Be Excellent To Each Other

The Sun: Reports have also emerged claiming that the fires could be the result of Islamic extremists declaring "forest jihad".

US intelligence said Australia was one country singled out on an extremist website as a target for potential attacks.

The website called on Muslims in Australia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands".

Oh good grief. That's moronic.

Oh good grief. That's moronic.

How about the guy in the Metro

How about the guy in the Metro claiming that the recent snow and cold is evidence that global warming is a myth? Hellooooo? Australia?

There isn't much funnier in life than winding up metro letter-writers with a letter like that one. This morning's paper was practically glowing with outrage, it was hilarious.

I agree, I always flip to the letters page first. Seems to be shrinking though

gif showing as forbidden Pete.

That video is terrifying, though.

Hmmm, reading the thread title I thought Pete was accusing our grand benefactor of arson for a second.

Only he has the money and servants experienced in groundskeeping to pull off such an atrocity. Just saying.

The Australian approach is referred to as the "Leave Early or Stay and Fight" approach.

In the US, all residents are evacuated and it is left to professionals to defend homes.

In Australia, residents are educated on how to defend their homes and it is up to them. They can leave, but they must leave early, and their homes will not be defended. The professionals concentrate on the fire front, not homes and buildings.

The Australian policy is being considered by many parts of the US and Europe, because Australian academic researchers have found homes where residents stay and put out spot fires started by flying embers have a 90% survivability rate (ie those homes usually don't burn down). Statistics have shown most deaths occur when people decide to stay and fight, but panic when the fire arrives with all its noise and heat, and leave too late and burn in their car when the fire catches them.

There is a story discussing the policy in the LA Times.

Quote:

Americans expect firefighters to protect their lives and property. Australians in rural communities view that as their own responsibility.

U.S. authorities are quick to order mass evacuations during wildfires; they prefer to get civilians out of the way so professionals can douse the flames. Australian officials are more likely to hand homeowners shovels and put them to work.

People here live by the principle of "stay or go" during fire season. Residents who can't or won't battle an advancing fire are advised to get out early. Those who stay are expected to defend their homes. It's a policy driven by pragmatism: There simply aren't enough firefighters or firetrucks to protect far-flung rural homesteads.

I second Pete's idea. I think explicit references to a long-defunct computer games magazine will only lend gravitas to our suggestion, too

I may have to start picking up the Metro on the walk from the car-park now, just so I can find things to write letters about.

I will have to come up a nom de plume. Perhaps "Tarquin Fotherington-Smythe-Howard-under-Lyme"

Famine and civil war in Somalia continue.

Yup, an unending disaster due to combination of climate, AK-47 and cycle-of-cunts. I'm numb to that horror now, feeling mere disgust and sadness. So I try not to think about it.

But the Bush Fires are rather astonishing, as:

1: It's happening in a country radically unused to disaster.
2: No bush fire has ever been this bad before casualty wise.
3: Basically we're talking small townships of 200 people each, where everyone knows each other. By the end of the day up to 30% of those people are dead. It's pretty apocalyptic.

How many earthquakes and fires and droughts and floods have there been where more than 100 non-english-speaking people died in the last year, do you reckon?

How many earthquakes and fires and droughts and floods have there been where more than 100 non-english-speaking people died in the last year, do you reckon?

Famine and civil war in Somalia continue.

Well, they are only Aussies. It's not like we're losing anything particularly cultural here.

Is it too early for a "when barbecues attack" gag yet?

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25038712-601,00.html posted:

CFA firefighter John Munday, who was in one of the fire trucks that entered Marysville about 10 minutes before the firefront swept through the town just before 6pm on Saturday, described in horrific detail how little hope so many residents had of escaping, let alone surviving.

"The toll is going to be massive," Mr Munday said.

He described how he and his crew had to make the heartbreaking decision to save themselves knowing they were leaving people to die.

"We had people banging on the sides of our tanker begging us to go back to houses where they knew there were people trapped, but we couldn't because if we had, we'd all be dead too," Mr Munday told The Australian.

"There were children running down the streets with flames behind them. It was hell. I never want to go back to that place, never.

"As we drove down to the Gallipoli Park, where people were assembling, we knew there were people in homes that were on fire and they had no hope.

"The whole town died around us as we bunkered down on the outside of the oval ringed by funeral pyres while all around us we had the screaming noise of gas cylinders exploding in homes.

"The only way we could have saved them was to put ourselves on the altar and put a sword to our own hearts."

The official death toll from the Black Saturday fires had risen to 181 last night, with 15 confirmed dead in Marysville.

gas cylinders exploding in homes