18 January 2013

10 years in the blink of an eye

| johnboy
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So as you are no doubt already thoroughly sick of hearing it’s been ten years today since the 2003 bushfires turned the sky black and rained fire on the city while our leaders dithered.

It seems everything that could possibly said has been said.

But if you’ve got a remembrance you’d like to add knock yourself out in the comments.

UPDATE 18/01/13 16:41: The Chief Minister’s speech at the commemoration service is now available.

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Tetranitrate11:27 pm 19 Jan 13

Also never forget that as houses where being reduced to ashes and firies were running aroound being overwhelmed, Stanhope was fronting a press conference to tell everyone that nothing was happening and everything was under control.

Yep, that worked…

well…. he was chief minister for another 8 years afterwards, so yes, I guess it did.
I don’t know how, but it did.

farnarkler said :

…Johnboy is correct, this city is being a little bit precious about what really wasn’t much compared with the 2009 Black Saturday fires.

I didn’t know JB thought Canberra was ‘being a little bit precious’ by having a 10-year rememberance! I seem to miss all his subtleties!!

Deckard said :

KB1971 said :

I forgot to add, its the reason firefighters backburn when a fire does start, to reduce the fuel load.This is all well and good but the Gov could be more proactive rather than reactive.

Yeah I agree it would be good but I reckon the cost and manpower to do it would be too much for a government and volunteer bush fire service to consider. It’s a very big country out there.

But it actually used to be done. For whatever reason it isn’t now, I would imagine the old national park motto of locking everything up would have a bit to do with it.

Thankfully I was living in London in 2003. Nothing much happened that year………only close to 70,000 deaths Europe-wide due to the July-August heatwave.

Johnboy is correct, this city is being a little bit precious about what really wasn’t much compared with the 2009 Black Saturday fires.

KB1971 said :

I forgot to add, its the reason firefighters backburn when a fire does start, to reduce the fuel load.This is all well and good but the Gov could be more proactive rather than reactive.

Yeah I agree it would be good but I reckon the cost and manpower to do it would be too much for a government and volunteer bush fire service to consider. It’s a very big country out there.

I forgot to add, its the reason firefighters backburn when a fire does start, to reduce the fuel load.This is all well and good but the Gov could be more proactive rather than reactive.

Deckard said :

It’s not about whether hazard reduction works or not, I’m sure it does help a lot. But where do you start? Kosciuszko and Namadgi NP’s are massive. How many firies would you need to do a controlled burn of that size? It snows in the winter so no chance to do a burn then. It would have to be close to summer which then risks a burn of that size getting out of control.

Would you prefer them to bulldoze the lot and concrete it over? Or build some kind of gigantic wall and hope the fire doesn’t jump it?

I think it’s something we just have to live with. If you’re living in a high bushfire danger area surely you’d know the risks associated with that and plan accordingly. I think in 2003 people didn’t realise that Canberra suburbs could be a high risk area. I’m sure they do now and I just hope that they don’t forget it in 50 years time when it happens again – this time hopefully without a pine plantation on peoples front doorsteps.

Its not that hard you know. I grew up down at the Sapphire Coast and they used to systematically burn different areas on different years. You dont have to burn it all at once as as you say its too big a task. An area might not have to be burned for another 5 years.

The idea is to be able to break up a fire if it does lose control, it hits a bit that has already been burnt and slows down or stops so firefighters can keep up or people/animals can get to safer ground.

Its better doing slower controlled burns on bush that is used to it rather than let a firestorm go & burn the shit out of everything.

We also have plenty of time either side of Summer & Winter to do planned controlled burns.

KB1971 said :

For years the Aboriginals burnt sections of bush to help them get food & probably for other reasons. This practice has stopped since the white man has come along (although I think they still do it out west).

I am surprised at your last question considering all three fires that flared up in 2003 were all some distance from Canberra but when the weather conditions prevailed, the fuel load combined with the hot and wind moved it into the edge of town at a rapid rate of knots.

Having said that I guess there is no ‘scientific’ evidence to back up the hazard reduction thing, it is a practice that has been used by people who don’t live in the city to try & prevent wildfires occurring.

