American reacts to Australia's Worst Bushfire (Fire Tornado)
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- Опубліковано 26 бер 2024
- Thanks for watching me, a humble American, react to the Canberra Bushfires 2003
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I don't think there is an Australian over a certain age that doesn't have some sort of trauma associated with bushfires 😢
I had to drive through a fire around 1978, South if CoffsHarbour to get home to Bowraville...it was SCARIEST big time I'm gonna burn to death scene......
As a kid, my step-grandfather placed me next to a petrol pump, with a truck tyre mudflap on a long handle, and told me to make sure no fire got to the pump....I was 12.
More so southern states. Qld does not have the raging bushfires like the southern states.
We have had bushfires near us but they are quickly bought under control because they don't go 'wildfire' on us due to the humidity.
This is so true. We worry less in the winter but it's always somewhere in one's thoughts.
We had to evacuate last year, ten days before Christmas - we spent two nights out of our home. The neighbourhood lost a handful of homes and a business and just about everyone had some damage to gardens, fences and sheds.
We were ridiculously lucky and it's only because of NSW Fire and Rescue and the RFS that things weren't worse. Firefighters are the most amazing people ever.
Yes, ash Wednesday in Victoria I lost a friend, a volunteer fire fighter RIP Murray Forsyth
Saturday 7 February 2009, the Black Saturday bushfires claimed the lives of 173 people, 120 in the Kinglake area alone. Another 414 people were injured. More than 450,000 hectares had burned and 3,500 buildings including more than 2,000 houses, were destroyed.
rip Rob, Tash and there 2 beautiful girls.
Rip Tanya and Dimi
Fireies are the bravest people on the planet weather they be in Australia, US, Europe, Asia, South America or Africa..
Hireos one & all. 👍👍👍👍👍👍
Oh dear. 'Firies', whether', 'heroes'. Not good enough. Back to school for you, Stanley Wiggins. 🙄
@@twoflyinghats hey, that snarky tone was uncalled for, mate! Politely correct them, yeesh
The NSW RFS is the world's largest volunteer fire service, with 71,234 volunteer members. They are organised into 1,994 brigades (local units).
I thought it was 2001 separate brigades. I remember when we got our grants for all that fund raising from the 2019-2020 fires was 20 million split, worked out to be $10 000 per brigade. I won't fight ya over 7 brigades though lol
We were living at Michelago that year and were planning to move into a granny flat in Duffy the following weekend. Our soon to be landlady had to evacuate with 2 minutes notice - she had taken her elderly mother to a safe place in the early morning, loaded her car with her valuables and ran from the house as the fire topped the ridge. She made it down the steep driveway but then her car stalled and she ran from it on foot, was picked up by the last SES truck making its way out of the fire zone. Her house and car were both burnt to the ground and she lost everything that day, but she had saved her mother nas escaped alive.
Grew up out at Burra. That area of the world is amazingly beautiful. I love the Tinderries.
I live in Canberra and was here that day - Watching this evoked such strong feelings and emotions, it was a hell of a time>
I was not near the affected areas but the response of everyone both on that day and the days after, its something you never forget
The fire didn't do its job. The politicians in Canberra are still there
i lived in Kambah just off the kambah pool road and had a one week old baby girl when this came through, myself my ex wife, her mum and bub went shopping, came out of the shopping centre to the warning sirens on ABC radio. we raced home and threw out family albums into one of the cars. as we were doing so a cop come past and told us we had 10min if we were still there we were going out in the back of his car. ladies went first, i left soon after watching the fire coming across the grass field 50m from the house. the mountain above kambah was fully ablaze as i left and it looked like someone had opened the gates of hell. luckily we didn't lose our house, but i was in tear listening the radio as one lady who had volunteered at a centre for people who had to leave, live on radio got a call from her partner to say the had just lost everything to the fire. I'm still angry because nsw fire raced up to help but due to red tape bungling had to wait over an hour before being deployed.
Those who were here will never forget that day.
I was raised in a family heavily involved with the CFA (country fire authority) and lived in an area impacted by fire most summers. I have a healthy respect for those that volunteer as well as those that choose a career in any of the emergency services. ❤
I have the utmost admiration and respect for you CFA volunteers. You do something that would absolutely terrify me, voluntarily, to keep people that you don’t even know safe, also g with their property and stock. Your family is what being a good Aussie is about and I thank them all. Especially those who have died just to keep us all safe ❤️
I love how Firies (firefighters) all over the world come together to help each other in times of extreme fire disasters. Our Aussie firies have travelled to the US and Canada to offer assistance and you guys came to assist us 👌💪👊
Hi there. I remember the 1968 bush fires, there have been several worse fires since I had just finished my schooling and was sitting on the front steps watching the Blue Mountains to the west. As the dark came on the mountain turned black with messy red bits that looked like top spots in a live coal. Three weeks later we got a letter from Nan living in N Z, the ash from our fire fell on her washing on the backyard clothes line and had to be washed again. Just to remember a hero, a fire fighter in Springwood died in that fire. The fire jumped from behind him and ignited in front of him ( as the hottest fires will do) blocking his escape, i dont know his name but he and his courage are remembered a little longer today. God bless
My family lived out on Hawkesbury Road, we packed a trailer and left just in time, as the fireball leapt over the road and hit the bush land behind our house which was totally destroyed by the fire. Miraculously our house wasn’t burnt. We had wet down the verandah and blocked the gutters and filled them with water, then the water was cut off as it was needed for fire-fighting. As we were fleeing the firestorm, there were still people out on the golf course, playing like normal 😮😮😮
We could see the smoke from my front yard in Orange.
