Angel_Wings 's heart feels heavy.

I have just come home, a week ago, from spending two weeks with my sister in Canberra. She lives in the suburb of Kambah. As it stands at the moment 39 homes in Kambah have been destroyed including two only 5 doors up from my sisters house. They are, thank God, ok and miraculously have suffered zero fire damage to their property although houses all around them were either destroyed or badly damaged. My brother in law, Martyn, had to help put out a fire at the neighbours house across the road. He broke his thumb in the process which is the only thing they suffered through the ordeal. Martyn described the event to me as tho a fireball had been shot from the mountain behind his home and exploded over Kambah. It was a matter of 30 seconds between "hey look, the mountains burning!" to being surrounded in a cyclone of fire.
Please remeber the people of Canberra right now they need all the goodwill the can get right now.

Since there's a smoke haze now, here in Melbourne...a couple of hundred miles from the worst of it...we're talking an affected area the size of the UK.

Now if Howard would just stop hugging destitute owners and actually BUY a few 'Elvises' to have in Oz on permanent stand-by we'd be a lot better off.
OK, so they're expensive....but not as much as 4 dead, a few hundred casualties and 400 houses lost.
Houses alone would average out at about $100,000,000 AUS...[about US$45,000,000].
That's gotta buy an Elvis undercarriage, at least...

Ande-
there has been a fire burning in bushland on Stradbroke Island for over a week which has been responsible for the haze etc. over Brisbane. Must say that the moon here at Victoria Point on Saturday night was the most amazing colour due to the fire.

Hi Garry, Here on Bribie Is. its been surreal looking at times. The Island being 4/5ths National Park has had its fair share of fires this summer all deliberately lit. Strange how it always happens during school holidays. A fact well documented. I know many people in Canberra, at this juncture they seem to have missed out, thank goodness.

But I wholeheartedly agree with Jafo, in a country as susceptable to bushfires as Aust. is, and will continue to be, whats four firefighting choppers. (Elvis Type). Cost should not be a consideration when human life is at stake. Maybe somthing like this might wake them up(Politicians), but I won't hold my breath.

Were those election years? Probably not... Damn self-serving politicians....I bet they would react differently if their homes were threatened....

Jafo, cool

You know maybe they should look into the vintage Sikorski's from Nam? Not the Huey, but the first one, I'll have to look it up. They use them here for fire and also police rescue. Four to five long wide bladesfor heavy lift. There are also internal tanks you can install for fire retardents and such.

US Military surplus would be a place for them to look also...

One of the shows I watched about the Bush fires, was about one where a family got caught in their car and the two teenagers ended up walking through a tunnel for fire from the trees that lined the dirt road and the mother got stuck in the car. Happened a few years back I guess, but they showed the car after everything was put out and she was removed from it. It was like an oven, baked the car clean of paint, rubber and glass...

Nasty stuff, even harder with just how much outback can be OUTback...

stay safe, you and yours and everyone else

goodmorphing, it's just gone 0250 on Saturday and the temperature in Melbourne is around 35C.
Smoke haze is a trifle less than through the day but is still around.
Fires all over the East Coast and in very difficult areas.
The number of homes destroyed in the Canberra suburbs and outer areas has reached 530+ at last report, like we said, this in an area with a total population of 300,000.
The choppers are Sikorsky Skycranes, big mothers and very capable, the cargo pods are replaced by tanks or water pickup gear.
Of course, not a lot of open water around for them to pick up ..... and another pair are on the way.
We live in a (typically) well timbered outer suburb with a lake and parkland bordering our property, being 'bush' it is well set to go up in a flash.
It is accessible for the normal fire fighting services so it is not as nerve wracking as living in the alpine resort areas and waiting for the fires to come over the ridge .... but it sure keeps one on their toes.
Forecast for Saturday, 41C and dry .... and we are almost in the Southernmost tip of the country.
Fire bombing aircraft are a sore point in this country, cost aside, the control of them is a a hot topic and maintaining them is a big issue.
Civilian contractors are not an option, the temptation to cut costs can be ugly, the Herc that augured in last year in California was a classic example, airframe maintenance updates lacking and resulting in catastrophic centre section failure ....... not an unusual happening.
Old airframes subjected to stress and loadings not built into the original design are not happy aircraft!
France has their "Securite Civile" (I think that's the name) airborne fire fighting force and it is an example of the right way to tackle this problem, the Canadians are on a similar footing, both using purpose built aircraft as well as heavily modified airliners or freighters with good service histories.
Over the past few years the manufacturing and maintenance infrastructure in the Australian aviation industry has all but vanished ...... civilians couldn't operate fire bombers and of course, if the RAAF were tasked with the job it becomes very 'political'.
As always, we'll get by, but at what cost?