I believe it is essential and as mentioned earlier, the 2001 fire stopped the 2003 fire in its tracks. Proof enough for me.

It’s not about whether hazard reduction works or not, I’m sure it does help a lot. But where do you start? Kosciuszko and Namadgi NP’s are massive. How many firies would you need to do a controlled burn of that size? It snows in the winter so no chance to do a burn then. It would have to be close to summer which then risks a burn of that size getting out of control.

Would you prefer them to bulldoze the lot and concrete it over? Or build some kind of gigantic wall and hope the fire doesn’t jump it?

I think it’s something we just have to live with. If you’re living in a high bushfire danger area surely you’d know the risks associated with that and plan accordingly. I think in 2003 people didn’t realise that Canberra suburbs could be a high risk area. I’m sure they do now and I just hope that they don’t forget it in 50 years time when it happens again – this time hopefully without a pine plantation on peoples front doorsteps.

Pork Hunt said :

KB1971 said :

Holden Caulfield said :

Canberra was also incredibly fortunate, I think, that there was the fire near Black Mountain the previous year. Had those pines around Scrivener Dam still been there then it’s not too difficult to imagine how much more damage the 2003 fires could have done.

Thoughts with those who lost their homes or loved ones.

.

I have always said this considering that the fire spotted into the Glenloch interchange anyway.

it was as plain as day where the fire the previous year had been because the 2003 fire was stopped int is tracks because of it.

& they still don’t do enough hazard reduction in Namadgi………

One day someone will explain to me exactly how “hazard reduction” in the Australian bush is supposed to work.
How is it decided where to hazard reduct when there are squillions of sq km of bushland.
The purpose of national parks is so that we can see the bush as mother nature created it. Hazard reduction is national parks seem to run against that philosophy.
Do wise old men stroke their beards and say “we’ll burn here cos’ the next fire will come from over there”?
I can see how burning near houses at the edge of town helps but what benefit does hazard recuction 50 k’s from south Tuggeranong bring?

For years the Aboriginals burnt sections of bush to help them get food & probably for other reasons. This practice has stopped since the white man has come along (although I think they still do it out west).

I am surprised at your last question considering all three fires that flared up in 2003 were all some distance from Canberra but when the weather conditions prevailed, the fuel load combined with the hot and wind moved it into the edge of town at a rapid rate of knots.

Having said that I guess there is no ‘scientific’ evidence to back up the hazard reduction thing, it is a practice that has been used by people who don’t live in the city to try & prevent wildfires occurring.

I believe it is essential and as mentioned earlier, the 2001 fire stopped the 2003 fire in its tracks. Proof enough for me.

GladMyNameIsFrank11:27 pm 18 Jan 13

switch said :

Seems like no matter what we do in this country, every 50 years or so there’s a catastrophic bushfire.

Yes, and what went right and wrong ten years ago, the RFS is doing it still. Sorry, but that’s the truth. And it will be the same in another ten years. NSWRFS is the same. Full stop.

Seems like no matter what we do in this country, every 50 years or so there’s a catastrophic bushfire.

KB1971 said :

Holden Caulfield said :

Canberra was also incredibly fortunate, I think, that there was the fire near Black Mountain the previous year. Had those pines around Scrivener Dam still been there then it’s not too difficult to imagine how much more damage the 2003 fires could have done.

Thoughts with those who lost their homes or loved ones.

.

I have always said this considering that the fire spotted into the Glenloch interchange anyway.

it was as plain as day where the fire the previous year had been because the 2003 fire was stopped int is tracks because of it.

& they still don’t do enough hazard reduction in Namadgi………

One day someone will explain to me exactly how “hazard reduction” in the Australian bush is supposed to work.
How is it decided where to hazard reduct when there are squillions of sq km of bushland.
The purpose of national parks is so that we can see the bush as mother nature created it. Hazard reduction is national parks seem to run against that philosophy.
Do wise old men stroke their beards and say “we’ll burn here cos’ the next fire will come from over there”?
I can see how burning near houses at the edge of town helps but what benefit does hazard recuction 50 k’s from south Tuggeranong bring?