I was four years old and still remember it vividly.
The 2019-2020 fires did the same thing by memory, they found ash on the snow topped mountains apparently..?
it's fair to say that lots of our friends come to help us out at times of emergency especially those from the USA UK canada singapore. we are forever greatful for their assistance.. and never forgotten. Sometimes they even give their lives for it.
It felt like the apocalypse, man. For a week, the air here in Canberra was mostly smoke - the sun was a dull orange at midday, the smell of fire was inescapable. The radios played the emergency sound, and little bits of ash fell floated down from the sky, miles away from the front. Getting to work was driving through fog - a hot, dry, dirty grey fog that smelled of burning wood. But mostly, I think, it was the unearthly orange sunlight. Those photos - that's what it looked like. All the familiar places looking like a new corner of hell for days and days.
Yeah, only four people. It could have been worse. But it was pretty bad.
I remember it took years to rebuild over 500 houses, as there are only so many builders.
Canberra hasn't had affordable housing since then.
I am still getting tears in my eyes watching this, it was so devastating you just wouldn't believe.
I worked with someone who lost their parent in that fire. Was truly a horrific day.
It was a Saturday afternoon during the Christmas/Summer school holidays.
- Quite a few families were away on holidays.
- The great majority of the workforce were "not at work".
- Generally children were with their parents.
Otherwise the casualties could have been much, much worse.
It was like night-time by 11am, street lights came on, but the sky was deep orange. Smouldering leaves/bark/small sticks were falling out of the sky.
I remember this day vividly. Our family was at Batemans Bay when this happened. We were returning home to Wagga Wagga that day and it was so scary between the skies being such an eerie orange and the worry of where to flames were. My heart went out to those affected. Also, the 2019/2020 bushfires were so devasting, my brother lived in Mogo, which is 10 mins from Batemans Bay. First, they relocated to relatives in Malua Bay and then they had to seek refuge in the ocean. It was so scary for them all.
This video is used in our Advanced Bushfire training in the TFS (Tasmania Fire Service) It's used to show what an out of control Bushfire looks like from inside. Weather conditions, terrain, fire behavior.
It is also used (with permission of the Chief in the video) as an example of what we now don't do when faced with catastrophic conditions.
He did his best as he knew, things changed a lot in the aftermath.
We don't diss our firefighters, we learn, adapt and improve going forward.
That whole video is almost an hour long.
I remember being placed on standby to evacuate. I live 11 miles from the centre of these fires, and we were doing ember patrol because the fire created a wind that was pushing burning clumps of leaves on branches out ahead of it. This is the ember attack they talked about. You can be miles away from the fire, but these embers get pushed ahead and start spot fires, which is a big contributor to the speed of the fires. The Fireys are gods - bravery, selflessness, compassion and empathy - just amazing. Add to them the wonderful people who set up food stations, rest areas, counselling for everyone involved or affected - and not to forget the wildlife rescuers, vets and carers.
We had red hot leaves landing on our driveway about 20-30km to the east.
It was the first recorded fire tornado in the world. The wind speeds recorded due to the fire sucking up oxygen were around 160kms, equivalent to a category 5 hurricane/cyclone. Most of this video footage is from daytime, although it looked like the night. Burning leaves travelled 20kms ahead of the fire front, propelled by the winds. It was terrifying.
They also found a sheet of tin from a large shed that had a painted sign on it (hence how they knew the distance), over 100km away..
yeah the pines next to duffy accelerated the fire. they esitimate that it reached over 300kmph in that section. people describing seeing the flames in the distance turning round to go incide the house and the flames hitting them in the back.
This is the equivalent of central Washington DC. Most of the firefighters are volunteers. Total visibility was lost in mid afternoon.
Thank goodness for volunteers. The NSW RFS is the world's largest volunteer fire service, with 71,234 volunteer members. They are organised into 1,994 brigades (local units).
I still remember that year. The sky looked like hell on earth.
Me too, I was at work and the sky turned dark red. People started running in needing hoses, we just started giving them out free to everyone.
@@bec3766 I was in Chapman and Sterling most of the day with my sister and my best mate square in the firing line. A long day.
