Asking for prayers for our friends in Australia

[Warren White]

I know that everyone is aware of the terrible fires in Australia. I am not sure how many IAP members are there, but I am very close to PenPal (Peter Hay in Canberra). My heart is broken to hear the extent of the toll in lives lost, lives forever changed, the loss of wildlife, and the effects on everyday life for those in this otherwise beautiful land.

Please join me in praying for comfort for those affected, and for the badly needed rain. There are listings for on the web for ways to help; please consider giving what you can.

 

[magpens]

Thank you Warren.

Very tragic situation. . I lived and worked in South Australia from '69 to '83. . Three of our sons were born there. . Wonderful country & people.
Got to know a terrific family in Adelaide whose family roots are on Kangaroo Island, just a few miles offshore, one of the country's largest islands.
In '85 their daughter, Josie, married a sheep farmer, John, from K.I. and so she moved to the island where her father, uncles, aunts, grandparents had been born. . Last week, John and Josie lost their home, farm, sheep, vehicles, everything, to the fires, but they themselves and children were safe.
Last time I saw John and Josie was 5 years ago when they came to visit us here. . We keep in touch. . We are very much feeling their losses and the losses of the country that we grew to love as our second home. . One of our IAP members, Robutacion, lives at Mt. Compass on the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide and just a few miles across the strait from K.I. . You can be sure he is "feeling the heat". . Some fires have been burning for many weeks in the hill country not far from Mt. Compass and the city of Adelaide. . Another IAP member, PenPal, already mentioned above, lives in Canberra, the country's capital city. . Canberra is heavily affected by the huge fire zone just to its east and south from which news reports come to us daily, if not hourly. . We have quite a number of members living in or close to those areas. . It is so hard for me to hear some prominent citizens in all parts of North America (and elsewhere) play down the threats, and now even the evident ravages, of climate change.

 

[bsshog40]

It is very terrible that is going on there. Prayers for everyone in Australia from here!

 

[1shootist]

Just to think of the size of the fires is terrifying !
13 - 14 MILLION ACRES ! I can't wrap my head around that..WHERE COULD YOU RUN !

Prayers and continuous thoughts !

 

[robutacion]

Thanks guys,

Despite the size of this country, certain particular areas tend to be affected more from the fires that decimates everything in its way, unfortunately, most of these fires were deliberately lit which makes it even worse.

So far, all the fires around here are within a fair distance from us here at Mount Compass in the SA, and most of those fires are located in forestry land of either pine or eucalyptus, the recent influx of people looking for isolation/privacy and the lifestyle of living far into the "bush" as we call it here, puts them in great risk when fires are in the neighbourhood, fortunately, most of these people have good enough sense to get out well in time and not believe they can stay and protect the house/property, anyone that has had anything to do with bush fires knows, there are no second chances.

My heart goes to those that have been affected or are being affected as we speak...!

Cheers
George

 

[robutacion]

Thank you Warren.

Very tragic situation. . I lived and worked in South Australia from '69 to '83. . Three of our sons were born there. . Wonderful country & people.
Got to know a terrific family in Adelaide whose family roots are on Kangaroo Island, just a few miles offshore, one of the country's largest islands.
In '85 their daughter, Josie, married a sheep farmer, John, from K.I. and so she moved to the island where her father, uncles, aunts, grandparents had been born. . Last week, John and Josie lost their home, farm, sheep, vehicles, everything, to the fires, but they themselves and children were safe.
Last time I saw John and Josie was 5 years ago when they came to visit us here. . We keep in touch. . We are very much feeling their losses and the losses of the country that we grew to love as our second home. . One of our IAP members, Robutacion, lives at Mt. Compass on the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide and just a few miles across the strait from K.I. . You can be sure he is "feeling the heat". . Some fires have been burning for many weeks in the hill country not far from Mt. Compass and the city of Adelaide. . Another IAP member, PenPal, already mentioned above, lives in Canberra, the country's capital city. . Canberra is heavily affected by the huge fire zone just to its east and south from which news reports come to us daily, if not hourly. . We have quite a number of members living in or close to those areas. . It is so hard for me to hear some prominent citizens in all parts of North America (and elsewhere) play down the threats, and now even the evident ravages, of climate change.

