SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Bushfires Are Raging Outside Every Major City in Australia. They're Only Going to Get Worse:
Australia has deployed military planes and ships to provide aid as hundreds of wildfires rage across Australia, forcing residents to flee and destroying homes.
The Australian Defense Force is sending ships to the Victoria town of Mallacoota on a two-week supply mission and using helicopters to bring in more firefighters since roads were inaccessible, according to the Associated Press (AP).
On Tuesday, thousands of people from the town on Australia's southeastern coast fled towards the water as a fire ripped through the area.
Photos of residents taking shelter on boats circulated on social media.
[...] In New South Wales, where Sydney is located, firefighters are battling more than 100 fires, according to the state's Rural Fire Service.
Sydney's famed New Years Eve fireworks went ahead despite the fires. A petition calling on the government to cancel the display and give the funds to firefighters and farmers instead got more than 280,000 signatures.
[...] New South Wales' Rural Fire Services Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said this wildfire season is the worst on record.
"We've seen extraordinary fire behavior," he said Tuesday, according to the AP. "What we really need is meaningful rain, and we haven't got anything in the forecast at the moment that says we're going to get drought-breaking or fire-quenching rainfall."
More than 900 homes have been destroyed in the state, according to New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
A fire tracker map maintained by researchers in Western Australia shows that they are also threatening areas around every major city in the country.
Additional coverage:
- Australia fires live: two dead in Cobargo as NSW and Victoria face bushfires threat – latest updates - interactive map too
- 9news live feed
- Large parts of the NSW South Coast are expected to lose all telecommunications in coming hours
- Tens of thousands of lightning strikes spark dozens of fires across South Australia
- More than 30,000 tourists in Australia who defied orders to leave area east of Melbourne amid raging bushfires are 'TRAPPED' as roads are cut off, after locals warned staying would be 'suicide' - have the pinch of salt ready
- 4000+ blocked on Mallacoota beach as forest fire approaches
- The Navy joins fleet of military helicopters called in to help evacuate south-eastern Victoria
- A total of 33 fires are still burning across Victoria as of 7pm Tuesday, with the majority of those blazes in East Gippsland.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @02:25PM (6 children)
The Black Friday bushfires of 13 January 1939, in Victoria, Australia, were among the worst natural bushfires (wildfires) in the world. Almost 20,000 km2 (4,942,000 acres, 2,000,000 ha) of land was burned, 71 people died, several towns were entirely obliterated and the Royal Commission that resulted from it led to major changes in forest management. Over 1,300 homes and 69 sawmills were burned, and 3,700 buildings were destroyed. It was calculated that three-quarters of the State of Victoria was directly or indirectly affected by the disaster. The Royal Commission noted that "it appeared the whole State was alight on Friday, 13 January 1939".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_bushfires [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by https on Thursday January 02 2020, @02:35PM
This is much, much worse already, and summer has just gotten started in the southern hemisphere.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 02 2020, @06:29PM (2 children)
So this fire is almost twice as large as the Black Friday fire then.
How big are the fires burning in eastern Australia? [theguardian.com]
So, that's about 8,895,794 acres
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 02 2020, @07:19PM (1 child)
Think about that for a second...
Dude had to go back to 1939 to cherry-pick a comparative fire. And the best he could come up with was only half as large!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 02 2020, @07:42PM
The Black Thursday bushfires were a devastating series of fires that swept the state of Victoria, Australia, on 6 February 1851 [an estimated 5 million hectares were burnt]. Twelve human lives were lost, along with one million sheep, thousands of cattle and countless native animals.
"The temperature became torrid, and on the morning of the 6th of February 1851, the air which blew down from the north resembled the breath of a furnace. A fierce wind arose, gathering strength and velocity from hour to hour, until about noon it blew with the violence of a tornado. By some inexplicable means it wrapped the whole country in a sheet of flame — fierce, awful, and irresistible." -Picturesque Atlas of Australasia published in 1886
(Score: 2, Informative) by deimtee on Thursday January 02 2020, @09:20PM (1 child)
1851 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Thursday_bushfires [wikipedia.org]
1898 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Tuesday [wikipedia.org]
1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday_fires [wikipedia.org]
2009 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires [wikipedia.org]
or just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushfires_in_Australia [wikipedia.org] and scroll to the list about half way down for many more.
The current fires are very bad, but they are not unprecedented. The increase in damage is partly due to more extreme drought, but also to fire suppression causing increased fuel loads, as well as more people living in the bush. This last point in particular, people who lived in the bush in the previous two centuries cleared around their houses and worked the land, these days living close to nature in the hills is popular, resulting in many more house going up in flames when a fire does come through.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday January 02 2020, @10:41PM
Yes, Australia has always had bushfires: but 2019 is like nothing we've seen before [theguardian.com]