Holden Caulfield said :

Canberra was also incredibly fortunate, I think, that there was the fire near Black Mountain the previous year. Had those pines around Scrivener Dam still been there then it’s not too difficult to imagine how much more damage the 2003 fires could have done.

This topic has come up more in the last 10 years than the actual 2003 fires. I was in Gungahlin in 2001 watching what seemed like a small grass fire slowly morph into what seemed like an enormous blaze, from that distance it did appear like Black Mountain was burning. Without the clearing effort of that blaze, the big one in 2003 may well have taken hold on Black Mountain , and by all accounts that probably would have been game over for the inner north/city.
I recall a lot of hand-wringing at the loss of revenue from the pine forest that was destroyed in 2001, but it now appears that would have been a drop in the bucket if the 03′ fire had taken hold in the north.

Lillypilly said :

Oh, and it creeps me the hell out that pretty much the exact same weather conditions (bloody hot and super high winds) are happening exactly 10 years to the day.

Or maybe that’s just me…

The vision on TV this morning from a town in Gippsland creeped me out. It was what it looked like in the morning here.

Now with the CM’s speech.

Oh, and it creeps me the hell out that pretty much the exact same weather conditions (bloody hot and super high winds) are happening exactly 10 years to the day.

Or maybe that’s just me…

I was living with my parents in Chapman at the time. We weren’t thinking anything was very wrong until our neighbour belted on the doors saying he was getting on our roof and blocking our gutters. (my father was interstate and it was just mum and me)

Hoses that barely spat out water were useless and we had to use buckets mostly to start putting out spot fires around the house. Neighbours were leaving and I told mum that I’d be damned before I let a fire take the home our family grew up in.

I have four very distinct memories of that time:
1) Our usually neurotic cat was calm as a cucumber and chilling on the lounge the whole time we were running about trying to put out fires and gather personal belongings
2) With no power a ice cream desert just fell apart in the freezer and I spent an hour cleaning up that stupid sticky chocolately crap.
3) The owners of the Chapman IGA at that time had no qualms in giving out as much free food and bottled water as anyone needed and was really a pillar of strength during those following days.
4) One or two days later I took some neighbourhood kids between about 6 and 10, to Hoyts in Woden. I remember the movie was some episode in the spy kids franchise. I will never forget the slightly haunted looks in those kids eyes as they talked about how their house/their neighbours houses burnt in front of them.

mossrocket said :

A friend and I worked for Canberra Connect during that day 10 years ago. But as it was the weekend we were hanging out playing the Xbox at his place in Calwell.

We were left in the horrid position of not being able to update Canberra Connect with the correct, timely, important, information. Instead we had to listen to 666 and quickly update the website to match…

I forgot to add – 666 were telling everyone to look at Canberra Connect for up to date information 🙂

A friend and I worked for Canberra Connect during that day 10 years ago. But as it was the weekend we were hanging out playing the Xbox at his place in Calwell.

As the fire approached, my friend was called up and told that his job for the day was to keep the website updated with any info – which then turned into updates of which street/suburb were being closed down.

We had dial up internet and a mobile phone to stay in contact with the ESA and with the website’s servers.

Very soon the mobile phone coverage went down. So we lost contact with ESA.

We were left in the horrid position of not being able to update Canberra Connect with the correct, timely, important, information. Instead we had to listen to 666 and quickly update the website to match…

and pop outside every couple of minutes to spray water onto the roof to put out the embers.

then the dial up started failing as well…
So we updated the site when we could, slowly losing touch with everything.

Then we heard that Calwell was being closed down, so I borrowed a car and raced home to be with my family.

It’s a story that got lost among the ashes, but the government was listening to 666 to know what was going on, and was relying on two stoned, xbox playing young men to update the ACT population…

johnboy said :

Shane Rattenbury’s made a statement.

If the Chief Minister has it’s not on her website. (in fact she’s been silent since 30 November)

Isn’t Shane the Chief Minister now?

Reprobate said :

Worth a read:
http://www.impactednurse.com/?p=5422

“What did you do in the war, daddy?”

Shortly after the Code Brown was activated the s*** hit the fan

Worth a read:
http://www.impactednurse.com/?p=5422

“What did you do in the war, daddy?”

