HOMES LOST IN PERTH HILLS BUSHFIRE

kiwijims · Guru

HOMES LOST IN PERTH HILLS BUSHFIRE

Vic41 · Guru

Not good KJ, a very high risk area, there is a nudist colony at Parkerville somewhere too, the late GN member Magic Bob used to fix their electronic gates for them. I would assume they would have had to evacuate along with other home owners.

Hope there are no more casualties, one of the fire fighters lost his home while away trying to save others.

-- Edited by Vic41 on Sunday 12th of January 2014 10:28:06 PM

kiwijims · Guru

I wouldn't think there would be too many Nudists running around in this temp Vic,

It appears that it is another fire started by a pole fire,
I see that the electricity mob are very quick to point out that the pole is on private property
in other words......"Don't blame us"

It's a great pity to hear that a person looses his own home while helping others,
lets hope others look after him and his family in the future

Latest news just in now... Fire still out of control......20 homes completely destroyed......fire has broken through containment lines and heading towards a very heavily populated area.

kiwijims

Vic41 · Guru

This is the nudist club KJ, in Hovea which backs onto Parkerville where the fires are.

They have buildings on the site as well as camping grounds (open to the public for a fee, some Avan friends used to stay there occasionally) I would imagine they all would have evacuated by now, see;

http://www.sunseekersnudistclubinc.org.au/

Thanks for the update on the fires. One of our daughters was living at Stoneville not so long back, glad she isn't there anymore, we used to worry everytime they had bushfires up that way.

Big Gorilla · Guru

This is really very sad to hear of the loss of homes and all to often, loss of life. It seems to becoming a regular occurrance in most States and also down here in Tassie where the climate is a little cooler. When I see a large high pressure system off the east coast, you can tell it will generate hot winds across the central desert and drag the winds southerly and up goes the temperature...

blaze · Guru

when will they learn that you cant build a house under trees and expect it not to burn in a bush fire. This coming from an ex bush firery. Its niceto have the trees for shade etc but you do need to have a large fire break, size depandant on the height of surrounding trees. wonder how many sob stories we will get now from the uninsured.
cheers
blaze

kiwijims · Guru

Like you blaze, I spent many years in the Bushfire Brigade here in Perth,
we spent many hours fighting fires in the very area that has been wiped out at the moment,

Over the years, we have tried to educate the locals on fire prevention but, in a lot of cases the old saying of "It won't happen to me" prevailed.
some of the access to these homes has to be seen to be believed, only one way in on a winding narrow road and bush growing right over the driveway.

The tally of the present fire is 27 homes gone and as the fire is still not under control, the final count could be as high as 40,
the final count could be days away as there are areas that cannot be entered until the fire has moved on.

Only one death so far but there are a number of Fire Fighters who have been taken to Hospital through Heat exhaustion.

This morning it's a lot cooler and there was cloud cover earlier, the top temp is only expected to reach 29deg and very little wind.
lets hope they get on top of the fire today before there is more loss of life.

LATEST UPDATE, just received...... 40 homes now confirmed lost, many more could go, 275 fire fighting Personal on the ground at present.

kiwijims

-- Edited by kiwijims on Monday 13th of January 2014 12:47:16 PM

exa41 · Guru

Hi Kiwijims , your right you know , people just don't realise just how much bark and ground fuels are around. My wife and myself have been in the CFA since 1983 and fought in most of the big fires around here in the Yarra Valley, and seeing the carnage from the major ones you wonder why people do what they do, I mean you drive around and think ,there on there own because I`m not going to take my crew into somewhere that I know I wont get out of.

kiwijims · Guru

Howdy exa41, Yep, At times I felt it was a thankless job we did in the brigade,
especially on one occasion I recall.

We were doing a patrol ahead of a slow burning fire, making sure all Residents had left the area when we came across a huge fat bloke,
this guy was sitting in a deck chair out the front of his house, just watching the fire approach,
as we drove up, he waved a bottle of wine in the air and yelled, " Ya dooon a Great job Boys, Carry on"
Well it was stinking hot that day and did he offer us a drink of water ??? Not on your Nelly.
We drove off and got the local law to cool him down for a while,......well out of our hair.

There again, when a little girl appears at a rest area, hands you a little bunch of flowers and thanks you for saving her home,
Maybe it was worth the effort after all.

Latest update.......TOTAL HOMES LOST NOW 44 CORRECTION NOW 46 And looks like the worst has happened 4 PEOPLE UNACCOUNTED FOR.

kiwijims

-- Edited by kiwijims on Monday 13th of January 2014 07:59:01 PM

barina · Guru

kiwijims wrote:
Howdy exa41, Yep, At times I felt it was a thankless job we did in the brigade,
especially on one occasion I recall.

We were doing a patrol ahead of a slow burning fire, making sure all Residents had left the area when we came across a huge fat bloke,
this guy was sitting in a deck chair out the front of his house, just watching the fire approach,
as we drove up, he waved a bottle of wine in the air and yelled, " Ya dooon a Great job Boys, Carry on"
Well it was stinking hot that day and did he offer us a drink of water ??? Not on your Nelly.
We drove off and got the local law to cool him down for a while,......well out of our hair.

There again, when a little girl appears at a rest area, hands you a little bunch of flowers and thanks you for saving her home,
Maybe it was worth the effort after all.

Latest update.......TOTAL HOMES LOST NOW 44 And looks like the worst has happened 4 PEOPLE UNACCOUNTED FOR.

kiwijims

ABC Just announced that the 4 people have now been accounted for....great news

Gerty Dancer · Guru

Oooh I feel for them. Its a year since we had a fire scare here, but every time we hear about this sort of big fire it brings back the memories of Canberra bushfires which came pretty close. It doesn't end when the fires are put out, you have to wait to even get back to your home, theres weeks without electricity, people wandering on your property as if it was suddenly public just because it got burnt, insurance companies who are never fast enough... on and on.

A HUGE thank you to the firies... bless you all.