16 September 2011

Mitchell fire. Your pictures and video

| johnboy
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Photo by Thisisaname

For all of the ESA reporting and safety warnings please read our earlier report

[Lead photo by ThisIsAName]


photo by gungahlin al

The first photo was sent in by Gungahlin Al at 2.20am.


Photo by Mamunul

Mamunul sent this in of the explosions at 2.48am.


sms warning

Overlord has noted at 3.35am that the SMS warning left a bit to be desired:

This kind of basic spelling mistake is just embarrassing. Made me doubt it’s validity until I checked the riot act.


phot by simon

Simon sent this in at 3.04am


photo by Deeba

Deeba sent this in at 3.51am from Franklin


Dale sent this video in at 4.02am


photo by daniel curby

Daniel Curby sent this in at 4.03am


photo by renee

Renee sent this in at 4.24am


photo by James

And then came the dawn. James sent this in at 6.12am


photo by Emma

Emma sent this in at 6.45am


photo by Grace

Grace sent this in at 7.11am


photo by rodent

Rodent sent this in at 8.07am


kazza the blank one

Kazza the Blank One sent this in at 8.08am from Evatt, as well as this concerning one of the smoke buildup.

kazza the blank one
photo by welkin31

Welkin31 took this on Harcourt Hill and sent it in at 8.37am


OhMyGoy sent in that Facebook humour is at its finest at 8.52am


photo by martin

Martin’s sent in this one.


photo by john lafferty

John Lafferty has sent in this alarming panorama.


Steve and Jen sent in this video this morning which includes the explosions


photo by diana

Diana took a set from the paddocks between Mitchell and Hilltops at Crace


(more to come, if you’ve got pictures or video please send them in to images@the-riotact.com )

Here’s a slideshow of everything sent in so far.

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Gungahlin_Bob7:30 am 17 Sep 11

I agree on the poor spelling issue.

Poor grammar or punctuation on emergency messages I can live with, but basic spelling mistakes like that one needs to be sorted.

It’s not just a case of taking a swipe at someone that cannot spell (we all have our faults and are not perfect). These are messages that we need to be confident are coming from the “appropriate” authorities especially in times when you need direction. Huge spelling errors like that one, you do question whether it was real, especially as the spelling is similar to how a primary school student would try to sound out a word.

That aside, it was good to see the EBS being used. As for closing the schools, great move. Even though it inconvenienced a lot of people, who had to scramble with alternative plans for the kids, and that it was probably over cautious, but it was probably the correct thing to do with a fire still burning.

As for the EBS and its list of phones that it broadcasts to. Being involved in the telecommunications industry, I suspect that it is using the information provided by the carrier as your residential address. This information is made available to the Emergency Services for instance when you make a call using your Mobile to 000, the information pops up on their screen. When you update your address with your Mobile Carrier, the update is available to Emergency Services.

However, the issue for some, is that they might move around a fair bit, and with more and more bills being direct debited, or emailed, many don’t get around to updating their address (no need to, no bills get sent to the address).

Then you have the prepaid phones. They might activate the SIM Card once (which is when they enter your address), but I strongly suspect that anyone on prepaid, doesn’t rush to update their address if they move, and to be honest with you, I suspect that there is no clear process in place to update the address.

creative_canberran2:25 am 17 Sep 11

Made it onto BBC World News tonight, 2min story slotted in between stories on Palestinian Independence and floods in Pakistan. You don’t see that everyday… even if they did make it sound like half the city resembled Kabul.

I didn’t get a text or a phone call or anything, and we are in the listed suburbs – how do you get on these lists?

I heard a lot of explosions in the night, but I just thought Majura Firing range were losing the plot.

dtc said :

Naturally, had the smoke proven toxic (something not known until close to 9am ie start of school time) and the wind direction changed unexpectedly (of course, highly unlikely what with weather predictions always being correct) and blown over a school or Belco, you would presumably have been fully supportive of all decisions and just said ‘well, at least I dont live in a nanny state, and at least when I get sick I get medicare, except that I dont agree with medicare’.