G'day Mal,

I'm very sorry to hear that some personal friends of yours from this country have lost everything but their lives, it hits a lot harder when those affected in such a dramatic way are personal friends of ours and in your case, friends of yours.

I'm glad they are OK, Aussies are fighters they always rebuilt but it will take many years before they get back to where they were if ever, the "scars" on many of those peoples are far beyond skin level and that is often ignored.

Let's hope these fires are taken down before they do any more damage, the size of it already, the loss of wildlife and forest is horrific.

Cheers
George

 

[magpens]

Here's a pic they sent us showing their burnt out "ute". . They also sent a pic of what's left of their house but it is too heart-wrenching for here.

 

[robutacion]

Here's a pic they sent us showing their burnt out "ute". . They also sent a pic of what's left of their house but it is too heart-wrenching for here.

I hope they have good insurance, more often than not, people that live on the land or live in the middle of forests they are often people with low financial means and insurance is prohibitively expensive, the other side of this is that in so many cases I know and heard of, the insurance companies do not want to insure the house/goods/property just because they are in a too high-risk fire zones so they don't want to have anything to do with it.

Those that can get good insurance on everything they own when living in the bush and can afford to pay the crazy charges will at least get something back as money can not cover everything and that is a fact.

I know a fairly close neighbour couple with kids that a few years ago have purchased and built a house in the middle of a large paddock with absolutely nothing growing on it apart from some grass that he keeps very low as a big mob of sheep keeps it pretty cleaned up, there is no shade of any nature and the house would get super hot in the hot days, we could see from the road he built a kids playground next to the house and a large shed 100 meters away from the house, there is a small shade cloth elevated on 4 posts over the kids playground.

I already had a gut feeling to the reasons behind building there and when I had the opportunity to meet this couple, I asked why they built a house in that place with no trees present or planted near the house he answered, I have already almost lost my whole family in a bush fire that we barely managed to get out in time, we saw how quickly and ferociously the fire come through, we don't want ever to live near a place in risk of a bush fire come through, that proves that they all were and still are deeply traumatised.

PS: I think you should show the pic of the house and any other pics showing the devastation, they can serve as a reminder of what can happen to very good people...!

Cheers
George

 

[1080Wayne]

A question , George . Do the trees that are in the forests that are burning survive as intact trees ? Or do they regenerate from root systems , or from seeds ? Some trees benefit from fire , if not too hot . I know a bit about how my native trees respond , but have zero knowledge of Australian ones .

We had some bad fires in Alberta this year . One researcher noticed that a fire which had crowned in a dense pine stand essentially stopped when it hit a mixed pine/aspen poplar patch . He attributed it to a cooler , moister micro climate in the mixed stand .

 

[PenPal]

The news filtering out from those completely burnt out is their insurance if any is way short of the rebuilding costs in some instances double of the cover so the mongrel insurence companies are forcing new regulations on rebuilds in risk situations. Some companies offer to rebuild others payout the insured amount knowing the new regs existed.With the average normal rebuild at 600.000 almost doubling in fire risk or prone areas.

Somehow you are damned if you do or don,
t or they will say you are overinsured on agreed valuations.

Two days now of not choking here in Canberra the day before that the sky etc was just bright orange. Murmers of Armageddon are more frequent.

Fire is weirdly selective yesterday speaking to a couple who left Canberra to buy in the sth coast of NSW returning this week to their coast home two next door neighbors wiped out theirs and next door saved across the road devastated ,next door saved. THey said although savedeverything around their house electrical and sewage,plumbing completly ruined,no power or water.

In many cases where I live folks have themselves to blame using powerful friends and heaps of money to defend mini forests around their houses to devastating horror at a later date.

