General Chat

it isn't the air force that has these planes, nor are they expected to help.

The army was called in during last year's fires in BC, but they were used as an adjunct to the police (RCMP) keeping people out of evacuated areas, patrolling said areas to prevent looting, and behind the lines support for the fire fighters.

Private companies have the planes, and lease them out to the provincial governments.

Google Martin Mars bombers ............ these were the first air water bombers

http://www.martinmars.com/


The province hires and trains forest firefighters to bolster a very small permanent force. The "extras" are on call from April on.

I think the UK might have to start thinking .......

......... if we really are in climate change, your weather of the last 2 or 3 years is not going to change, which means you are likely to have many more fire events such as on Saddleworth,

I see one theory for its origin is sparks from underneath what we call ATVs or motorcycles used to run around on moorland or in forested areas. If that is true, then folk will not stop using those things, even in hot dry weather.

The buckets/scoops used here are similar, made of lighter material than a normal bucket of course, Sylvia.

You are right about slow growth regeneration where peat is concerned as it has been used for fuel for centuries. It was neatly sliced through into brick-like structures but flatter, wider and longer than a housebrick. There are still places where you can see the peat has been dug out. I am sure you will have seen them.

What really helps in a treetop-jumping or otherwise-spreading raging fire is of course, rain.

One of our children is due to travel through that area tomorrow. Since she has seen Aussie fires from her bedroom window and has been on Zante a few times when fires were raging, I am expecting her to remember what she learnt when she was young. A wide detour is the best defence ..... and definitely, definitely no sightseeing!

I wonder whether the firefighters at Saddleworth will get any sleep now that the forces have been drafted in. I can remember our neighbour's son sleeping by the roadside in Oz and all who did that were extremely exhausted as the Saddleworth people will also be.

I can see your theory about 'scramble'/dirt bikes, Sylvia.

Often people throwing cigarettes from cars when land was tinderbox-dry were often blamed.

Seems four lads are suspected of starting the original fire. All the wildlife that has been murdered because they have nowhere to go, skylark nests apparently were on the moors so baby birds gone, it's tragic.

Now another fire has started in the area. So sad

Lizx

That was what I was worried about, Liz (once I'd heard people were safe, although evacuated). Things like bank-nesting bees, lizards etc. too.

Seems one person has been arrested for starting a fire. What kind 8f person would do such a stupid, crazy, dangerous thing?

It will take years for things to get back to anything like it was before. I do wonder if any evidence will surface regarding Brady and Hindley's victim, the little boy Keith.

Lizx