Its easy to say ‘nanny state’ after the fact, when you know it wasn’t bad. Its not so easy to rectify an initial mistake or delay. As an example, have a look at the lead up to Hurricane Katrina. In an effort to be ‘American’ and not tell people what to do – not be a nanny state – things were left way too late and the consequences of those decisions could not be fixed.

This.

“But I keep my cameras by my bedside-always ready for any type of action to be captured. :-)”

As a single bloke living alone, no chance of any action over here…

poetix said :

‘This kind of basic spelling mistake is just embarrassing. Made me doubt it’s validity…’

That’d be its validity. No apostrophe in the possessive its. It’s not that hard.
Back to the comfort of pedantry after being scared by things chemically.

I apologise profusely for the improper grammar. I shall endeavour to attain higher standards of iPhone autocorrect in the future. 🙂

Although, the iPhone’s autocorrect feature would have fixed the bad spelling in the original text message. Oh no, what a quandary.

Gungahlin Al said :

You do understand that when PCBs burn they can produce the same chemical that made mustard gas right? The mustard gas that crippled and killed so many people in WWI. (As advised by ESA in their live media conference.)

It wasn’t the explosions they were alerting people to – it was the potential effects of the smoke. And while the smoke went up a fair way, it did come back down in surrounding suburbs – some quite a distance. In fact a Wamboin resident reported on 666 the smoke down right through his area and all the way to Collector.

I for one am entirely comfortable with the alerts going out. If I had slept through it (as some amazingly did), with the bedroom windows open, the potential for breathing in whatever would have been high.

If instead of stupid, this post is trolling, it is a most inappropriate thread to play that game on.

If you going to do something do it properly, don’t make half arsed attempts at something so important as peoples lives.

PCB’s and other toxins were cleared by the ESA early this morning, around 7ish I think – listening to 666 you would have got an early scoop verifying this from the chief firey. Closing a school in Weetangera where there was no sign of smoke or anything from this fire is overkill – as I said balloons were still flyer all over belco. Closing schools in Gungers/giralang/evatt/kaleen/Watson/Dickson areas – excellent thinking.

Friends of mine (yes they exist) in palmerston & forde fobbed the txt off as fake as it looked like a hoax – this plays with peoples lives, not on in my books.

Trolling – no. Stupid – depends who you ask but no. Inappropriate thread – perhaps but I have seen more ridiculous threads and comments in this fora. Just trying to get across that this was more an exercise in raising panic by not doing something properly.

Gungahlin Al3:07 pm 16 Sep 11

KaptnKaos said :

Could this have been any more of an overkill of panic by a nanny state, seriously.
Granted, close off/evacuate Mitchell and close by suburbs, granted it was a bit scarey for those RESIDENCES nearby with the explosions but the ESB should have warned people earlier in the night – but come on, think about it people – closing ALL northside schools??? blocking off gungers (although this was a godsend for us southsiders travelling to work, it was bliss this morning)??? sending out a joke of an sms which woke people at 3 in the morning and made them think it was a hoax??? the balloons were still floating over belco/gungers this morning.

You do understand that when PCBs burn they can produce the same chemical that made mustard gas right? The mustard gas that crippled and killed so many people in WWI. (As advised by ESA in their live media conference.)

It wasn’t the explosions they were alerting people to – it was the potential effects of the smoke. And while the smoke went up a fair way, it did come back down in surrounding suburbs – some quite a distance. In fact a Wamboin resident reported on 666 the smoke down right through his area and all the way to Collector.

I for one am entirely comfortable with the alerts going out. If I had slept through it (as some amazingly did), with the bedroom windows open, the potential for breathing in whatever would have been high.

If instead of stupid, this post is trolling, it is a most inappropriate thread to play that game on.

