Victorian South West Fires - Powelines and Wind!

[ol' boy]

Massive Fires everywhere around us at present
Most have been started by Powerlines

Roads covered in trees and debris

I guess it might be on the news tomorrow
Sky is red in every direction and smoke everywhere.

Blue Gum plantations under threat, No Aerial Assistance, Ground Crews run off their feet.
Cops a bit out of their depth too

CFA:
SW Police scanner working too

[ol' boy]

Survived the night....
But been no power all night...
And there is a few 1000 cows that need milking.
This is going to be fun for all

[Landytrack]

Bad event and todays weather forecast is for more winds and heat to come. Difficult conditions for the firefighters, read somewhere one fire front is 25kms long which is a horror.

Hope all goes well with you and your friends.

[ol' boy]

Never seen Coates Hire move so many Generators!

Plenty of Total Loss Farms.... South of Princess Hwy is a mess
Looks like a shredder went through.

[lsemmens]

Stay safe, mate,

[cmangle]

[peteramjet]

While not Victoria, the latest news is that more than 70 houses have been lost in Tathra (NSW South Coast). Having holidayed around that area previous, 70 houses would be a good potion of the entire town.

[ol' boy]

Just reading about Bega/Tathra.
Such loss of property.... I read somewhere that fire was deliberately lit.

Bloody sad weekend

As for us, we've been lucky, an out paddock burnt but all homes and live stock safe.
Fire started about level with the boys farms and travelled SW away from them
(Fire started from a old rotten power pole being blown over in the high winds Sunday evening)

Wind changes to SW and South tomorrow which blows it right at them, but the dozer has been working all day to make a break.

Sad story the next farm over, total loss, House, Dairy and Stock, all while the family were on holiday in Tassie

Plenty of power to be restored.

Huge turn out of CFA members state wide
Some people lost it all in Ash Wednesday and were burnt again this time. Bloody sad.

Seems 2 ignition points for the Terang fires, 1 x Power pole (Sisters-Garvoc Rd), 1 x Sub Station edge of Terang, Princes Hwy.

[gordon_s1942]

If the Victorian Fires are the result of some problem involving the Power lines, then it must be addressed and everything done to prevent where possible it happening again.
Common sense would dictate Power Line Right of Ways must be kept as clear as possible although lines can still come down from other causes such as lightning.
I believe Legislation must be put in place to allow Right Away Clearing even where it may damage the local ecology in the short term.
I am not suggesting a 'Scorched Earth' policy but one that allows clearing to be done and what ever is disturbed, be relocated or rehabilitated to another area.
Give the 'Greenies' something practical to do instead of waving banners and placards.

Population areas are expanding all the time and places that were nothing but a few farms dotted in amongst the wilderness are now becoming small towns and growing every year so the problem is never going to go away....

[ol' boy]

If the Victorian Fires are the result of some problem involving the Power lines, then it must be addressed and everything done to prevent where possible it happening again.
Common sense would dictate Power Line Right of Ways must be kept as clear as possible although lines can still come down from other causes such as

Old rotten poles and extremely high winds
Pole fell in a bare paddock.



Of course, this power pole will magically appear on their programmed work list now wont it
To be looked at next week

[alpha0ne]

Of course, this power pole will magically appear on their programmed work list now wont it
To be looked at next week

And to add insult to injury it will give the power companies the perfect excuse to raise power prices yet again gold plating the delivery infrastructure .......................in the metro area

I hope the gubmint offer meaningful assistance to ppl who have lost everything

[ol' boy]

Powercor has known for 10 years of its impending infrastructure bill, why its been bought and sold so many times to new owners.

[ol' boy]

It is about this time in a Bush Fire / Grass Fire when you are mopping up and checking the damage.
And your Home Insurance bill comes in

When you wonder to yourself, if Insurance Companies ever make donations to CFA's, MFB's or RFS's.....
Because it is those outfits and their members that save millions of dollars that Insurance Companies would have to other wise pay out.

