In the years between fires, this all builds up and can reach a few metres deep in places. Rain leads to more undergrowth. In times of extended drought, which is what we’ve had here, that all becomes dry. Firefighters euphemistically but accurately refer to it as “fuel”. Where possible, especially when it's close to homes, and despite opposition from environment groups that has seen some national parks "locked up" to controlled burns over the past couple of decades, they try to reduce it through backburning - but they physically can't get everything.
Each summer in Australia, newspapers in every capital city carry the warning that the “state is a tinderbox”. It’s a ready-made cliché, but sadly, it’s often the truth here. Tinderbox really is the perfect way to describe it. The hot offshore westerlies that blow in off the desert on the east coast over summer are fire winds, and carry the smell of the outback: dust, smoke and pollens.
When the fuel burns, the oil-rich eucaplypts burn, and they burn quickly. Embers blow in the direction of the wind and lead to spot fires that can erupt into a firefront ahead of the original one. At the base of a big fire like this in Australia, the temperature can reach 2000C. The tips of the flames will reach 900C, and the heat can kill before the flames do. Changes in air pressure suck in oxygen to fan the flames, and the sound of it roaring across the tree tops sounds like a runaway freight train – which is how survivors and firefighters described Saturday’s inferno. Wind changes can join separate firefronts so that they become one, huge, raging megafire. Kevin Tolhurst, University of Melbourne senior lecturer in fire ecology and management, said the conditions were some of the world's worst. He said temperatures within the fire were so hot it released enough energy to supply Victoria with electricity for at least two years. Up to 80,000kw/m of heat was expelled as fires raged on Saturday. Mr. Tolhurst said this equalled about 500 atomic bombs. He said eyewitness accounts said that they didn't see any evidence of fire and then all of a sudden they felt the area around them was exploding.
Years ago I had a - very short – try-out stint in the old volunteer bush fire brigade, and have covered bushfires as a reporter in my home state, New South Wales, which was also under threat in 40C-plus temperatures on Saturday and Sunday, and have seen “crown fires” where the tops of trees burn and push flames hundreds of metres into the air. The air is so hot nearby it feels like it's pulling the breath from your lungs, and the fires are so intense, they can jump across roads and even wide areas of cleared land. And the smell of burning eucalypt is distinctive and choking.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
great reporting, SS. I am baffled by the mind warped enough to start the fires and endanger so many. Hope all the culprits get caught, but what punishment could match the crime and cost?
2 - STM
Thanks, EL. We are mortified here too by the idea that some of these fires were deliberately lit. One we know for certain was arsoncertainly ... Country Fire Authority firefighters put it out early before the extreme wind change, and then it was relit.
3 - Jordan Richardson
Riveting writing. I'm grateful that you shared your perspective on this. Like EB, I'm dumbfounded that somebody would start this blaze. Simply awful shit.
4 - STM
Thanks Jordan ... [edited]
None of us can comprehend how anyone, in those kinds of conditions, could light a bushfire knowing the devastation it would cause.
Really, it's beyond belief
5 - Dr Dreadful
This is the biggest news story in the entire world right now - thanks for sharing your insights, Stan.
Australia is not a continent to be trifled with. As you observed, this fire is not necessarily the biggest or baddest there's ever been. It's simply that every time a big one happens, there are more and more humans to get in the way.
6 - Ruvy
Stan,
I'd been cut off from the news and the like for a number of days, and upon returning to the internet yesterday, the terrible fires raging in Victoria State were the first things I saw on the screen.
While I have a number of thoughts on the matter, my first concern is for those I know Down Under. That's you, but also includes some folks who attempted to give it a go living here and returned to Exile. I haven't heard from them, and have forgotten where they live, but I do remember their names. Where is there a list of those whose lives were taken by the fire?
Finally, this was riveting writing. Good on you for the writing. But it's a damned shame you should have had to write such a piece at all....
7 - STM
Thanks guys. Always good to hear from Doc and Ruve. Yes Ruve, if you click on the first link in the story you'll go to The Daily Telegraph site - which has some heart-rending coverage of the aftermath and some amazing stories of survival - and I think there's a freecall phone number there that you can call. Many of the victims haven't been identified, however.
8 - Cindy D
Great article Stan. Very sad. I hope you are safe.
9 - STM
Thanks Cindy. Luckily, I'm in the next state ... no bad fires actually where I am, but one big not far away over the weekend that didn't spread thanks to a cool change and some rain. We've been spared this summer in New South Wales.
10 - Dr Dreadful
Fires are just a fact of life there, aren't they, Stan? Same here in California. It's only when they collide with human populations that things get ugly.
There always seem to be fires in the eucalyptus forests somewhere. I remember travelling by train from Morriset, near Newcastle, to Sydney in December '05, and seeing fires in the hills almost the entire way. They were being watched, but apparently just allowed to burn themselves (hopefully) out.
And one can usually see smoke somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains (when they're visible through the smog!) here in summer. The forest fire service seems to be a bit more proactive than their Australian counterparts, but on the whole, the fires don't pose much of a danger unless they get close to a town or a ranch.
11 - STM
Doc: A lot of those fires you see are what we call hazard-reduction burns. Sometimes they'll just let a natural fire burn and keep an eye on it, as it serves the same purpose. Fire is a natural part of the ecology of this continent, so letting them burn isn't an issue - some plants only seed here through fire, and the aborigines have been managing fire for many, many, centuries before white settlement.
However, in recent years, environmentalists have opposed controlled burns in many forests and national parks, which has led to a build up of fuel. In some places, fire trails are near impassable. While that might have been a factor in some areas on the weekend, there is no suggestion it's the cause of the tragedy.
One of the main problems in Victoria might have been the legislation that allows people to opt to stay and defend their properties under a fireplan they have to submit. Under that, they also need to take other safety options.
In this case, the fire became something no firefighters anywhere in the world had ever seen before - bearing in mind that in Australia, wildfires can burn much faster and approach with more speed.
One of the sad things about the weekend now emerging is that many triple-0 operators (our equivalent of 911) had people on the line while they were dying, much like the September 11 attacks.
It all happened so quickly. The fires seemed manageable on Saturday afternoon, then the wind changed and hit speeds of 100km/h, which merged some of the fires and turned them into what's called a "megafire".
These fires are so big and powerful, they actually create their own weather conditions.
But yes, it's man trying to live cheek-by-jowl with mother nature that's a problem.
There's always going to be fires here - we're the most fire-prone place on Earth - and people make allowances for it, but in this case, this fire really was something else, and the scale and ferocity of it was something no one could have predicted.
Like I say, the perfect firestorm created by a whole range of unlikely conditions that came together in a very short period of time. Just bad luck, really. That's the truth.
12 - STM
Doc, the death toll is being revised today to upwards of 300. Meanwhile, a planeload of firefighters from the US is coming in to help with some of the fires that are still burning, along with others from NZ who are already here.
They regularly do this - Australian and NZ firefighters went to the US last year for those bad forest fires. It's good to see.
13 - Ashley
It is one of the great disaster in Australia's history and worst bushfire in the country.
These types of bushfire were caused due to fallen or clashing power lines or were deliberately lit,lightning,sparks from a power tool and also by human-induced climate change.
These types of fires spreads vastly and it is more powerful too..
We must aware and protect ourselves from the natural disaster..
Thanks for the report.