KaptnKaos said :

Could this have been any more of an overkill of panic by a nanny state, seriously.
Granted, close off/evacuate Mitchell and close by suburbs, granted it was a bit scarey for those RESIDENCES nearby with the explosions but the ESB should have warned people earlier in the night – but come on, think about it people – closing ALL northside schools??? blocking off gungers (although this was a godsend for us southsiders travelling to work, it was bliss this morning)??? sending out a joke of an sms which woke people at 3 in the morning and made them think it was a hoax??? the balloons were still floating over belco/gungers this morning.

Naturally, had the smoke proven toxic (something not known until close to 9am ie start of school time) and the wind direction changed unexpectedly (of course, highly unlikely what with weather predictions always being correct) and blown over a school or Belco, you would presumably have been fully supportive of all decisions and just said ‘well, at least I dont live in a nanny state, and at least when I get sick I get medicare, except that I dont agree with medicare’.

Its easy to say ‘nanny state’ after the fact, when you know it wasn’t bad. Its not so easy to rectify an initial mistake or delay. As an example, have a look at the lead up to Hurricane Katrina. In an effort to be ‘American’ and not tell people what to do – not be a nanny state – things were left way too late and the consequences of those decisions could not be fixed.

creative_canberran said :

Hard questions need to be asked about why Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), a substance banned by the international Stockholm Convention was even at this site. (snip) So why was it been handled literally across the road from homes with families?.

My oath. They should only store PCBs near where single people live.

That said, I was very surprised to learn they had PCBs there. Very nasty.

Could this have been any more of an overkill of panic by a nanny state, seriously.
Granted, close off/evacuate Mitchell and close by suburbs, granted it was a bit scarey for those RESIDENCES nearby with the explosions but the ESB should have warned people earlier in the night – but come on, think about it people – closing ALL northside schools??? blocking off gungers (although this was a godsend for us southsiders travelling to work, it was bliss this morning)??? sending out a joke of an sms which woke people at 3 in the morning and made them think it was a hoax??? the balloons were still floating over belco/gungers this morning.

creative_canberran12:36 pm 16 Sep 11

Hard questions need to be asked about why Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), a substance banned by the international Stockholm Convention was even at this site. The stuff is so nasty that buildings where it was used in the US are often sealed and abandoned with an exclusion perimeter established. So why was it been handled literally across the road from homes with families?

Those familiar with the proposed suburb in Lawson and the old Navy Transmission towers will be aware of the dangers of this stuff.

poetix said :

‘This kind of basic spelling mistake is just embarrassing. Made me doubt it’s validity…’

That’d be its validity. No apostrophe in the possessive its. It’s not that hard.
Back to the comfort of pedantry after being scared by things chemically.

I didn’t want to be the one to point that one out, but I’m glad someone did. A bit of pot and kettle going on there.

‘This kind of basic spelling mistake is just embarrassing. Made me doubt it’s validity…’

That’d be its validity. No apostrophe in the possessive its. It’s not that hard.
Back to the comfort of pedantry after being scared by things chemically.

Ah, the memories … this reminds me of my childhood growing up in a city next to Europe’s largest petrochemical plant. These kind of explosions were a regular occurrence. The night sky was often lit up and we had to evacuate in the middle of the night, though the communist officials usually insisted nothing was wrong and everyone would be fine — this was only a precautionary measure.

I don’t think it affected my health too much — though it may have stunted my growth come to think of it, who knows how much taller i could have been had i not lived there:)

I guess the key difference is that in my city the industry was located well away from residential areas — there was a 10km buffer zone at least. But here some bright sparks decided it would be a great idea to build Franklin right across the road from an industrial area. I actually considered buying in Franklin once, but my wife talked me out of it because she thought it would be crazy to live essentially across the street from Mitchell and potential contamination, etc. Points to her.

I should add we could see the flare ups in the morning when it was light!

We could see the occasional flare up/explosion from Weetangera, impressive stuff. Kudos to those fighting it.

Gungahlin Al11:19 am 16 Sep 11

No sweat.