Dry lightning storm just means there was no rain involved
I was there that day. In particular at the wedding of a friend who had grown up in Weston Creek, so people kept leaving the reception to go home and protect their houses (one friend got home to find the house on fire and his parents in bed having a nap). The wedding guests (many of whom were from Taiwan) watched in awe through the picture windows in the ballroom of the Southern Cross club as Mount Taylor first disappeared behind a thick veil of purple-black smoke and then re-appeared outlined by fire.
Another friend of mine went in a few days later to look at the site of a house that he had built (some time before). The brick footings remained, but the concrete slab had disintegrated leaving only the aggregate - sand, cement, and steel were gone. Where there had been an underground cellar its ground slab and cinderblock walls remained, and there was a layer of rough green glass at the bottom - all that remained of the (new) owner's wine and beer - with aggregate from the slab on top of it. The steel shelving, steel stairs, and steel reinforcement from the concrete slab had burned, the cement calcined back to a powder, and the sand been swept away by the updraft.
That sounds like a DEW hit that house if it destroyed the foundations.
I grew up in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne at the base of the Dandenong Ranges, it was all bush then and unmade roads. I remember my dad with all of the other dads going to help fight the fires in the hills to stop it coming down to where we lived. I as young and crying for my dad and so scared. Ash Wednesday I remember so vividly as I lived in Melbourne and 2 weeks before we had a dust storm so big which turned the city into darkness during the day, it was an ominous sign of what was to come and the country was so dry that the soil blew down hundreds of miles from the Mallee in Victoria. Then the fires, I lived closer into town in Hawthorn, miles from the fires, but the air was so thick with smoke and ash was dropping everywhere. It was like the world was on fire and the sky was the weirdest colour I’ve ever seen. I was 22 and that memory will never leave me. As someone else has said, most Aussies have been traumatised by bushfires at some point in their lives and you never forget! You remember every single bushfire and this still makes the hair on my neck stand up. So much respect for those firies, the saviours of this country!!
I find it deeply traumatic watching these fire videos. Having been around for all of the big ones in Australia for the last 60 years. All the lives lost, all the homes destroyed, all the dreams shattered, all those poor animals. Every year it is a terror that sits at the back of our minds. Thank all that is good for beloved Firies; where would we be without them?
I was a resident in Woden/Canberra during this event, the sun disappeared mid afternoon, it was complete darkness. I sat on the roof wetting down embers that were falling out of the sky. I found this event like Cyclone Althea (being helpless) that struck Townsville in 1971.
It amazes me that people “thank God”, when, if you believe he’s the one who started it.
I think the scariest thing about those videos that most people don’t realise is this was mid afternoon on an otherwise clear day. The smoke was so thick it literally turned day into night
I was there. It was horrendous.
I have lived and fought through countless bushfires my whole life.
I could write a whole encyclopaedia length reply about my experiences, but I just wanted to say these couple of short responses to your questions.
Bushfire temperatures are enough to melt glass into liquid (2,552 to 2,912 degrees Fahrenheit) and turn Aluminium car gearboxes/engines/Alloy Rims etc. into molten puddles. (1220 degrees Fahrenheit).
I have watched vehicles and houses explode into flames without a single actual fire/flame anywhere near them through sheer heat radiation alone.
The footage that you were watching is deceiving for most people who have never experienced bushfires, in the sense that even though you think the videos were filmed in the nighttime because of how pitch black it looks, this is what it looks like in the middle of a firestorm in the middle of the day, because the smoke is so thick that it actually completely blocks out the Sun.
You will never experience total darkness like you do in the middle of the day when fire smoke blocks out everything around you, and the smoke can get that thick that you can’t even see your own hand in front of your face.
The biggest danger besides from the furnace levels of heat/radiation exposure is the fact that these fires can also suffocate you to death from them taking all of the oxygen out of air around you and the smoke choking your lungs to a point where the body can no longer exchange oxygen into the bloodstream.
Yeah, they are really great fun to stand in front of and lock horns with the fiercest force of nature on the planet.
Ryan, you should watch some documentaies on the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires here in Victoria on Feb 7th, 2009. 173 people killed, with temperatures hitting 46-48 degrees C (115-120 degrees F). We'll never forget that day.
I lived in Canberra through those fires and watching this left me in tears many of my friends lost everything and a friend lost his wife, my place was saved thankfully and we had grass in the waterway behind my place that was well over 6ft high and the front of my unit faced one of the main ridges the fire came over we actually watched it come over the top, we did have to evacuate and spent a few days putting out spot fires even at the place we were evacuated to, then we started cleaning up as my place and many others stunk from the smoke also losing power didn’t help we joined groups to help friends and others that lost everything
Kambah was hit by fire tornadoes which one was clocked at a crazy speed.
