Many will note I have been in favour of high frequency water bombing using the likes of the CL415 and still cannot understand why the penchant for VLATs other than to look good for the nightly news. BUT, I have started to return to the idea that these fires are controlled by huge slow moving bureaucracies where, in the past, fires were managed by local brigades. Hazard reduction burning in local conditions when the weather is right. Anyone ever see a cane paddock lit up? The allotted paddock lit up in less than an hour from start to finish. Spectacular when lit close to evening...Local fire captains used to do the same thing. I have watched them light up a 100acre block straddling a ridge line and have it burn in from three sides and extinguish itself against a manned break. The fire goes off with a quite stunning mushroom cloud..hint! Limited windows available for burning off is BS of the highest order. High pressure systems no longer pass over our landmass? High pressure systems do not subscribe to bureaucratic punctuality! I am not very good at ripping off png pictures from articles but I suggest everyone have a look at
the image on this page. You will see the effects of a wildfire on one side of the photo. Canopy fire so must have been pretty hot. In the middle, a backburn operation from a fire break and untouched forest saved from the fire. This is what fireys used to do with nothing but a piece of burlap bag on a stick and the odd knapsack full of water. Back in the day, they were not scared to put a D9 into the bush to push a two blade wide break (That is over 10m!) across a ridgeline or through unburnt country before the firefront...all the while fire crews were pinching in the sides of the fire to stop it spreading out. My Dad was a kid in 39 up the Rose River. He vividly remembers the lines of men, marching up Dead Horse Gap with nothing but fire rakes, burlap bags and knapsacks. These current fires are being prosecuted so a huge bureaucracy can manage the attack, or lack there of. Evacuations...never heard of before these events...to save human life. Huge armies of firefighters with huge camps set up to rest, replenish and rotate them for a very extended period of time. The worst bit, why are volunteer crews being used way outside of their areas? Surely there are enough crews in the immediate fire zone...or is there something not being told? I have a cousin who is a fire captain in the south east of NSW. He and his crews have quit the RFS because of the inane management. He was told to leave burning houses in his town ship to go up the road and wait for instructions. He lost his own house and sheds, they have now set up their own appliance and are operating outside the control of the RFS. This is one story of many that I have heard about. just that it is a family member involved. Something is rotten within the management of the various fire authorities. My Dad looks at fires around Corowa and frets that things that used to be done are no longer done. So, my mind has turned, before we call in the aerial assets, have we done EVERYTHING possible to reduce the ferocity of these beasts BEFORE they do get going? Remember! To a hammer, every problem is a nail..Big fire bureaucracies need big fires to justify themselves. A fire burning for months must be questioned on the grounds of lack of access, fuel load management, and local knowledge