Fire or Water?

Recently I received a reply to one of my earlier Blogs on our Bush fires over December and January. It read in part: “As I was reading your posts on the fires I had a thought. You were saying how there was a lot of fuel for it, especially because of the drought and stuff, and I was struck with the thought that it happened then because we had enough water to battle it, had it come later we couldn't have fought it. So although it was bad, it could have been much worse had it been any later - it was sent to clean up all the fuel to safe guard it later.”

I do agree that the fire did come at the theoretical worst time of the year, and did burn for around 77 days, and it did indeed burn up a lot of excess forest fuel, whilst causing only a fraction of the expected damage, and therefore we can indeed be grateful that we had the resources to control the blaze then and there and was able to keep the damage down to a minimum.

However despite the fact that the drought has not yet broken and we are now on stricter Water restrictions, I can’t help but believe that if that fire came even now, that we would not find the water to fight it somehow, even to the last drop.

Sometimes we are often left to choose between the lesser of two evils and I think a bush fire, at least in the short term, in the middle of a severe summer drought is more dangerous that having no water and having to truck it in from elsewhere.

What say you? Do you sometimes find yourself in a position where you have to make a choice between two things that under normal considerations neither would make you top 1000 list of desirable things to choose?

When you do, do you try and make the third choice, which really is no choice of all and that is to try and sit on the fence? If you do, you may just find the fence gets burnt out under you and no one will throw their water on you, because you never quite made your mind up where you truly stood. Not nice, not pretty, not even fair, but that’s life and the usual end of fence sitters.

Now I am not saying that in those times one should jump to any decision without thinking. Thinking is good and necessary, but eventually the time for thinking ends and the time for action, as apposed to re-action arises, and sometimes even this time passes eventually and you are often left in a pile of ashes with nowhere to go. How say you? Walter

Smoking? Or Smoked out?

Over the past month and a half, at various times, there has been an awful lot of smoke around Melbourne even though the Bush fires are a few hundred kilometers away.

These fires have been very destructive having burnt out over a Million Hectares. However they have in and off themselves proposed no fire danger to Melbourne itself.

However, on certain days when the wind is in our direction, Melbourne is occasionally blanketed with grey smoke. Fortunately it is too far for the hot embers to blow, so there are no spot fires arising from it, but the smoke has been causing some hazard, especially to those with breathing difficulties; and also causing some visibility problems, not to mention the increased humidity.

It has often been said that where there is smoke there is fire. Well it is certainly true that this smoke has fire as its cause. Unfortunately, although separated by some distance from its source, the prevailing winds have sent it to us and it is still causing problems. Certainly it would be worse for us if we had the fires too, but the smoke by itself is troublesome enough.

What about you? You may not be causing the smoke but you may be constantly battling with the drifting smoke of distant fires. Are distant problems enveloping you in their resulting smoke and fallout? Unfortunately, at this distance there is little one can do to extinguish the source. All you can really do, is to take all the necessary precautions you can, and wait it out till either the wind changes again or the fire is finally extinguished.

So if you are going through a rough patch at the moment, do all you can to address the problem, taking all the precautions and necessary changes you can, and simply wait it out.

Change will eventually come, but will you be ready for it?

50 days on and still Burning! Are you?

As reported in earlier stories, a major Bush Fire, caused by a lightning strike, began burning in the rugged Victorian Highlands back on December 1^st last year.

Because of the recent environmental conditions, there has been a heavy build up of combustible fuel on the forest floor and because of the continuing drought this has been tinder dry, and just waiting for a spark to set it off. These conditions, along with the inaccessibility of the area, have enabled this series of fires to continue on for so long with no real end in sight.

In my earlier articles I have been discussing the negative results of fire, but in this one I would like to discuss fire itself. (I am not negating the destructive power of fire here, simply emphasizing the positive side!)

Although destructive, fire does also bring new life in that it removes the dry grass and other debris from the ground and forces the grass and other plants and seeds, many long dormant, to grow again and put out fresh new shoots. We also see this with Eucalyptus trees. Whilst some tress are totally killed by fire, the native Eucalypts usually recover, only now with less competition.

So whilst Fires do often cause great damage, they also do some good. However it is the fire itself that I would like to draw your attention to now. A fire releases a lot of heat and energy but also needs lots of input in the form of fuel to keep it burning, otherwise often all what you get is a large flare up which quickly runs out of fuel and heat and energy, thus just as quickly fizzles out. The above bushfire has had and still has plenty of available fuel to keep it going, but what about you?

I don’t know about you but sometimes I feel great and start a project with great plans, dreams, and energy, only to see it fizzle out for some reason or another. Sometimes it is a lack of time. At others a lack of energy, due to a change in the weather conditions, or for some other reason!

Some of these things we have no control over but others we do and it is in regard to those things we have control over that I wish to focus on.

