Under a Blood Red Sky: Photos of the Canberra firestorm - Page 2

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 07:00

This is the fire above our street Case was talking about. This shot was taken about an hour or so after the worst of it, probably at about 6pm. Notice more normal light conditions have returned but by this stage the power is out - this fire took out the power lines. I'm standing about 4 houses up the street from our house on the corner of Case's street.

We were lucky - the fire was heading straight for us - but then there was a wind change and it took off in another direction.

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 07:06

This is Dominic with a little water bottle I gave him to make him feel better. It seemed to work - he went around spraying everything that was important to him with water, including us, his brother, his toys. Nice psych strat there from Dad until he sprayed the TV and it stopped working!!!

Lancer · January 19, 2003, 07:10

Cute kids...but not a pony among them.

DRoseDARs · January 19, 2003, 07:10

Adorable AND funny AH

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 07:11

This is Mobius on his kangaroo hunt in December. The area behind him is the area burning in the last 2 shots.

Skanky Burns · January 19, 2003, 07:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Nice psych strat there from Dad until he sprayed the TV and it stopped working!!!

Are you sure that didn't occur just when the power went out?

The Mad Monk · January 19, 2003, 07:41

Just remember, whatever else happens, save your hard drives!

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 07:42

This is a shot of the same location Mobius was standing after the fire went through. Its burnt like this for miles and miles. My house is on the treed knoll in the background.

FrustratedPoet · January 19, 2003, 07:44

That's some crazy sh!t.

I'm glad the Horse's and Ponies are OK.

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 07:53

Quote:

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Just remember, whatever else happens, save your hard drives!

Interesting what is important at a time like this - at one point Mrs Horse said we should get documents together in case we had to flee. I said never mind about that - save the family photos! The photos the only thing aside from ourselves I wanted to save or cared a whit about.

This is as close as the fire got to us - the roundabout near the top of our street, about 200 yards/metres from our home. Fortunately the wind had changed so there was no force behind it.

alva · January 19, 2003, 07:54

Some weekend

Kangoeroe hunt ?? Is that like a fox hunt??

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 07:57

Dominic claimed today he saved us from the roundabout fire with his little spray bottle - who am I to argue with such a satisfied little fire fighter?

FrustratedPoet · January 19, 2003, 08:02

so cute

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 08:05

When the power went out, the traffic lights went out too. There were scores of accidents last night, smashed cars littering the road at major intersections as people went through helter skelter in the panic. The cars were just left on the median strip or the side of the road. This car was one of them still there this afternoon.

Remember people - if you are ever in such an emergency - the roads are very dangerous - some people just cracked up and went psycho behind the wheels of their cars, speeding through intersections with no lights.

About one quarter of Canberra is still without electricity today. We were really lucky to get our power back on overnight. Some won't get power back for days or weeks.

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 08:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Lancer
Cheers to Mrs Horse! Sounds like a great woman.

Thanks - I got some great shots of the fire with her in them but I don't want to encourage any more "danger sex" speculation

Here a shot of fire trucks at an assembly area the day after the fire. There were dozens of volunteer firefighters here resting up but I didn't photograph them. It didn't seem like the right thing to do.

They were about as useful as tits on a bull when the fire was upon us, but we appreciate their efforts anyway...

Lancer · January 19, 2003, 08:33

Dominic is a hero!

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 08:56

Here's a photo of an area that was not as fortunate as we were - the suburb of Duffy. Lots of homes lost here, whole streets wiped out.

The toll so far for Canberra is 4 dead, 260 injured and 400 homes lost. Its just sinking in.......one of the worst fire disasters in Australia's history.

MattyBoy · January 19, 2003, 17:59

Quote:

Dominic claimed today he saved us from the roundabout fire with his little spray bottle - who am I to argue with such a satisfied little fire fighter?

It's amazing what you can achieve if you believe in yourself!

Melbourne's currently covered in heavy smoke from Victorian fires, but apparently that is coming from a few hours away (Mt Beauty, Hotham, etc).

Scary pictures, Horse. I would have sworn that you took them after dark.