Holden Caulfield said :

Canberra was also incredibly fortunate, I think, that there was the fire near Black Mountain the previous year. Had those pines around Scrivener Dam still been there then it’s not too difficult to imagine how much more damage the 2003 fires could have done.

Thoughts with those who lost their homes or loved ones.

.

I have always said this considering that the fire spotted into the Glenloch interchange anyway.

it was as plain as day where the fire the previous year had been because the 2003 fire was stopped int is tracks because of it.

& they still don’t do enough hazard reduction in Namadgi………

The thing I remember in the immediate aftermath was how everybody was heaping praise on 666 radio for their coverage when it was woeful. 666 said on their news that morning that the fires would not approach Canberra until the following day. At 13:00 when the fires were already at Weston and Kambah 666 crossed back to Grandstand (cricket and tennis coverage) and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into switching to emergency mode 20 minutes later after many phone calls. Indeed when someone said to the Sydney switchboard operator that Kambah was already burning the reply was “where’s Kambah?”.

When 666 finally switched it was woeful. Long interviews with ESA staff containing erroneous and sometimes just plain wrong information, pop songs interspersed throughout meaning that in a fast-moving situation we had to go four minutes without any updates, no independent reports such as station reporters, talkback calls, etc etc.

The Canberra Times – indeed the whole Canberra establishment – went all out canonising 666. Indeed they won a Chief Minister’s Award. During all this 2CC was providing up to date information from talkback callers, station reporters and the NSW emergency services.

In the weeks following the firestorm when the orgy of congratulations for 666 was in full swing I wrote three letters to The Canberra Times pointing out the flaws in 666’s coverage and praising 2CC. None of those letters were published.

It certainly opened my eyes as to how agenda politics works in Canberra and how the ABC has a stranglehold in a city of bureaucrats with only one newspaper.

bundah said :

johnboy said :

Shane Rattenbury’s made a statement.

If the Chief Minister has it’s not on her website. (in fact she’s been silent since 30 November)

Ah indeed it appears silence is her friend.

It appears the CM has now given a statement

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher says it has been a tough time in recent days for many who went through the past week, with all the reminders of what happened a decade ago.

But, she says, as well as the frightening stories, there was also “courage, kindness and a genuine coming together of communtiy that cares deeply about each other”.

She said the overwhelming memory would be that lasting legacy of the “desire to help friends, family, neighborus and strangers”, as the community rebuilt.

“For some 10 years is a long time. for others the recovery continues and the memory remains raw,” she said.

The city has changed over those 10 years. The nature parks are back and houses have been rebuilt, “some quickly, some took longer. Some people have stayed, others have moved. New families have moved in and started new chapters in their lives”.

Authorities had also learned lessons from the experience of that year.

“Our city is a safer place as a result, better prepared for an emergency than before,” she said.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/live-coverage-2003-firestorm-ten-years-on-20130118-2cx31.html#ixzz2IHWfXx2s

A word to the Canberra Times is not a public statement.

johnboy said :

Shane Rattenbury’s made a statement.

If the Chief Minister has it’s not on her website. (in fact she’s been silent since 30 November)

Ah indeed it appears silence is her friend.

johnboy said :

Archive.org has a close snapshot.

The Fires 2003 tag seems to work as well.

I’d forgotten the Paddy Guinness incident, explains the poll question of the day 🙂

Are there any posts on here from when it happened? Like original stories?

What’s with the sour attitude John?

Holden Caulfield9:46 am 18 Jan 13

I’m still just incredibly thankful that the closest I came to being directly affected was having all the helicopters based close by to where I was living at the time (Nicholls).

Canberra was also incredibly fortunate, I think, that there was the fire near Black Mountain the previous year. Had those pines around Scrivener Dam still been there then it’s not too difficult to imagine how much more damage the 2003 fires could have done.

Thoughts with those who lost their homes or loved ones.

I was living in SE Sth Aust as a wee tacker during the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires and over time people become complacent again in regards to the threat of fires. I hope that doesn’t happen here too. The regrowth in Canberra’s surrounds is well on the way to having the potential to fuel big fires again.

Shane Rattenbury’s made a statement.

If the Chief Minister has it’s not on her website. (in fact she’s been silent since 30 November)

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