I thank you for not making light of this day/week as I know America is hit with some crazy weather events also, I felt bad when I seen the shock on your face and believe me I am still in shock when I see photos or videos of that day …..Mother Nature is amazing in so many ways but also deadly ❤️🌻
I’m 15 and I remember being on holiday in 2019 in Victoria, I looked out over the beach and saw the sky was a hazy shade of orange and everything smelled of smoke. We lost a third of all koalas in Australia in the 2019 fires and something like 3 billion animals died.
My Father in law (legally blind) lived in Duffy near the Petrol station. We couldn't contact him as the phone lines were out/jammed. We drove from Nicholls down to see a lone fiery with a small pump truck trying to put out a fire on the Parkway - we stopped but he said keep going east. We got to Duffy via a circuitous route and this suburb was still burning with houses going up in flames - helicopters trying to douse and sucking water from swimming pools. People were walking around in shock. One guy with a garden hose was hosing down his letter box whilst his house was razed to the ground behind (the For Sale Sale sign out front made the image worse). This event also allowed people to cut down gum trees - one of the factors for the intensity of the fire storm.
The fires of 2003 were devastating. All over the country. I lost family. A cousin trapped by fire and he ran in confusion accross several blocks and disappeared. He was found in the scrub, unconscious holding a wallaby . Both were still alive when rescued. He still has issues with his lungs. As an Australian you learn young that fires are coming , many of them. And you may or may not survive them. We know what to do because the primary schools teach us early how to prepare. Unfortunately not the city schools but if you're from the country like me, you are trained for survival.
I lived in Canberra at the time but in Gungahlin which is on the Northern side of the city and well away from the fires. It was still a terrifying day though. The skies were pitch black by 3 pm. We huddled by the radio listening to the evacuation reports whilst helicopters flew directly over our house. The paddocks at one end of the street were a staging area for the fire-fightering helicopters and they were taking water from the small lake at the other end of our street. The winds were horrendous and were raining burning leaves and branches down on our house. We discovered scorch marks on the roof beams years later. The fire burnt right up to Canberra Zoo. The big animals were sheltered in their night dens, the smaller had their cages open and were moved to the centre of the zoo. Fire-fighters surrounded the zoo to protect it. The surrounding forests burnt right up to the walls. When I got to work on the Monday there were many staff missing and those who managed to get in were shell shocked. Their stories of the day harrowing.
I still live in Canberra and I remember that day well. Luckily, we live on the north side and these fires came in from the south. It was still very scary as the smoke cloud hung so low, you could only see a few metres ahead. It was also rainy embers down on houses and my then teen son and some of his mates were climbing onto rooftops to clear gutters. They didn’t know the residents but were simply trying to help avoid a breakout should one of the embers ignite. As for the kangaroo, they could at least hop away, but obviously some succumbed. If a koala is in danger, its instinct is to climb higher into the gum tree. Unfortunately, gum trees go up in flames rapidly because of the eucalyptus oil in the leaves thus sealing their fate. The number of koala fatalities and injuries was huge.
My niece and her husband live in Canberra now, it's really lush and natural, so hard to believe bushfires happened there! I have survived two fires with just asthma, lucky! Our brave volunteers are incredible! 😪🧡🙆
I live right on the edge of Canberra overlooking Stromlo, right where those fires went through.
@@lamsmiley1944 Beautiful place, I sincerely hope it never happens again! My niece is in Fisher!
Training firefighters to report what they see isn’t just about getting information. It’s for the psychological health of the brigade, when you have to think about how to explain something to someone else, it takes you out of the moment & provides much needed distance between what you’re seeing & what you’re feeling
The 2019-2020 Victorian/NSW bushfires darkened the snow in New Zealand as the volume of smoke blown over the Tasman Sea was so vast. Leaving work in Melbourne somedays the visibility was terrible and it was sometimes difficult to breath. All I could think about were those in the bush whilst I was in the safety of the city.
This brought back so many tears that i shed for the animals in the recent fires. 😢
As a lifetime Victorian of over 50yrs, the courage shown by CFA (and volunteer firefighters from all states) volunteers year after year, and the fact we continue to have those volunteering is a testimony to Aussie mateship and courage. In saying that I have always been puzzled why in some areas we haven't taken some examples from our interstate brethren at Coober Pedy and built residences that were a majority underground. Even a bunker similar to those seen in your tornado alley. With climate changes on the increase (as you've seen with your own wildfires) things aren't due to improve. Cheers.
Living underground is something I have advocated for decades. Not only would impede the damage done by fires but would provide new housing without turning farmland (needed more than ever to feed the increase in local population) or Virginia bush into suburbs.
These VOLUNTEER Fire Fighters are Aussie HEROES, with ANZAC COURAGE....
Absolutely! They deserve greater recognition, at least on par with other servicemen and women
Volunteer firefighters have Australian and New Zealand Army Corps courage?
Words have specific meanings.
As both a former firefighter and an Australian Army soldier, please don't misuse the word Anzac.