Case · January 19, 2003, 18:05

Quote:

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
Just remember, whatever else happens, save your hard drives!

On Sunday morning I was kicking myself for not thinking of that on Saturday.
Like Horse and his family, my family also prepared for evacuation by loading up the car with offical documents and valuables. However, all I contributed were some clothes and my various documents (passport, university results, etc). It never occured to me that the easily transportable computer CPU contained literally hundreds of irreplacable things (especially university related stuff) which I greatly value

Lawrence of Arabia · January 19, 2003, 18:27

Under a blood red sky - What a great reference to U2.

Hueij · January 19, 2003, 19:06

Australia signed the Kyoto protocol yet?

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 19:38

This guy heard the evacuation order a bit too late.

orange · January 19, 2003, 19:45

ah HA! It's all MOBIUS'S fault!

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 20:06

I've certainly passed his name on to the Police

Lancer · January 19, 2003, 21:28

Is the story about how to prevent this happening again? Clearing a safety zone, that sort of thing?

ravagon · January 19, 2003, 21:57

You've some quite amazing photos there horse.

You might want to think about submitting them for publication somewhere...
The news coverage last night (Aired after the cricket

) didn't do nearly as good a job.

Glad to hear everyone's ok.

Alexander's Horse · January 19, 2003, 23:34

Thanks - nothing could have stopped this fire. There's a lot of complaints and criticism today about inadequate warning and preparation by the authorities but really nothing could have been done. The situation was chaotic, the fire was out of control in just about every area.

I saw a mountain, Mount Taylor near my home, literally explode into flame, no fire front, just spontaneous combustion. No amount of fire breaks or fireman could combat that.

Houses lost is now confirmed as over 400. (402)

Case · January 20, 2003, 00:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Lancer
Is the story about how to prevent this happening again? Clearing a safety zone, that sort of thing?

There is a bit of discussion about that. Canberra was deliberatly planned so that the bush continued into the suburbs (the 'Bush Capital' policy). For 70 years it's been a nice feature and hasn't caused any major problems, but it now seems likely that the policy will be modified.

As the western suburbs which were seperated from the bush by open fields seem to have suffered far less damage, I suspect that the main reaction to the fires will involve implimenting a permenant buffer zone around the outskirts of Canberra.

However, as AH said, there's nothing which really could have been done to prevent that fire causing major damage. Given it's speed and intensity the best possible outcome would have been to 'only' lose the streets closest to the bush.

Zkribbler · January 20, 2003, 01:00

Quote:

Originally posted by Sava
how did that crap start anyways?

Prolonged draught + high temperatures + lightning storm + high winds =

BTW Horsie, your little firestorm made national TV news here in the U.S.

Alexander's Horse · January 21, 2003, 23:17

Quote:

BASKETBALL

Canberra Cannons “thrilled” by crowd support
by STAFF REPORTERS

"The kind of red hot action sought by Cannons fans"
The embattled Canberra Cannons NBL team received a huge boost on the weekend when more than 7,000 people turned up for a practise session leading up to their match against the Melbourne Tigers this Friday night.

“We’re absolutely thrilled,” said a spokesperson, Doug Dunk. “There were so many people that they were spilling all over the court. Many were carrying sleeping bags and changes of clothing; clearly they were prepared to camp overnight to ensure tickets to Friday’s big game if necessary. The players were totally inspired.”

The Cannons train in a large basketball and recreation centre near the Canberra suburb of Duffy and said they were astonished to arrive at training to find a huge crowd already gathered.

Dunk said the Cannons had not realised the level of support that the team enjoyed in the outer western and southern suburbs of the national capital.

“There were entire families sitting together, from grandparents to little kids. It was wonderful,” said Cannons guard Tim Leanpole.

“All the players said that everywhere they went, they could hear the crowd talking about how we were ‘hot’ or ‘on fire’. Others were crying, I guess in appreciation of our finely honed basketball skills. We were genuinely touched and I’m telling you, we can’t wait to hit the boards against the Tigers and honour this support.”

It is believed five NSL teams have applied to transfer into the area.

Homes destroyed count has now reached 450

200 houses destroyed in the suburb of Duffy alone.