hectares (150,000 acres) ablaze with a fireline of 120 miles and growing.
https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpl1/v/t1.0-9/12524077_537799476385319_6096821287134313029_n.jpg ?oh=6bf6a3e4a12139d86f2916b758562e52&oe=56FCD976

One of the 120+ buildings (so far) being razed to the ground!.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11235810_10153885957820909_804211532119613349_n.jp g?oh=d94e9e0099c8ccfc957b3311c8b198ee&oe=57420562&__gda__=1461076274_0be6efa2b882880577425f10797f0b1 a

Little left after the passage of the fire.
http://d2j8j3f5zqxz9z.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/andrew-oconnor-600x330.jpg

Haulpack didn't make it.
https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/21606_940092259393971_9117522605198531136_n.jpg?oh =8d9a0dff02368c6065ec21214d420b2b&oe=57437072

Did I mention its a tad warm here ATM?
https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/10885065_1615024122052119_1801318276790557130_n.pn g?oh=07063381596b2263fdb3a0fba059a7f3&oe=57105D95

Better go shovel some more sunshine off the driveway before it backs up and self ignites.

Send some a that snow will ya's?

One more for good measure!
http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/2/2/1/6/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gm0r5l.png/1452294541558.jpg

Stay safe out there... climate change is a real b!tch.

[Randy Rose]

Crikey !
What a disaster.

[Ian Moone]

2 confirmed dead, 2 more still "missing".
Another house lost in Perth itself last night from a lightning strike & a 3rd fire now out of control with houses under threat on the south coast, from more lightening strikes!.

South Coast fire getting ahead of steam up.
https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/12418005_1160938377251654_3214020289433980518_n.jp g?oh=5a6bdc57ae29943182a02d9490946ad6&oe=573DF0CA

Lightning started this one in perth yesterday afternoon, with 1 house also lost.
https://s.yimg.com/ea/img/-/160108/080116genkarnupfire102_2_1b8uut6-1b8uute.jpg

Forecast is for more storms & lightning tonight.
Firefighters from out of state, brought (flown) in today to relieve exhausted crews who have been at the fire since it started Wednesday night (its Saturday night now).
Seems like half the states on fire!.

BUT

It's not like we didn't know it was coming.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/30524159/lessons-of-past-lost/
Makes for 'interesting reading'.


Things were different in my day fighting fires!.
The standards have slipped a heck of a long way.
It's all about having 14 water tanker planes etc to suppress a fire after the fact, rather than employ people all year round to do hazard reduction burning in spring around vulnerable towns to make fuel loading's safe to fight a head fire in summer!.

And
It's not over yet!
Aerial bombers can't operate (fly) safely in smoke, and thunderstorms, lightning, at night in close enough proximity to the ground to douse head fires that confront these towns!.
The fires we have already are beyond the material and manpower resources we have available to tackle them.
The only thing will change this is if the weather alters and it rains heavily and puts out the fires, without lightning starting more of them!.
Protecting houses and lives is the priority - so the grasslands and forest will be left to burn... and there aren't the resources to protect property and lives, as last nights loss of a town of 500 people and 121 houses proves.
Fire burnt the timber electricity transmission line poles down, knocking out the power grid. The pumps to transfer water to the elevated fire fighting water tanks towers - to fight the fire, are powered by electricity which failed. There was no water to protect the town. The few houses that survived were where owners had a swimming pool & their own petrol powered portable fire pump and tank to attack the embers, and preserve their property's. Being an ~200 year old timber milling town most of the houses lost were all timber millers dwellings made from lumber that are tinder dry. Without water they were indefensible.
The town lost last night - Yarloop, was originally settled on a contract to supply hardwood timber "cobbles" to pave the streets of London in the early 1800's.
All that history gone. Steam railway workshops museum - the lot , gone in 7 minutes without water!. Never mind the lives lost.

More 'interesting reading' and photos!
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/30523454/inferno-all-but-wipes-inferno-all-but-wipes-yarloop-from-map/

[Ian Moone]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/wa/a/30523454/bushfire-all-but-wipes-yarloop-from-the-map/

This 4 minute news vid is worth the watch to get a feel for the scale of the devastation.

[Scott Shepherd]

That's incredible Ian. Thanks for sharing. Oddly enough, I haven't seen a single blip of it on the news here, which is unusual because it's normally filled with "A school bus in Patagonia went off the road today. 30 Children were on board, none were injured", yet this is going on and it's not mentioned.

Stay safe!

[Patrick McCarthy]

Wow, Ian, I have to ditto what Steve said;really tragic and very strange this has not been all over the news channels here in the states.

[Myk Rian]

Ian
That's just awful. I would send mega-tons of snow, but we don't have any.
Last month, Michigan had it's first ever tornado in December. Last year at this time we had feet of the stuff. In 2014 it went to 0ºF and below as soon as November came, and didn't go above 0ºF until March. California in is danger of the whole west coast sliding into the ocean due to rain. That might be an over exaggeration.
Nasty weather this year.

[Ian Moone]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/12540956_10153351111373061_8700929094212940187_n.j pg?oh=a22f0c55c1a1d186ef3a08e27fcec64b&oe=5745CAFE&__gda__=1464399592_6fe0fd9469fdc92c3aa6e45de2da1c1 e

Relief crews arrived... after 3 days!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/12507499_10153351111398061_5162615233331682882_n.j pg?oh=daaf5be653c36676c26dd79028923a48&oe=571526E6&__gda__=1460207088_a1117b18955b4dcbcb7bdc074f23854 9

https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/12376189_10153351111443061_3417389502078743068_n.j pg?oh=00a60af3e042b1d17405e5a66624d9aa&oe=56FC55D8

https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xal1/v/l/t1.0-9/12524077_880830085347882_8148743082345825197_n.jpg ?oh=3d27c91a749c6ab88be964b9cb57a5f7&oe=56FDE602

Bit of a common theme... much needed rest/sleep!

They did manage to save the next town in direct line of the fire overnight - weather eased up a bit & cooled off!.

Still not out or under control yet (contained) tho.

[Bert Kemp]

Ian really sorry your state is having a ruff go of it, but I know what your going thru we live with the fear every spring here in Arizona and California too. Our wild fires don't get more then a sound bite in most the other states unless its really bad like 2013. On June 28, 2013, a lightning storm ignited the Yarnell Hill Fire in the high desert northwest of Phoenix. Two days later, the brush fire that covered a few hundred acres exploded across 13 square miles. Hundreds of people fled from Yarnell, Glen Ilah and Peeples Valley as flames destroyed 127 homes. The Granite Mountain Hotshots, who had been hand-cutting firebreaks along the blaze's flank, descended from a mountain ridge into a bowl where they became trapped. The 19 men deployed protective shelters but all were overcome by a wall of fire so hot it fractured boulders. Read more about what happened that fateful Sunday, June 30, 2013, including key questions raised by the deaths and the aftermath in Prescott, where most of the fallen firefighters lived.

Tears flow down my face right now and every time I think of that day or see mention of it anywhere.
I'll do a rain dance for ya and hope it ends soon. Stay safe

[Ian Moone]

I Remember seeing media on that Fire Bert.
From memory we actually sent some support staff (intel and logistics peeps) to help out - all the way from here down under!.
Very sad the loss of that almost entire crew.
Some memories stay with you for life!
I personally, don't miss the stress of fire fighting!.

[Bill Cunningham]

I believe all you guys wanting snow (if you live in path to DC ) I think your going to get your wish tonight..