NSW bushfires, OCT 2013

[Dennis Leahy]

I'm hoping all of you and your loved ones and loved ones of loved ones... are safe from the bushfires.
www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-20/bushfire ... sw/5034212

Stay safe!

Dennis

[Kim]

Not affected myself on this side of the island but I do share the sentiment. It also must be said that your a top bloke Dennis Leahy, truly mate, you are.

Cheers

Kim, and all those unfortunates whom do currently find themselves in the path of the most intimidating terror of all.

[Nick]

Yes, fingers crossed on this side of the Tassy to any member or their families affected by this. We may get the occasional earthquake this side of the ditch but never the annual threat of being forced out of our houses.
Best wishes to all and stay safe.

[Tod Gilding]

Thanks Dennis, being a professional senior firefighter in NSW , I can tell you that you wouldn't believe the politics and politicians that get involved in major fires like this.
I am actually not allowed to say much about it, but I would like to ask anyone that could help us here with a petition, please go here.

Thanks

Here's the full petition:


To: Barry O'Farrell, NSW Premier

As NSW faces devastating bushfires -- the worst since 1968 -- your closures and cuts to fire stations puts lives at risk when we most need protection.

Before your government's election and $70 million in cuts, permanently staffed stations had never been closed. Yet over the last 10 months professionally crewed fire stations have been closed 64 times.

As concerned citizens, we ask you to put our safety and our communities first. Firies bravely protect us everyday under dangerous conditions - don't make their job hard and threaten the state's safety with fire station cuts and closures


Sign here: http://www.act.australianunions.org.au/ ... _id=159291

[nnickusa]

Tried to add my signature, but the site won't allow it unless I give them more personal information than I'm willing to. Keep up the good work, Tod. You lot are heroes in my eyes, especially the vols....

[sebastiaan56]

Im on the edge of the Blue Mountains and yes, it has been a bit smoky. Thursday was really rather bad. The hot wind just blew it up. Fortunately it went past north of my place but it crossed the Nepean and was snuffed out in the quarry, phew. We had a lot of back burning over winter (some that went wrong as well) so I dont think (hope) we will cop it badly.

I only know of a mando builder in Blackheath (Pete Jenner) and he hangs out on the cafe. Loofiers are a bit thin out here. Blackheath still has a few days.

The situation in Springwood / Winmalee is really quite bad. My eldest volunteers in the RFS and came back quite shocked, streets and streets of devastation. In one case the engine block of a card was partially melted. Stunned residents staring blankly at what was their dream homes. They need help but most have moved away. Who can blame them. My fear is that the Op Shops will be overloaded for a few years with people cast offs given in a fit of charity.

[dummy spit]
Please sign the petition folks. This issue is political, there are fewer hours being spent doing firey work and federal compensation for victims have been dropped compared to previous incidents. Even worse, it is half past October and we are having January fire conditions. We are copping it now but the rest of Aust is still to come. We need to tell dickhead to up the carbon tax, not drop it. Its all well and good to go do a few back burns in his home town and get some Putinesque portraits in the press but I would much rather he spent his time running the country. Fucking idiot. This is climate change in action, previous IPCC detailed projections have predicted this for Australia.
[/dummy spit]

[EricDownunder]

I live halfway up the hill (as we call it) and there's about 50 firemen in my street waiting for fires started by falling cinders, not sure if it makes me feel safer or more nervous.

[EricDownunder]

Constant scream of fire trucks all around me at the moment, have the sprinklers going non stop all around the house smoke everywhere.

[Nick]

Stay safe Eric & Sebasatiaan.

[EricDownunder]

All safe today, the fire fighters did a great job putting out the spot fires before they could take hold.

[Steve]

I've just spent this week working with the Incident Management Team looking after the eastern section of the State Mine fire that's been knocking on Eric and Sebastian's doors. I only dealt with the overnight updates to the fire maps, so haven't had to deal with any of the extreme conditions that the hundreds of people have been facing out on the fire-front. Despite all of the tragedy and frustration so many people have suffered, it was heartening to be involved in such great comradery that you so often hear about in times of crisis. I was working alongside people from Queensland, Victoria, SA as well as all of the state land management and volunteer organisations in NSW. All of these people were working 13-14 hr shifts, sometimes more, while somehow maintaining a healthy sense of humour and loyalty. The logistics of organising so many people at once is always going to be hard to get right in these sorts of conditions, so it was a real credit to them. Nice work guys and gals. Hopefully they can get round this and the others fires that we're kicked off by that thunder storm early Tuesday morning - I know that they all need a good rest.