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Submitted on behalf of user "crutchy" #179, who writes:
"I don't seem to be able to use the 'Submit Story' feature at the moment... I just thought I'd flag a little saga currently unfolding near where I live. An open cut coal mine that supplies coal to a nearby 1600MW power station in Victoria, Australia, has been on fire for over a week. This could threaten electricity generation in the area and might have been deliberately set.
What might be more interesting is the lack of news media attention to it."
[Ed. Note] we're working on fixing article submission, thanks for getting this to us via alternate means.
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Hey, wait a minute!! I want a divorce!! ... you're not Clint Eastwood!!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Nkwe on Monday February 17 2014, @07:44PM
It might be newsworthy if the summary or discussion talks about how vulnerabilities in critical services impact our lives. Discussions on why the loss of one power plant can impact customers (and why there isn't redundancy). The summary suggests it might be deliberate. How about discussion on protection of technology against deliberate attack? Lots of things that could be relevant to the audience.
(Score: 3, Informative) by crutchy on Monday February 17 2014, @08:50PM
i can tell you from first hand experience that the air quality in the nearby cities of Morwell and Traralgon is terrible
http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/our-work/monitoring-the- environment/air-quality-bulletins/24-hour-air-qual ity-summary [vic.gov.au]
sometimes if i go outside i can feel my eyes begin to sting after a short while. a few days ago there was an overpowering smell of burning rubber in the air (i was walking my kids to school... contemplated turning around and keeping them home inside)
there have been warnings from the health department to stay indoors (we use a FireReady app (http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/plan-prepare/fireready- app/) to receive up to date info, as well as listen to radio for emergency warnings, but there isn't much else on TV about it, but it's hard to just stay indoors when this fire has been going on for a week and is projected to go on for at least another fortnight.
firefighters have been treated for carbon monoxide poisoning (http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/firefighters-fa lling-ill-at-coal-mine-fire-20140216-32u0r.html).. . this was actually something that did get a little attention from the media... mainly trying to blame fire authorities for not caring about safety, though i'm sure if the power station was more impacted the media wouldn't give a shit about firefighters.
the national highway (highway 1, named the princes highway) runs right alongside the fire, and there's a stretch of about 5km of the highway where we have to slow down from 110 km/hr to 80 km/hr whilst travelling through thick smoke (eyes get very stingy) that requires headlights in the daytime
(Score: 1) by kwerle on Tuesday February 18 2014, @03:36AM
Naw, I don't think so.