Oh and whilst the regulations currently only extend to commercial use and the naming of streets, roads and parks, there does exist the Protection of Word "Anzac" Act of 1920 which makes this a legally enforceable protected word with breaches of the regulations being punishable with up to $1,000 fine and/or 12 months imprisonment.
I agree. I was a volunteer for years. It doesn't require the courage of the ANZAC's.
@@35manning that regulation is only enforceable when it's used commercially or in business
@@Aleutica oh, you must be a genius.
Or you read the part where I said currently it only applies to commercial use or the naming of streets, roads and parks.
Also, the ACT doesn't specify the limits. Only that regulations may be made.
So they could make a new regulation that says you can't use the word on any Friday 13th.
Not likely of course, but it doesn't change any of what I said in my previous reply.
Ryan, I’ve watched fires in California from the news helicopter with Tim Lyn on board and those lines of fire are there as well. The wind catches the flames and pushes them in one direction, so there’s a wall of flames approaching any given area. The firefighters try to get ahead of the fire by burning the ground fuel, so when that wall of fire arrives, there’s not much left for it to burn. Of course wind changes, speeds and directions also influence the firefighters’ ability to get things under control.
I live in Kambah, one of the suburbs which lost homes. I remember that day vividly. I was up on the roof of my house with two garden hoses, putting out spot fires on both front and back yards as they ignited from falling burning leaves being fanned by the strong winds.
Once I felt I'd secured my house as best I could, I screamed across Kambah to check on a friend's house near Mount Taylor, on the eastern side of Drakeford Drive. They were down at the South Coast for the weekend and thankfully, their house wasn't damaged. But the ENTIRE Mount Taylor was alight, which looked incredibly eerie in the mid afternoon blackness, the dark caused by all the smoke. And approaching the Boddington/Drakeford intersection there were kangaroos (escaping from the burning Mount Taylor) bouncing around EVERYWHERE.
I wouldn't say I was traumatized by the experience, but I was feeling pretty nervous there for a couple of hours. With hindsight, I was one of the lucky ones!
Also in Kambah. I was only 6 and my family and I were in a townhouse near the golf course at the time. Absolutely terrifying, and we're so blessed we didn't lose anything (and kinda grateful Mum grew up in Mundaring, basically preparing for bushfires every summer).
We were getting the same burning debris falling in Ngunnawal. Hardly as much as Kambah would have had and was easy to put out. Do you remember though a house in Giralang was destroyed by those burning leaves.
They are true heroes ❤
For those houses that didn't burn down, the occupants had to live with ash and the smell of smoke for months. As the houses were rebuilt they also had the constant noise of construction in what was a quiet and well established area. My home was destroyed in Duffy but the neighbours across the street survived. They were without power for two weeks and had to go to the local school to get out of the heat and to have meals cooked etc. Many that were not destroyed couldn't face living there anymore and sold up.
5:48
This brings back memories of that day.
The smoke had slowly blocked out the sun from around midday, and by mid afternoon the sun was totally obscured.
The suns light was then replaced by the eerie glow of the fire as it approached unabated towards the entire western edge of the Capital.
I can recall living through this. My husband was on call that day and he rang me around lunch time to tell me to pack up just in case. Our daughter was staying at a friend’s house on the other side of Canberra - further from the originally perceived risk area. I immediately drove to collect her so we would be together just in case. I recall standing on our front lawn and her commenting on what she thought were car headlights in the distance - it was actually fire!. I can remember the sky was red - it was like night at 3pm. I could not make contact with my husband for nearly 24 hours - I had no idea if he was safe or not. I learned from him many years later that the fire fighting vehicle he was in was caught in a burn over. He never told me because he didn’t want to worry me. All those brave people, paid and volunteer, who risked their lives to protect us deserve more than our gratitude. I will say, it is the most terrifying experience I have ever been in.
I grew up where it hit hardest. My best friend's parents lost everything. A few houses up another friend's parents were spared.
My best mate's parents were then in their 60s. Now in their 80s.
They rebuilt. Many didn't.
That night, the only reason I knew their house was gone was watching the news footage. The only way I knew they were safe was seeing them in the newspaper two days later in a random photo of people seeking help from the emergency services.
I was on the other side of town with embers falling in my yard. No mobile coverage. Just the AM radio to guide me.
I'm not in any way religious, but that was hell.
From memory part of the problem was having pine tree plantations growing right up to the outskirts of Canberra.
exactly the same fate as Kinglake.
I remember these fires as a kid. I remember my mother being extremely serious with my brother and I, there were several levels of her tone: Idgaf, you're annoying me, now it's getting serious, im seriously ticked off and listen to me or death, this was far beyond that when she said "Boys, pack a bag for the car, we might need to go," there was no f*cking around, there was no complaining, we just did what we were told as we had never seen her this serious/scared. We lived in the Belconnen area, so we ended up being okay, but that was the first time I ever truly felt fear.