I thought it was the Majura firing range to start with and was cranky. Then I saw the mushroom cloud of smoke that seemed to be down the end of my street, and grabbed what I could and flew out.

Was further away obviously. While there, there were about 20 explosions (all while I had the phone on another screen trying to post updates to our FB and Twitter feeds @gungahlincc with many corrections due to shivering..)

Smoke started drifting over the crowds at Franklin about 3am and the police started asking everyone to move further away, and donned facemasks themselves.
That’s when I bugged out and have been manning GCC FB and Twitter ever since except 30 minutes sleep.

SMS messages came about 3.30, landline auto messages shortly afterwards. Some complaints – one person got the message in Hawaii! Weird that they’d use subscriber lists rather than a broadcast from relevant base stations… No doubt that will be the subject of much discussion over coming days.

We emailed our mailing list when we got the news about bus and school closures this morning.
About 140 comments on http://www.facebook.com/gungahlin and 50 new subscribers.

Shane Rattenbury MLA called to update a tweet where we questioned that the EPA licence was for Winchcombe Crt. He’s confirmed a Notifiable Instrument was issued at the new address at 60 Dacre St.

Busy morning…finally got some brekky at 11am…

johnboy said :

The best photo is the one that is taken.

+1

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DermottBanana10:49 am 16 Sep 11

I believe the SMSes were sent out based on postcode and the address you give when you register the SIM
Coz I lived in them there parts way back then, but don’t now, and I got one

The spelling is awfully unprofessional though.
Everyone knows a trademark of spam messages is their poor grasp of the language. For the ACT Fire Services to not know how to spell ‘incident’ and ‘residents’ is pretty woeful.

johnboy said :

The best photo is the one that is taken.

Oh, I do have plenty, the problem is JB-I keep them in TIFF, each around 70-110 Mb.
Perhaps, I shall send some in, to be featured? 🙂

Gungahlin Al said :

DUB said :

Gungahlin Al-you sooooo need a decent camera and upgrade to your phone.Sorry 😉

Mate I tore out of the house so quick only had one jacket. Was freezing and couldn’t hold the camera still, even leaning it against a streetsign.

Ok, please accept my apologies then.
But I keep my cameras by my bedside-always ready for any type of action to be captured. 🙂

The best photo is the one that is taken.

Gungahlin Al10:29 am 16 Sep 11

DUB said :

Gungahlin Al-you sooooo need a decent camera and upgrade to your phone.Sorry 😉

Mate I tore out of the house so quick only had one jacket. Was freezing and couldn’t hold the camera still, even leaning it against a streetsign.

Gungahlin Al-you sooooo need a decent camera and upgrade to your phone.Sorry 😉

I got that txt as well – but left Kaleen 6 months ago. Anyone know what database they use? It’s a great feature and I just want to make sure I get a txt if something happens near the new digs. I have updated my licence, electoral roll – I think Medicare/Australia.gov as well.

I will call Canberra Connect next week (I’m sure they are busy today) if no one knows.

Driving down the federal hwy this morning after sneaking out the back of Harrison I had the best vantage point just before the Formula 1 motel there up on the hill. Looks like a burning oil well from Iraq in the middle of Mitchell.

Which isnt surprising given the place worked with mineral oil.

Watson said :

Wow, so many people up in the middle of the night! I could not bring myself to get out of bed once I’d verified we were not under attack.

Exactly what I did. We live in Downer and it was so loud. I’d watched a war movie before I went to bed and quite promptly had a minor freakout when the explosions woke me. Once the hubby found out on twitter what it was, I just got back into bed

Anyone up at the highly sought after Hilltops at Crace? They would have had a good vantage point?! 🙂

Hope the fire is brought under control soon….

Wow, so many people up in the middle of the night! I could not bring myself to get out of bed once I’d verified we were not under attack.

Agree the spelling mistake is a bit of a worry, but glad that technology has been used in this way to let people know of the potential risk at the time.

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