{"id":2356,"date":"2003-01-20T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2003-01-20T01:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/galacticmuffin.net\/day17\/?p=2356"},"modified":"2003-01-20T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2003-01-20T01:51:00","slug":"2356","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.galacticmuffin.net\/day17\/2003\/01\/2356\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

on the weekend there were some seriously nasty fires down in the national capital<\/a>. one of the worst fires in oz for a long time – 402 houses lost, 4 people confirmed dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

we’ve been lucky so far this year in the blue mountains. but that may be because we have had some really bad fires in recent years.
\ni was stunned last night when i heard how many houses had been lost. the fires must have been horrific. the mountains can be a bitch of a place to protect from fires but in the last lot of bad fires that were near where i live only 4 houses were lost.<\/p>\n

i hope for those without power and water at the moment – it gets put back on soon. and i hope that the people who have lost everything dont have to deal with a lot of shit from govts and insurance companies when they try and rebuild.<\/p>\n

i also wanna say that i think that laying blame for these fires at this group or that group is stupid.
\nthe only way a fire like that can be even possibly prevented is if a huge scale back burning is done every couple of years. the ecology of australia – before us european dorks showed up on its shores – had a cycle of growth then fires would come through to clear out the crap and then regrowth would start. australia is naturally a dry country and bush fires should be expected by anyone who chooses to live near the bush. especially in drought times like we are having at the moment.
\nwhat happened was awful but people who live near the bush take that risk. hell – if you live in australia you should expect the possibility of fires. mum was saying last night how grassfires can be equally as speedy and awful.<\/p>\n

i think the government should seriously consider putting money towards local fire brigades so they can hire more staff so they can implement a proper regular (2 or 3 year cycle for an area perhaps?) large scale back burning scheme.<\/p>\n

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