I was part of a fire crew in the Strathbogie fires. We came across an abandoned fire unit and the walls were all buckled and the paint was still bubbling, the tyres were burnt off, it was stuffed. The rock face it was near was that hot you couldn't stand within 40 feet of it.
I grew up in Canberra in my formative yearfs, and went back to work there after the fires.
I went to a school reunion just after the fires, and the place was just mind blowing to look at.
One of my friends had their house in Duffy saved as the whole family got on the roof, and in the garden, and slapped the fires out. They all got hurt from it, but the house and they were saved in the end. I had another friend in Duffy lose their house and everything.
It was so sad...
Assuming both were insured, the latter friend was much wiser to not put themselves in such danger
@@jwnomad The first house was insured, but their grandmother could not get an ambulance to come move her. So they had to stay and protect the house.
The second one had insurance, but they literally lost everything they had, and insurance does not cover some of their stuff, the personal things etc.
I'm very impressed that you're so invested in learning about the culture here and very respectful doing it, thanks mate
My Dad was the captain of a local RFS for many years but was out of it by the time the 2019 fires obliterated our area. We have many families still displaced and traumatized by the whole experience but as any typical Australian community we carry on supporting each other.
In times such as these the one shining light is the Australian spirit and how whole communities pull together to help all affected.
I think it was 2013 I was driving to Victoria from Adelaide, I was going to go through Arrarat but got turned around due to a massive fire. I was doing 145kph and the fire was overtaking me. I dove for 14hrs that day just to get home.
My American friend lost everything in that fire. His house, cars, and even all his research papers that he had stored in his fireproof safe.
Ironically, he was trekking on snow-shoes in update New York at the time.
When you see fire in a line, that’s the firefront. The vegetation behind is already mostly burnt, at least to the point where the flames are not reaching into the sky.
A dry lightning storm is just a standard lightning storm where no rain falls.
There's something about photography that shows the true power of tragedy more than any video can ❤
My cousin's House is in Kambah it was so close to his house that the grass was on fire. My uncles place is in Western Creek. Both lucky to still have a house. There is no more pine plantations around ACT and a Servo ( Gas Station ) on the southern end of ACT was destroyed.
I was also in Kambah at the time (I'm still in Kambah, just not in the same house) and we had to prepare to evacuate because we were living in a townhouse near the golf course, and row of townhouses behind us had to evacuate. It was so close to us and my family and I are so lucky that we were safe. It was still a terrifying time, though (especially as a 6 year old at the time).
For those saying there were worse bushfires. This wasn't just a regular bushfire. Research. The first documented case of a fire tornado in Australia was during the 2003 Canberra bushfire.
This was my suburb growing up. Was evacuated that day. Reason why in the aftermath photos you see one house burnt down and homes around it fine, was because there were fireballs being thrown from the fire front about 7km ahead lighting new ones on our homes. My neighbours lost their first house that way before moving in next door to me. Few kids from my school lost homes similarly. All our neighbours were working together to get our homes prepped, but this was also the middle of the school holidays, so many family's were away and couldn't prep their homes. We tried getting to as many houses as we could but it closed in too fast. We had to leave before we could get to them all.
Some houses have sprinkler systems on their roofs that help to prevent some of the damage.
I lived in Holder and had friends living in Duffy. They lived in Number 12 which was survived while 11,13 and 14 burnt to the ground. They were surprised when they returned to their house the next day to see it still standing.
Here in Australia we can have sometimes 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees) and the highest ever recorder was 50 degrees Celsius or about 123 degrees.
Hi Ryan, In 1983 we experienced some incredible fires through South Australia and southern Victoria. They are referred to as the Ash Wednesday fires and I believe some 47 people lost their lives in Victoria and 28 in South Australia. At the time I was onboard a ship off the east Victorian coast roughly 15 nautical miles off Mallacoota heading north. If you have a look at a map you might get an appreciation of the immensity of this fire when I say that ash was falling on our ship from the fires burning some 360 miles to the west of us in southern Victoria and also 650miles away in South Australia. The sky over us was overcast and a dark red in colour. Google Ash Wednesday fires. Really enjoy your channel by the way.
One factor in whether a house burned was the yard fence. Metal (sheet) fences deflected both the heat and the flames (and to some extent the wind), often turning the fire away from the house, wooden fences eventually let both through into the garden and the structure of the house itself. I know of people where the wind/heat/flames broke the window to the front bedroom, and by the time they got from the front door to the room; the carpet, curtains & bedding were all alight.
1967 Tasmanian Bushfires ...
64 dead, 1293 home & 1700 other building destroyed, 1500 motor vehicles burnt, 62000 farm animals and 100 other structures.
Some of the people that died boiled to death whilst seeking refuge in their own rain water tanks.
I remember living in Frankston (outskirts of Melbourne), and having ash blow across Bass Strait and Port Philip Bay and float onto our house and garden!
