skip to main content

Reader's Paradise

Australian Wildfires

Chris_in_the_Valley

17 years ago

Are any of our community near the wildfires in Victoria? Are you safe? We hear that nearly 50 have died so far.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (16)

veer
17 years ago
Just watching this on the BBC TV news; terrible devastation and the death toll rising.
Kath is further to the west in Adelaide, S Aus. I hope everything is OK with her and her family.
vickitg
17 years ago
I think annpan is in Western Australia, too. Such a horrible tragedy going on there.
Related Discussions
July: What are you reading?
Q
Comments (104)
A BURNT-OUT CASE SBS TV showed the docudrama Lamumba two nights ago, on the evening of 30 July 2010. I had never really got a handle on the events of the historical crisis associated with the legendary African leader Patrice Lamumba, events which took place when I was in my mid-teens. Lumumba is a 2000 film directed by the award-winning Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck(b. 1953). It is centred around Patrice Lumumba in the months before and after the Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved independence from Belgium in June 1960. Raoul Peck's film is a coproduction of France, Belgium, Germany, and Haiti. Lumumba dramatises the rise and fall of Patrice Lumumba. In late October 1959, just days after I joined the BahaÂi Faith at the age of 15, Lumumba was arrested for allegedly inciting an anti-colonial riot in the city of Stanleyville where thirty people were killed. He was sentenced to six months in prison. His name was just a news item on the distant periphery of my life, immersed as I was in a smalltown culture in the 1950s, in Ontario Canada. The plot of this docudrama is based on the final months of the life of Patrice Lumumba in his role as the first Prime Minister of the Congo. His tenure in office lasted two months until he was driven from office in September 1960. Joseph Kasavubu was sworn in alongside Lumumba as the first president of the country, and together they attempted to prevent the Congo succumbing to secession and anarchy. The film concluded with the army chief-of-staff, Joseph Mobutu, seizing power in a CIA sponsored coup.-Ron Price with thanks to SBS TV, "Lamumba," 30 July 2010. All of this got me back into Graham Greene who went to the Belgian Congo in January 1959, just before the Congo crisis broke out, with a new novel already beginning to form in his head by way of a situation involving a stranger who turned up in a remote leper settlement for no apparent reason. While Greene was writing A Burnt-Out Case in 1959 in the months leading up to and after I became a member of the BahaÂi Faith. This novel is one of those in the running for the most depressing narratives ever written. The reader only has to endure for a short time the company of the burnt-out character whose name in the novel was Querry. Greene had to live with him and in him--in his head--for eighteen months. Greene wrote that: "Success as a novelist is often more dangerous than failure; the ripples often break over a wider coast line. The Heart of the Matter(1948) was a success in the great vulgar sense of that term. There must have been something corrupt there, for the book appealed too often to weak elements in its readers. Never had I received so many letters from strangers, perhaps the majority of them from women and priests. At a stroke I found myself regarded as a Catholic author in England, Europe and America -- the last title to which I had ever aspired. This account may seem cynical and unfeeling, but in the years...
...See More
Fire Season Looms. What are you doing to Prevent Fire?
Q
Comments (16)
The biggest threat to homes from brush fires is not from direct contact with the primary flames, but from the embers they send up. Such is why in the aftermath of many brush fires, one can see burned homes at random hundreds of yards away from the blackened hillsides which actually came into contact with the fire. So while it may be tempting to think sprinklers turned outward might offer the home a protective barrier from encroaching fire contact, the odds are actually higher in the event of wildfire that your sprinklers would be spraying fire-less brush as your home behind the sprinklers burned. The brush clearance was the best thing to do (as the odds of embers reaching your home decline with the distance they must travel), but I also echo the advice of others regarding checking the vents (the weak spot of many San Diego homes that fell to wild fire in the 2000's) and that it would be more practical to turn your sprinklers inward toward your home rather than outward. Your neighbor with the sprinklers on his roof seems to be on the right track too with regard to dousing wind blown embers before they land on his/her roof or enter his/her vents.
...See More
Wildfires take out great nursery
Q
Comments (3)
Oh, what a shame! Hadn't heard about that; thanks for the heads-up Nil13. Hope they will be able to rebuild.
...See More
What animal intrigues you the most and why?
Q
Comments (65)
Well cats of course but I am glad to be reminded here of giraffes. In first grade I was taken to the Zoo in New York. I only remember the giraffes. They were living in a pen next to a path and there was a iron fence of spear shapes. They would eat peanuts out of your hand with their soft mouths but it looked to my young eyes like the spears had to hurt their necks. I eventually made myself a stuffed giraffe. When I was about 18 I went to a zoo in Florida and they had an orphan baby they were keeping in the petting zoo. It was so sad. So there I stood feeling sorry for it and it came up to me and put it's head on my shoulder and sighed so sadly. So sweet. Lots of people must have pictures. Birds are a hoot. As a child my grannie showed us a nest once. We had to be quiet and careful. The babies pretended to be dead. They stuck their little feet into the air and kept their eyes closed. If you were very quiet they would open an eye to check and snap it closed. I dont know what kind they were. I had a house in North Mississippi with a garage and the Tufted titmice babies would sun bath on the roof laid out with their wings spread out like bats and their feet stretched down. I have never seen anything like that in my life. I didnt have a camera at the time. Too weird.
...See More
annpan
17 years ago
This has been a dreadful time, watching the devastation on TV. Heartbreaking for the loss of life. I live in a suburban retirement village in Western Australia and should be safe but we have big trees in the park behind us and have had fires deliberately lit there before now. It is a sad fact that some of the fires in the Eastern States were caused by arsonists.
Thank you for your concern.
Kath
17 years ago
Yes, we are 7 hours drive west of this. Amazingly, although we had very high temperatures and high winds, we didn't have any fires here.
This is a huge tragedy, with the number of deaths expected to reach 200. At first I was angry that so many people seemed to have stayed with their houses instead of getting out, but it seems that these fires were so fast that some didn't even know it was coming. Unfortunately, eucalypts make good fire fodder too.

