DSE doing it again

Dept of Scorced Earth

Dept of Sparks and Embers

Any more?

Leroy

damn - was planning on investigating a new tour itinerary there in three weeks time.

Geez,

You had me worried there for a bit.

Thought you were having a go at Tricky Dicky's. ( Dick Smith Electronics)

Whoopee, they're burning off and another one got away. I don't think a fire that is expected to burn an extra day or 2 requiring no additional track closures will be of a huge concern. Always better to over burn an area a little now than have a lightning strike burn 1/4 of the desert country in a wild fire in the middle of summer. Why is it so many feel the need to bash the DSE anyway each & every time a fire gets away? Reduction burns are not an exact science but the risk of it escaping the proposed boundries now are far less than not burning at all.
Cheers Craig.........

It WILL now affect people.....

Vic firefighters battle Mallee blaze

Firefighters backed by water bombing aircraft are battling to contain a blaze which is likely to threaten farms in Victoria's remote Mallee country late today.

The fire, which began as a fuel reduction burn, has ripped through about 3,000 hectares of Mallee scrub in the Murray-Sunset National Park at Berrook East, north of Murrayville, 510km north-west of Melbourne.

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) state duty officer Graeme Davis said today the blaze was likely to affect privately-owned wheat farms later today.

"The fire is likely to spread because we are expecting extreme fire weather before a change later today," Mr Davis told AAP.

"We'll have a very strong northerly wind and relatively low humidity, certainly for this time of year.

"The westerly change will be blustery. We've had some fuel reduction burns in the area so we are trying to manage the fire into those areas."

Three fire-bombing aircraft and two helicopters will support 65 DSE firefighters on the ground, Mr Davis said.

"There's no private property under threat at this stage, but it is likely the fire will possibly spot on to private property later in the day.

"It's wheat country and it's all green crops at this stage, so it's unlikely to cause significant damage. There are no towns or settlements in the area, it's all broad-acre farms."

© 2006 AAP

Fuel reduction burning is always a calculated risk. While the planners do use science in looking at the fuel load, topography etc, they can only rely on the best info available from the weather bureau to pick weather conditions. As the bureau acknowledges, weather forecasting is not going to be 100% accurate. So, the forecast wind conditions when this burn was started, were wrong, hence the burn does not go to plan.
I am a CFA volunteer with a reasonable amount of experience, and I can tell you that the use of weather info by both the CFA and DSE is far greater than any of us will ever consider.
Our bush needs fuel reduction burning so that, when the summer fires do eventually come, they will be reduced in severity. With the noise of the tree-huggers/slogan-shouters, coupled with budget constraints, DSE can never get all the burns done that should be done. The expert reports after last summer's Victorian fires made this clear. I spent a week of night shifts on the Anakie fire and I can assure you the fire would not have been anywhere near as bad had fuel reduction burns been used in the area. Old timers were saying that bush had not been burnt for 20 years.
I guess what I am saying is that we should not be so quick to kick DSE. They plan well, but there is always a risk in what is an essential activity.