I still lived at my parent’s place in Weston Creek and I remember the embers coming over from the pine forest and the sky turning black. My sister was hosing down the front of the house and the glow approaching then a fireman came running down the road telling us to get out and we left. My parents place was saved but all the neighbors up to us burned down.
I fought this stuff since 16 and yes I have been in all of the really bad ones, the worst is finding friends and others burnt to death it takes a while to get over and I burn my cloths after every fire I have to deal with bodies as the smell stays in them no matter how well you wash them.
These men and women who go in to fight the fires while everyone else is leaving (many people wanted to stay and help, but you can't fight these types of fires) are some of the real HERO's in this world.
I lived just over the border in NSW when that happened. The morning of reaching suburbia in Duffy there was a eerie yellow glow which up the interior of my house. The sky changed colours rapidly that day as my neighbour and I sat in her backyard listening tot he radio. By about 3pm the sky had gone from a menacing dark red to pitch black. They turned the street lights on early. We had a Qantas jumbo fly very low over our house, so low we thought it might crash. My kids spent a few hours chasing flying bit of bark, leaves etc that were burning and putting them out as soon as they hit the ground. We had water restrictions but we ignored them so we could hose our roofs in an effort to stop any of the burning embers from igniting our houses. It was one of the scariest days that's for sure.
Far worse than this one....2019/20...horrrific. We even had Canadians and Californians come and help fight it !
There's been a lot of reciprocal aid over the years between the US and Australia to fight wildfires. Hope it continues...
And BC, Canada was grateful for the Aussies who came to help us a couple years ago to fight our forest fires, They were brutal, a whole town gone, the town is still in limbo, tragic loss of wildlife. Now we have low snow pack and drought through this past winter and already wildfires have started in March. Sad.
The horror for us was when a team from your country lost their lives fighting our fires. We were so upset...they had put their personal risk aside to come and help us and they died :(
Their plane went down...@@user-gp7jl8mm2f
My aunt and uncle live in Kambah. Their house was not affected, but the fire took every second house in the street. The flames were jumping. I hope we're more prepared for fires these days. Technology is improving. But we could learn a lot from the indigenous people as to how to manage scrubland.
I was in one of Canberra's shopping malls around the middle of that day. When I entered the mall, it was a normal day outside. When I came back outside to go home, the smoke was so thick that day had turned into night, and you needed to use your car headlights.
The last bush fire I remember was in 1980 & you ask how hot was it ? We had a wheat paddock exactly 100 yards from the house & it burnt the paint of the house . Once it got into the timber the fire was 1 1/2 miles ahead of the ground fire . The trees full of oil would explode & drop embers lighting up the bush floor , nothing was spared . Even after fire it was a daily job put down animals that wondered across a tree that had burnt . The ground looked solid but if you walked across it , the ground would collapse with the roots still burning ! Also I have seen it rain mud . A big dust storm blew up & had a light shower above it & the result was it rained mud . We accepted this as a natural event !
Yes Ryan January is summer Australia is in the southern hemisphere. These fire personnel are some of the bravest people on the planet.
I have been under threat of bushfire several times in my life. It’s terrifying. My husband has committed many, many years to the CFA both as a bushfire instructor and as a volunteer out on the fire grounds. We have generally learned to protect ourselves as well as possible. Be prepared, leave early.
7:01
Warragamba Dr and Eucumbene Dr separated the Stromlo pine plantation and the suburb of Duffy. The pine trees were close to 30 meters (100 feet) tall before the fire raced through them. Duffy suffered the bulk of the damage to dwellings with over 400 homes burnt down alone.
I was on holiday camping in Victoria in 2009 the black Saturday bushfires I was scared for my life for 24hrs we were prepared to get everybody on the campsite into the shower block ( only brick structure around) and turn the showers on the Police couldn't evacuate us till the morning as the situation was so chaotic and even in the morning they werent 100% to sure as to the direction to head, we drove north for 2 hrs passing a blasted landscape with burnt out cars ( I didnt know mag wheels melted ) Hitting the highway north was a godsend with every 2nd vehicle coming towards us was a country fire engine ide never seen so many fire trucks and i cheered every one of them.
So glad you survived.
So many didn’t 🙏🏾
As a born and bred Canberran I was in Canberra at the time looking after my invalid father who had to be evacuated to a friends house in a different suburb I had to go out and spray down the roof of my house and the house next-door who were away .
Another friend of mine living in Kambah spent the night beating out burning embers he also worked at the time at mount Stromlo observatory and in one of those sad bits of irony the first building to catch fire on the site was the shed containing all the fire fighting equipment.
