I’m involved with community education in our local zone and we’ve been pushing the “Leave Early or Stay and Defend” message whenever we could over the past six months.
We’ve sat down with people and started working out protection plans for their properties. If they were going we told them what to take and where to go and suggested things that they might not consider in an emergency situation. If they were staying to defend we told them where to have water, where to clear area’s, what to do as a fire front approaches, what to do after it has passed.
We explained about ember attack and how most houses are lost to ember attack, usually after the fire front has passed and that they are reasonably safe in their homes if they have put in the preparation and get back outside as soon as they can to put out any hot spots near their homes and make sure that embers haven’t gotten into any gaps.
The other day………….god that sounds like a fairy tale opening. So not appropriate for this nightmare.
The day that Victoria exploded with fires, we girls were all emailing, as we do and Jayne was telling us about her friend who was tossing up between staying in her home or evacuating.
I rattled off a few things, as you do, as I’ve been trained to do, and didn’t think much more of it till later in the day.
Thankfully the friend got out. Thankfully she and her family are ok.
But so many aren’t.
Whether they had a plan or not.
Even the people with plans, with good plans, who were prepared were caught out. They didn’t have time, there was no warning, the fire was too intense for property protection measures by home owners to make much if any difference.
It makes me sick to my stomach to think about how many have died.
It also makes my heart ache to think of the firefighters who helped some of the people who died to make plans, who were active in educating their communities and the blame they will put on their own shoulders.
I hope they can remember that at an average fire the advice and plans would have worked. That those people would have been ok……………
It’s just that there is nothing average about the conditions or the resulting fires that have ravaged Victoria over the past few days and that was completely out of their control.
I often wonder about people like you and PSLS who are so heavily involved in firefighting. When the fires are out, what goes through your heads? What in pity’s sake will be going through the heads of the firefighters in Victoria who were powerless to fight a catastrophic inferno. What could people do? What could anyone do?
*sigh*
The same things that go through your head when you have to give a patient bad news. “Could I have gotten on top of this sooner and made a difference?” “what if I’d done this instead of this?” “What if……….”
There was nothing to be done. No-one has seen those kinds of conditions before.
anja’s last blog post..Life goes on – for some.
It was just too big and it exploded like a powder keg.
exactly.
Jayne’s last blog post..Feb 10 history
People are people and we all do what we can to help our friends and neighbors but humans panic, things escalate beyond comprehension, and terrible things happen.
My heart goes out to everyone there. What a terrible tragedy.
It is a terrible tragedy indeed. ~ B
Trisha’s last blog post..Terrible Tuesday
I think people shouldn’t be beating themselves up. It is a good system from what I understand. I was watching the fires last night and they were MOVING so fast.
This is a freak act of nature and I really do not think anything else could be done other than what HAS been done.
I have no doubt that the freakish conditions are the major contributing factor here and not what people did or didn’t do. ~ B
Widdle Shamrock’s last blog post..Tracing my family
I’m not in a high fire risk area, but this has got me started doing something I meant to do a couple of years ago and kept putting off. I’ve made copies of my family tree album that my mother made for me, each of my kids now has their own copy. The family on her side has been traced back to 1824 so it’s well worth keeping. In addition, I’m in the process of scanning all my important documents and family photos, these will be transferred to a USB stick, to be carried in my handbag at all times. This way, if anything unforeseen happens, I can grab the bag, the computer and camera and get out quick. Clothes and furniture be damned. They are so replaceable.
Good thinking. we have photocopies of our important documents in an folder at my mum’s house just in case and I’ve taken to uploading all our photo’s and things into private storage albums online. ~ B
Horrible, horrible times.
Like River it has given me a much needed reminder to keep vital documents in a safe place, ours are going into a safety deposit box.
Also working with hubby to clean up all the dead plants around our place that the heat has gotten to in recent weeks.
*nods* I think a lot of people will have gotten the same reminder. ~ B
Sorry that last comment of mine sounds really self absorbed. I just don’t know what to say anymore.
not self absorbed at all. hugs ~ B
Still no words really. I’m not in Vic and I still feel like a stunned mullet. Its just so horrific beyond words.
There has been so much in the media about how little time and warning people had. From what I have heard there is nothing that anybody could have done to prevent much of what has happened. I guess all we can do is band together as a country, as we have done, and be there for one another. I know that doesn’t take away the heartache for so many people affected by it, but what else can we do???
Maybe that’s the worst part, that we feel so powerless……..
Yes, I think that is definitely the worst part, feeling powerless. ~ B
Gemisht’s last blog post..I’m Baaaaaaack
All of our building codes are gauged for the threat of “one in a hundred years” danger. This was the worst ever in our recorded history.
I just feel so much for so many.
*nods* yes, we have ‘once in a hundred year’ flood zones etc. You just can’t predict fire weather that no one has ever seen before. ~ B
jeanie’s last blog post..Nothing to say