In my 85 yrs I have no memory of the events of this year, kind thoughts are welcome right now for the sufferers. Our govt is climate denialists,a dreadful condition at this time.

Take care everyone I realise from friends and relatives in the USA etc you have intense snow,tornadoes and floods.

Kind regards Peter.

 

[robutacion]

A question , George . Do the trees that are in the forests that are burning survive as intact trees ? Or do they regenerate from root systems , or from seeds ? Some trees benefit from fire , if not too hot . I know a bit about how my native trees respond , but have zero knowledge of Australian ones .

We had some bad fires in Alberta this year . One researcher noticed that a fire which had crowned in a dense pine stand essentially stopped when it hit a mixed pine/aspen poplar patch . He attributed it to a cooler , moister micro climate in the mixed stand .

Wayne,

The most appropriate answer for your first question is yes and no, the Northern Territory trees and vegetation have developed a resilience to "normal bush fires" as a result of thousands of years of burn-offs by the Aboriginies, they know when and where to get those fire growing, many of the wild plants now require the heat from a fire to germinate the old seeds on the ground, most of these fires are low density, burn low to the ground and provided ample time for the wildlife to move to safer areas, this method to control the fuel accumulated over each year/season of grasses and so on, has proven to be not only beneficial to the land but also to the wildlife, the black ground quickly turns into a beautiful greenery and carpet type grass giving wildlife, and domestic cattle food supply for months afterwards, the land looks a lot cleaner and enjoyable to use for camping, hunting and all the other activities the nature provides.

When it comes to Pines, Eucalyptus and other tree plantations, they get totally devasted by fire, the fires are hotter and therefore consume everything in its way, most of these hot fires leave nothing behind but ash, literally. Other areas where the fires were high fires there is, the fire went from tree canopy to tree canopy in those cases the trees may be salvaged, not standing as they die exposed to such heat, the wood becomes a lot drier and of less quality/grade reason why there is a belief that many of the plantation forests trees are set alight by those involved with the wood industry as they get all that wood for a fraction of the price.

In general terms, most tree species when exposed to direct or indirect extreme fire temperatures do not survive and when cut down very few new shoots will develop particularly if the fire was a low fire or under the canopy fire as it is known, that means that everything burnt close to the ground so, most tree roots get "roasted" and unable to supply nutrients to the tree or butt.

Unfortunately, this subject is not a clean-cut type issue, there are many variants and conditions on the day that will determine how the fire will behave and how bad things will get burnt/destroyed.

I have also got some screenshots from my computer, after searching for the distance between KI (Kangaroo Island) and where I am, Merissa got out of bed a lot earlier than me and I remember she commenting on how smoky and foggy it was outside from the fire in KI, she didn't know how close we are and while that fire has been going on for some days only today this Town got engulfed with the fire smoke. I open the Google MAP and show her how close we are in a straight line (as the crow flies) I screenshot it to show you guys. I have also searched the site that taken control of all the fire locations in the country and I got also a screenshot for you.



Cheers
George

 

[Jim15]

Prayers on the way.

 

[skiprat]

This terrible disaster is the main item on our news here in the UK. From the small towns that seem to be being left without help till it's too late to the firefighters that have paid dearly, it's all pretty heartbreaking.
I'm afraid I'm not one for praying, but I really hope you get some major rain real soon.
Take care..

 

[Pollock29]

Definitely in our prayers!

 

[robutacion]

This terrible disaster is the main item on our news here in the UK. From the small towns that seem to be being left without help till it's too late to the firefighters that have paid dearly, it's all pretty heartbreaking.
I'm afraid I'm not one for praying, but I really hope you get some major rain real soon.
Take care..

I'm with you on the praying abilities and you are very right, the only thing that can put most of these fires down is some heavy rains, we haven't had much of any kind of rain lately nor this is the best rainy time of the year so the odds aren't that good, unfortunately.

Cheers
George