Questions raised over Bright fire
UPDATE: The fire is now listed as controlled, which means … it’s out!
DSE expect to contain the fire today. It's not a threat as there is no wind. Rain is expected on Thursday & Friday.
Paraglider claims the fire “could not have been accidental”
The cause of a bushfire that started on Sunday afternoon about 13 kms north of Bright near the disused Havilah mine has been called into question by a caller to Joseph Thomsen’s ABC Local Radio show. The DSE had said they believed the fire was started from a campfire lit by as yet unknown campers. The blaze has grown to over 100 hectares and was contained yesterday but broke the western containment lines overnight where DSE had back-burned. Latest reports are that they expect to re-contain it today.
However, ’Brian from Bright’ (a caller to Thomsen’s show just before 11 am today) said he was para-gliding over the area on Sunday when the first plume of smoke rose from the steep and heavily forested area. He claims the fire could not have started from a campfire and that DSE vehicles were in the area at the time:
“It’s not an area where you can camp, it’s steep terrain and there did not appear to be any camp sites,” he said, or words to that effect.
“I was flying over the area and noticed a small plume of smoke but, as there were two DSE vehicles below it, and as the fire tower was above it, I thought they’d have it quickly under control and there was no need to report it.”
Comment:
Well, we really can’t jump to conclusions, as ‘Brian from Bright’ is, at this stage, a somewhat anonymous caller. But the ‘campfire theory’ always sounded odd to me. Joseph Thomsen has also said he found the campfire theory ‘unbelievable’, although he might have meant it was ‘unbelievable’ anyone would be so careless. But there has been no wind for several days and, yes, that area is not one where you’d expect people to be stopping to light a campfire. I wonder if we’ll hear any more about this.
Promoting 'Beautiful Bright'.
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In future maybe we should use paragliders to spot fires and report on anyone acting suspiciously. Can they water bomb?
Um, they’d need to carry a bucket. Either that or they could p… on it.
At least there isn’t a ski lodge out there as we know the track record of the “Department of Sparks and Embers” when it comes to those! Also isn’t this the same location where there was a fire attended by DSE about a week ago and which was supposedly “controlled and safe”? If so it lends credence to the feeling that they just don’t worry too much about putting fires out as there is more fun (and overtime) in “managing” them. The CFA priority seems to be to get on the job, put the fire out and then get on with their lives but I am not too sure about the “green men”. Perfect timing with Easter coming up though however the forecast rain on Thursday might just do their job for them (again).
I couldn’t have put it better, Herb.
I draw your attention to the naming of the current fire, which is done by the first fire fighting unit to transmit a situation report on the fire. A specific name – any name – is called for to identify this particular incident amongst many others that may occur at the same time.
Fire officers should be trained to select more ambiguous names such as ‘fire number one’ or ‘Billy’s Blaze’ rather than the name of the nearest town (e.g Bright/Havolah) as potential tourists – who may only hear snippets of the details – are too easily scared off going there as they expect the locality to be destroyed or damaged.
Well, in this case Greg, it is close to Bright – and to the north, where you don’t want it.
It’s made a few of the State News bulletins so I hope it doesn’t put (even more) people off coming here.
Mind you, with the Gold Coast in the shit over the oil spill, the north coast of NSW in flood and the whole Murray a toxic waste dump, we might still do OK.
I would like to know who started the Tawonga Gao fire in December 06, that was deliberate, a fire which almost burnt down Mount Beauty, started on the Gap road on that hot Saturday in December, and very few animals have returned, I never see a kangaroo/wallaby , but I have seen a couple of wombats. . dead. Always on a holiday weekend when tourists ( alledgedly) dont give a damn and dont ro cant read road signs which say ” wombats ” “kangaroos” “slow down” …they drive over the gap like maniacs , the local police should be sitting behind a clump of bushes on that 1 km stretch from the corner , down to the bridge over the river , going toward Bright from MB, its a drag stretch , spinouts and burnouts by local louts as well as tourists. If any animals survived that horrendous fire, they have been killed since by drivers cexceeding the limit. I wonder if we will ever know who lit that fire in 2006 and killed so many animals.
I wonder if we will ever know who lit that fire in 2006 and killed so many animals.
I remember that day, 10/12/06, a huge & ferocious fire. We probably will never know how it started, but I agree it was suspicious and caused massive damage. It seems fires are a bit of an ‘industry’ nowadays.