Bush fires are a terrible thing, and having been evacuated due to
a threatening front, and with 2 friends who lost their homes
in the San Diego fires a few years back, I know what the van den Akkers
are going through. Every Australian knows what to take during an
evacuation; for me it is family (including animals), family photo albums,
and ownership papers. Everything else is just stuff.
Americans don't have any idea of what real bush fires are about. Lose
a few thousand acres and a state of emergency is declared. Go to Oz
and find out about real firestorms. E,g., Ash Wednesday (yes, really)
in 1976, 3 fires burnt 6 million acres in a single 24 hour period. That's
an area more than 3 times the size of Texas. The world learned a lot that
day about how Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo were destroyed in WW II.
2 Years ago a quarter million acres were turned to charcoal in the Snowy
Mountains; a fragile alpine region that was showing signs of recovery from
man's animal grazing that had been stopped in the 1930s. It may now take
100-300 years to recover.
3 years ago Canberra, the Australian capital city was breached by fire,
which
took out 10% of the homes and parkland. Imagine if that happened to
Washington DC?
It's hard to believe there is anything left to burn in Oz, given the country
has
been in the grip of drought for the past 7 years.
Shane Ingate, fighting the Administration's deceit about Global Warming, in
Maryland
>Recent reports indicated the Herman & Helena (recent FoT Nominees) were
>evacuated from their SoCal Home due to a raging fire.
Yes, indeed! This is already the largest brush fire in CA history, and it's
not contained yet. Everyone in the area has been asked to evacuate.
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