NSW bushfires spread across entire coastline as homes lost in Qld fires

[Matilda]

"Thousands of firefighters across New South Wales and Queensland have had another long night battling dozens of fires, with conditions on Friday expected to worsen. NSW was told to expect wind gusts of 80km/h and high temperatures, and Queensland will likely see temperatures about 12C above average over the next two days, surpassing 40C in the Lockyer Valley and Ipswich."

(snip)

"Almost the entire coastal area of NSW and much of the state’s north-east have a severe fire danger rating for Friday.Total fire bans will be in place for the far south coast and the Monaro alpine, southern ranges, Illawarra-Shoalhaven, central ranges, greater Sydney, the greater Hunter, northern slopes and north-western regions.

"Meanwhile, the longest period of air pollution on record in NSW is set to continue with the Bureau of Meteorology saying heavy smoke from the bushfires ringing Sydney will linger in the city basin until Saturday.

"The smoke is being blown from large fires near Warragamba Dam and the Wollombi national park."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/06/dozens-of-out-of-control-bushfires-burn-across-nsw-as-conditions-expected-to-worsen


And what is the government of Scott Morriscum doing? Nothing. Busy ripping our society to shreds - cutting the Department of the Environment (I'm not kidding), cutting the Department of the Arts while they're at it, cutting the aged pension, and cutting Newstart, the payment made to jobseekers, which hasn't been raised in 25 years and is already below poverty level. Now it will be cut further.

Morrison did visit one fire area two weeks ago, and told those who'd lost their homes that they had his thoughts and prayers. When the angry residents told him they didn't want thoughts and prayers, they wanted action, Morrison ran away and hid for a few days.

And what has our NSW Premier done? Nothing. She had already cut 35% of the firefighters' budget, and it hasn't been restored. And she's given developers permission over the past two years to cut down every tree they can see over hundreds of kilometres - the result being a massive loss of natural habitat for our wild creatures, notably the koalas, who are now rapidly approaching extinction point.

In Sydney, we've had a haze reminiscent of Beijing on a bad day for over two weeks now. During the day it's grey and you can't see very far, but in the evening, it has an orange glow. The setting sun is bright orange, and so hazy you can actually look at it. As the moon rises, it too is orange.

I do try not to hate people, but when it comes to the Liberal/National (Conservative) parties, I make an exception. Never have I known such a corrupt government; while the east coast burns, they sit there counting their donations from business and ripping the social fabric of our society to shreds. It's so hard to understand their complete lack of concern for what is happening to our country.

We are due to receive a group of firefighters from Canada this week, and a group from the U.S. a few days later. I'm sure that will be most welcome relief to our local firefighters, most of whom are volunteers and have been fighting for weeks now with no pay. They are true heroes.

[Kali]

1. how are they starting?

human, or lightening?

[Matilda]

2. A fair number have been started by arsonists.

Police have arrested a handful of people so far. (Mr Matilda thinks they should be sent into a fire area with a bucket of water and told to work their way out).

In many cases, the ground is so dry, especially with so many trees having been destroyed, they just begin as spot fires and grow from there.

[Kali]

3. geebus!

one of the biggest fires in my state was started by an arsonist - a firefighter trying to create work for himself!

[Matilda]

4. One guy arrested here was a firefighter.

Quite a young guy from memory - started a fire, made himself scarce for a while, then joined his unit to fight the fire.

Edit: typo

[lunasun]

5. Kick

[Matilda]

6. Three fires have combined into one "mega-fire" north of Sydney.

It covers an area of 60kms.

And what have we heard from our Prime Minister? Nothing. When the fires first started, he paid an empathy counsellor (truly) $190,000 to teach him how to empathise, because that's not something he does.

When he told people he was offering thoughts and prayers and it didn't go down too well, he obviously gave up. Because with the loss of over 680 homes, plus loss of crops, animals, trees and bush, not to mention over 1,000 bush creatures, you might think he'd find something to say. But it's beyond him; he has completely ignored the fires.

He is a seriously weird person.

[Mickju]

7. The right wing is killing Australia, the US and Britain.

I weep for my beloved Australia.

[Matilda]

8. What do they have in common?

Enormous power of the Murdoch media. Definitely in Australia, the media are not calling the government to account in any way, and I have read that it's the same in Britain.

Some things are filtering through - I believe that a clear majority of Aussies now accept the reality of climate change, and link it to bushfires, but Labor isn't really pushing it, so LNP just continue in blissful disregard of the facts.

Never have I seen a federal government treating ordinary Australians so badly while lining the pockets of themselves and their corporate mates. And the people for the most part are silent.