As we cannot change or even properly predict the weather, there is little we can do to control it, but sometimes we can prepare against it or even work with it and use it to our advantage, rather than allow it to work against us in our desire to get our objectives done. Likewise with our own energies! If we know we have a draining job ahead of us we should plan ahead before time, conserving our energy levels, and even building them up by paying attention to both our diet and to our sleep habits etc. We can also make sure that we have all the necessary tools and recourse needed lined up and ready before hand.

We need to take care of these things plus , make proper planning otherwise we will be like a lot of spot fires. A quick flare up, lots of heat and energy displayed, but with little real end results to show for it!

Yes there are some things in life that we can just loaf or bluff our way through. But there are others where we shouldn’t even start until we have prepared properly for and counted the cost off. This is also scriptural. See Luke 14: 33- 38.

What about you today? Are you in the habit of starting something without proper planning, just to see it flare up and fizzle out, or are you like the fire above, still burning months later?

50 days on and still Destructive.

Way back on December 1^st last year, a lightning strike started the first of a series of fires burning in the rugged Victorian Highlands. As it is too rugged to get to, apart from Aerial fire bombing, the on ground fire crews have been unable to get safe access to these blazes and have had to wait in large part, till the fire reaches an area where they have a chance to stop it.

By now these fires have largely joined together and have burnt over a million Hectares, an area larger than the greater Melbourne area. Because of the rugged, inaccessible country the fire is in, without a major change in our current heat wave and masses of rain all over the area, there is little hope of putting the fire out, just in controlling and containing it to where they can safely access it.

Although 39 houses have thus far destroyed, thankfully there has only been one human life lost to it so far and that in an accident rather than the fire itself, but it has cost the lives of countless animals, both domestic and wild, causing massive damage to the natural habitat and environment, let alone the cost to the economy.

From the start, there have been up to ten and a half thousand men involved in the effort, working in shifts, just to control and contain at the moment. With crews of fire-fighters coming from New Zealand, Canada, and the US of A.. Plus all the local residents who have stayed home and defended their properties whilst waiting some, even still do so, at the cost of their wages and sometime even their future employment. So whether you judge this fire (Series of) as an environmental or economical disaster, it has been very, very costly.

Although there was more than one fire and possibly more than one original cause, the first fire was by a lightning strike in a remote area impossible to reach and full of flammable material built up over many years.

The warning herein our every day lives is to be very careful in all that you do and say and to avoid any lightning strikes from you or an deliberately lit arguments from others, whether part of your group or complete outsiders who just like stirring up trouble.

The above fire can not be put out unless it comes into open country. As long as it remains in rugged country, it will continue to burn. Either till it reaches the coast and runs out of fuel, or we get the massive rains promised this weekend that will dampen it enough for Air Bombing, and so that Ground Crews can get safe and effective access to the edges.

Likewise in our lives, whilst some problems can be effectively handled almost immediately, some problems simply have to be controlled until they burn themselves out or the problem is neutralized by natural causes.

The thing to do then is to be like the Fire-fighters and local residents. Stay alert, do what you can do and dampen down all the hot spots and put out all the spot fires. As warned this can be costly, both physically, mentally and financially.

So be warned and do what you can to reduce possible, potential disasters either starting or gain access to extra fuel to keep them burning.

50 days on and still on Fire.

Way back on December 1^st last year, a lightning strike started the first of a series of fires burning in the rugged Victorian Highlands. As it is too rugged to get safe access, apart from Aerial fire bombing, the on ground fire crews have been unable to get safe access to these blazes and have had to wait in large part, till the fire reaches an area where they have a chance to stop it. So far there have been over ten and a half thousand men involved in the effort, working in shifts, just to control and contain at the moment. With crews of fire-fighters coming from New Zealand, Canada, and the US of A.

Even though it has burnt over a million Hectares, an area larger than the greater Melbourne are, because of the rugged, in accessible country the fire is in, without a major change in our current heat wave and mass of rain all over the area, there is little hope of putting the fire out, just in controlling and containing it where they can safely access it.

This seems to echo some troublesome situations in our lives doesn’t it? It seems that things are going along okay, although a little bit on the inflammable side but still safe, when all of a sudden there is a lightning strike from almost no-where and everything flares up in to an uncontrollable situation. A situation that you may be able to control with a lot of unplanned and unexpected effort. Or you may even have to call in experts (fire crews) from outside to control the situation.

Sometimes you may not even be able to resolve the problem and you will have to let it largely run its own course like with this fire, which unless there is heaps of rain very soon, will have to run its own course and burn itself out, or at least down, so it can be finally put out.

How are you handling your own Bushfires? Can you control them yourself or do you need to call in outside help? Can you extinguish them safely and quickly? Or do you simply need to control them and ride them out?

Remember it is best to control and extinguish while small before they can cause massive damage. Final questions. Do you try and cause problems or try and put them out?

Are you a fire fighter, or a fire lighter? Walter