Thank you for thinking of us.
sheriz6
17 years ago
So glad to hear you're both safe! What a terrible tragedy.

Isn't Picassocat in Australia, too?
woodnymph2_gw
17 years ago
I'm thinking of our Aussie friends and hope they stay safe. What news from Colleen and Adam? How you are ok.
lemonhead101
17 years ago
I heard on NBC this morning that the Australian authorities were going to bring murder charges against the arsonists when/if they're found.

Sorry to hear about all the fires - it must be very frightening. We are under a Burn Ban here in West Texas, but had about half an inch of rain last night - the first precipitation since last October. I don't think it was enough to get rid of the Burn Ban, but it helped.
Kath
17 years ago
Adam should be fine, he lives in Adelaide too. I'm not sure about Colleen, but I don't think she lives in Victoria.
carolyn_ky
17 years ago
Glad to hear you are all safe. I read an article in our paper about how fast the fire spread.
rosefolly
17 years ago
So sorry to learn of this disaster. I hope there are no more losses of human life, and that the fires (and the drought) come to an end soon.

Rosefolly
picassocat
17 years ago
I'm okay... Thanks for your care and concern, it's greatly appreciated. Like Kath, I live in South Australia and it's nothing short of a miracle that we haven't had any fires over the summer, given the very hot weather and dry conditions.

I watch on the television at the loss of life and destruction, and I'm at a loss for words. So sad...
Chris_in_the_Valley
Original Author
17 years ago
Such terrible loss and how infuriating that some are attributed to arson. With my lack of perspective for distances on the continent, I looked at the map and envisioned clouds of smoke and debris floating over Adelaide. The fires looked due east.
Kath
17 years ago
Chris, what most North Americans don't appreciate is that Australia is about as big as mainland US. So it compares to the fires being in in New Orleans and we are in San Antonio TX.
annpan
17 years ago
In spite of the size of this continent, Aussies have a great sense of closeness as people, called "Mateship" and will do all they can to help the victims. No one can give them back what they have lost but they will get a lot of support to put their lives back on track.
Money and goods are being donated. Every shopping centre has a Red Cross collection tin. Fundraising is being conducted by everyone from school children to telethons and sporting events, auctions etc. Animal rescue groups are in the ruins seeking to save and treat domestic and wild animals and link lost pets with their owners.
Blood donors are registering in droves to help the needs of burns sufferers. So many good and hardworking people doing what they can.
rouan
17 years ago
I'm so glad to hear that all our RP Aussie friends are okay. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there are no more deaths and that the fires get under control quickly.
colleenoz
17 years ago
Gosh, nice to be worried about- sorry I've missed this. I'm over in WA as well and quite safe. Sadly the death toll has hit 200 and they're still looking for victims in burnt out houses and cars so the toll is expected to continue rising :-( What an utterly soul destroying task that must be...

Related Stories

HOMES AROUND THE WORLD The Great Escape: Family Rebuilds After a Devastating Wildfire

Tim and Tammy Holmes survived the 2013 Tasmanian bushfires but lost their home. See how they’ve started over

GREEN BUILDING Zero Net Energy: A Hardworking-House Term to Know

By Steven Corley Randel, Architect

Homes that consume only as much energy as they produce by renewable means are a goal for builders. Learn what ZNE means for you

LANDSCAPE DESIGN Great Design Plant: Catalina Ironwood, a Tree for Antiquity

Peeling bark gives this tree an antique look, but its low water needs are perfect for drought-prone areas today

MODERN ARCHITECTURE Houzz Tour: Sensitive Minimalism in the Arizona Desert

Beautifully framed views and a design that sits lightly on the land make for a thoughtfully integrated modern home near Tucson

Sponsored

More Discussions

April Come She Will - and we keep reading

63

The Game for June

116

June is in bloom ( at least in these parts! )....what are you reading

93

July – time for summer reading!

90

Rayma's story - warning it's long

3