What starts a Bushfire?

Ignore that report Jimbo - 'tis those bldi Bunyips & Greenies that have the ears of ABC . they want all our beautiful bushlands/parks/beaches locked up for themselves. Errr have u tried the SUN-HERALD ? :-) bazzaoz

Welding.
Grinding.
Slashing.

All of the above are farm related.

I do recall a post about a chick, who tried to burn dunny paper, and it caused a large fire.

For the life of me Jim, I cannot see the reason to have an open fire in the hotter months. If it was allowed, can you imagine ALL the campers, burning their fires?

Shlt, it's hard enough to get them to deflate their tyres, and bury toilet paper, let alone leave them in control of say.... hundreds of little fires throughout the state.

Simple..... Fire Bans.

No exceptions.

I have lived through some horrendous fires, and seen a lot of death because of them.

I have rocked up at campsites late in the afternoon, and found smouldering fires from the mornings.

There is a time & place for everything.

Wolfie

My theory is that they should NEVER declare days of Total Fire Ban!

It seems to be a trigger for braindead morons to light fires, you will note that most fires on days of total fire ban are in fact, deliberately lit.
It has been found that often fires are lit by firefighters, that is, mental deficients, who get their rocks off through fire, that have joined the fire fighting authority in their State purely for the purpose of being able to be in close proximity to the fires.
Sad, but true!

Jimbo, I saw a police officer on the news tonight say apart from a lightning strike 3 things start a fire:

Men
Women
& Children.....

glad you're back safe and sound.....and

how much of the wood got burned :))

Lyn

there was a fire mid last year in the top end, somewhere on the csr if i'm right caused by a campfire not properly extinguished.

yes thats great to abolish total fire bans because its the ban that encourages the arson not the weather conditions....?

the total fire bans also inform members of the general public that its not safe to do things such as have open fires, slash paddocks etc. and maybe even discourage irresponsible smokers.

try this

As Ann from Drysdale River in the Kimberly will testify, campers have started fires by incorrectly extinguishing fires.

Another one to add to the list and it is a real starter of fire in the Townsville region is tracer.

ie tracer bullets. The Army now has sgns advising troops when they must not use tracer on the practice range (a huge area of bushland west of Mt Stuart and Herveys range).

Jimbo,

Haven't you said enough on this matter?????

Just because it is not illegal to have a camp fire in the middle of summer does not mean that it is a sensible option to have a campfire, just because you can!!!!!

A friend of mine had most of their farm pasture burnt out a few years ago - early summer and lost most of their summer feed. Picnickers (not locals) by the river thought it safe to light a campfire on the bare river bank - but it was a bad fire day and they couldn't have accounted for sudden wind gusts - nor the fact that campfires are illegal in the region in summer, nor the fact that it was a high risk day, and there was probably a fire ban on movement of vehicles in paddocks as it was that type of a day. No the picnickers were not incinerated, but a lot of someone else's property was.

In WA major fires have been started by power lines being struck by vegetation, or by shorting out causing pole top fires. This is very common cause of fires, small and large - probably several each years which have been extinguished quickly, but one just after Christmas year before last burnt out half our Shire, was encroaching on the town when several houses were lost. On the the same in other Shire a huge amount of pasture, property, etc, 2 lives lost. Western Power copped the blame for both of these.

When we were in SA just after the Pt Lincoln area fires, we were told that in the Eyre on high fire danger days they just turn off the power supply. We saw a fire started by lightening when driving through the Gawler ranges.

Don't light a fire - it is just not worth the risk.

"Paranoid about fire because i live in the country and have seen so much devastation" Motherhen

sparks from roaring great camp fires getting into dry overhaed trees or dry grass around area it doesnt take much of a spark
and its not normally the campers who perish

also spontaneous combustion in hay stacks
and even hay bay bales in the paddocks
thats why the bales need to be dry before stacking

steve

When two chemicals explode due to their non compatibility with one another ....LOL

Mate it may be that 10% only (or whatever the heck it really is) are caused by campfires, but this is the easiest 10% to eliminate (but after listening to the attitude here though it might be easier to ban lightening??)
Just like with speed limits, just cause it is 110 kmh max doesnt mean its smart or intelligent to drive at that speed when its foggy etc.
As has been said here already, it is pretty well accepted here in WA that you dont light fires in the summer.
The way you carry on, you expect CFA to get a lawyer to examine if your fire is legal or not?
Get over it, find who the fire guy is and apologise to him, you never know he might even accept it, being the festive season and all.!!!

And Finally, Catalytic Converters are a classic cause of fires. They get extremely hot and if you drive over Grass etc that comes into contact with the Catalytic Converter she's away.

Some diesels have them now as well, but on the Nissan it is right up near the turbo so shouldn't be a problem

Jimbo, as I recall the large fires west of Ballarat at Dereel around 4 years ago were caused by a campfire left unattended and there were lots of locals looking for blood. Mostly the bush was burnt but it did heaps of damage.

I don't think any drunken campers have ever caused a bushfire, but theyve fallen into fires many times, seen heaps of burnt feet and thongs (not the type you're thinking of, the ones you wear on your feet, the others would be painful if burnt)

Trees falling over power lines is also a cause but very much less these days than in the past.

I dunno Jimbo, drunken mobs do funny things with fire. On the bright side it's idiots like these that keep me in a job.

Last one out is the loser.....



Dave

In my experience it's not normally the big roaring fires from "A Mob of drunken campers" that gets away but rather a pile of ash left unatended the next day with a bit of wind blowing embers 5 to 10 metres into some dry grass. Have found at least a dozen unnatended fires left to burn on dangerously on hot days in the Vic high country with 1 that had actually started to burn the adjacent bush. The campfire is not normally the problem when people are around. It's the fact many can't be bothered poaring a bucket of water over it before they go to bed or leave next morning because it looks out.
Cheers Craig......

Caledonia fires were from a camp fire.

We can't stop lightening, and we can't change the weather, but the PREVENTABLE factors are all human.