Another mate who worked for the ACT government infrastructure was sent to Kambah SES (State Emergency Service) Bushfire station in Kambah to try to restore data and commination links and described driving up to the station that looked relatively intact but when he walked around the back of the buildings all the solid steel sheds were melted and twisted metal
Our fires are so big they create their own weather
Lightning storms are a feature of Berra, it’s hot and dry without any breeze because it’s in-land. Berra is broken into 4 area’s then breaks down again into suburbs(boroughs). There are massive paddocks, bush and farmlands between each area and when it’s dry it basically tinder for a fire. From there it rips through the suburbs. Still a few houses not rebuilt.
The altitude is another feature of Berra. The planes in and out are subjected to massive turbulence both winter and summer and tourist think their about to die, locals close their eyes and smile at all the panicking and terror:
We lived in Canberra when these fires hit. My stepdaughter lived in Duffy and she and her two roommates had to evacuate and came to stay with us for a week. Their house was saved but so many in her street were burnt down. I remember the horrible darkness with the eerie red glow in the middle of the day. It was a really scary time. Spots fires were starting all over from the embers being blown about by the wind. It was so bad. 😊
My uncle lives in Duffy. His street is in a curve that goes back to the same road. Thankfully his house was number one. Only the first few houses at the beginning and the ones at end of the street didn’t perish. My grandmother lived in Rivett and I had been travelling to her and my uncle since I was little. When we went back down to visit after the fires, I lost my bearings as the landscape had changed so much without all the trees.
The ten days warning is and isn't. There's summer grass and bush fires all the time, whether they turn into a 'catastrophic' level firestorm is fairly unlikely. So while people might have cleared around their houses and had hoses ready, no one was ready for a massive fire front that moved into the suburbs.
One boarding kennel in Weston was given 15 minutes warning to evacuate, their tyres were on fire as they took whatever animals they could in their cars. About 50 animals perished.
The firestorm in Canberra was so so scary! I won’t ever forget it
I grew up about 20-30km east of Canberra, I remember standing at the top of our driveway looking at the cloud of smoke with forks of lighting coming off it. All the while red hot embers were falling around us. It's incredible cause far more damage.
I was living in Torrens at the base of Mt. Taylor. There were high winds and it was dark, almost like nighttime with lots of embers in the air. Watching the fire crest the top of the mountain and burn down toward our house was frightening. You could see the eucalypts exploding in flames as the fire approached.
We were so lucky none of our property was destroyed, but the fire passed about 50 metres from us towards Isaacs.
For over a week before the firestorm, the skies were darkening from smoke and the sun was re-orange in the sky. All the streetlights turned on and the lights looked whitish. I remember racing home with fires on both sides of the road and embers flying everywhere. We waited for the signal to leave, standing on our roofs with hoses. Roads were blocked and I jumped over road divisions to go another way. At last, the firies stopped the progress of the fire and gradually, we could stand down.
For reference, Canberra in January is like a ghost town. A large number of independent businesses and government departments are closed for summer vacation. This allows Canberrans to head over to the south coast of NSW to enjoy the sun, surf and beaches which is around a 2hr (100miles) away. As the updates intensified more and more residents were starting to make their way back to secure homes. It was said at the time the Kings Highway was bumper to bumper from Batemans Bay back to Canberra.
A "dry lightning storm", or "dry rain", is when the clouds rain, but the air is so dry the rain drops evaporate on the way down and never actually reach the ground.
You get them on central plains of the US, and in some parts of Europe, Asia and Russia, as well.
The line of fire is the Fire front and moves through the bush like that
Very scary day indeed.
I had to go to work that day...at a hospital close to where the fires were.
I will never forget standing at a window in the hospital corridor watching the flames to the west of us.
Now imagine 5 months of that. The 2019/2020 Australian bushfire season (also known as Black Summer) that started in September 2019 to February 2020 generated many major bushfires that burned for months and raged through many Australian states including New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory.
Jus
There has been worse bushfires in our history but saying that doesn’t fit the narrative.
Worst in Canberra… not the nation.
@@ruthbentley2090I think they were referring to the first ever recorded fire tornado.
thank mate ..im glad you playd this
I was there and just a kid. My house was at the other end of Canberra so we were ok, but I remember how scary it was. Especially when the sky turned red.
And then came the unbelievable firestorms of the Black Summer bushfires of late 2019, early 2020.
People who live in rural areas are prepared for possible bush fires in summer which does have a lot to do with the comparatively few fatalities. This probably illustrates why the larger bushfires in 2019 could been seen from the International Space Station in space. So, just like any list of bad things in Australia often list our venomous fauna & flora (although you may not ever come across these species), bush fires are always listed, because although you are unlikely to experience a bush fire, when they happen, they are spectacular. An area affected by a bush fire will be scarred for decades to come.
I recall, this was just before I started year 12. Usually my sisters and I would fly down to visit my grandparents in Canberra for the summer holidays; this was the one year we didn't, because even before the lightning strikes they were predicting it would be a bad bushfire season and my grandparents thought it would be too risky. Good call on their part. We visited them at Easter instead and even then, 3 months later, the damage was bad.