I guess it would only be reflected in premiums if they did sadly.

[eeprommemory]

Old rotten poles and extremely high winds
Pole fell in a bare paddock.



Of course, this power pole will magically appear on their programmed work list now wont it
To be looked at next week

i do not understand WHY the other states use wooden poles it is just stupid here in SA we use steel and concrete poles these things last forever i know of some poles near me that have not been touched for 50 YEARS.
if you drive into one with a header nothing happens.
if you hit one at 100 kph with a car nothing happens
if you hit one with a truck it bends the crap out of them but it still stands up.
so many people have died in WA because a pole fell over and started a fire and now the same thing in VIC when are they going to pull their head out of their ass and use steel and concrete poles.

[ol' boy]

I can't argue with that logic.
In high fire danger areas they have used concrete poles for HV transmission lines.
But there is still plenty of old timber poles in service.

In the Terang Sub Station, the word is the wires touched in the high winds .....

So all fires in the SW have been attributed to Electrical Assets bar the Camperdown fire, which is yet to be determined.

I wonder how many poles have been on the "replacement list"?

Further towards the national park, some power lines were put underground 2 years ago.

But after my own personal battle with gumtrees growing through the LV and HV literally across the road from my house.... Took 18months before anything was done about it.

I don't hold any hope for further fires not being caused by power lines in SW Vic.

Powercor have a lot to answer for.
Privatisation has come at the risk of our safety

And they have No one monitoring them.

[gordon_s1942]

I dont know who does it but regularly we see a company going around the district trimming trees at, under or near Power lines.
I have an old apricot tree just inside my fence that is about the height of the 'Bundled' cable along my street and about every 18 months or so I get a notice in the mail that it will be inspected and be trimmed if its too close at no cost to me.
This has taken several years for most lines to be cleared of possibly problem foliage so now its just a matter of keeping it all trimmed back.
As far as I am aware, this only cover what I call the 'Domestic Services' as they dont go near any of the Grid lines that I am aware of.

[gordon_s1942]

I believe there are many complaints coming out of those affected by the devastating Fires at Tathra that destroyed 70 homes and other property that it was an event waiting to happen and not enough was done to prevent Fires from occurring by burning off and other measures.
I know here the Bush is past the safe level of 'Fuel' accumulation and needs reducing, but HOW and by WHO?

The HOW, Burning Off can only be conducted when the weather is suitable and there are sufficient 'Bodies' available to control the Burn.
More than once a Burn has been scheduled only for it to be cancelled because its Raining on the day or earlier because everything is too wet from previous rains.

The WHO, is those available and while there are those calling for such reductions to be done, they dont make themselves available for it to be done leaving just the 'stalwarts' to do what they can.

To me this is like voting, if you dont vote, dont complain about what those in Government are doing or not doing.

[ol' boy]

I dont know who does it but regularly we see a company going around the district trimming trees at, under or near Power lines.

There is one of the problems.
Powercor contract all the Tree Trimming to a few companies, they have a certain budget for the work and thats it.
They pay other companies and wipe their hands of the obligation.
The trimming companies are in it to make money (clearly)
So they do the bare min, and thats it....

That is just one aspect....

Then there is the aging Assets themselves, old power poles, under sized feeds, undersized transformer for peak load times and the loss of local SEC depots that knew an area and maintained it well.

Much like the CRB used to look after local roads, actually took pride in their area.

Not now....
The only body to keep everyone in check (in Vic) is the Chief Elec Inspector in Melbourne.
And unless an issue is brought to their attention, they would have no idea about it.
And there would be no one placing pressure on the distributor.

I'd say 95% of people don't know there is a Chef Elec Inspector.
Most would ring Powercor or the local shire, both dead ends.

In fairness to Powercor and for some balance, i acknowledge the wind strength of very out of the ordinary Saturday night.
But there is a long history of the Power Distribution starting major fires in this state.

They are taking steps in some areas to minimise the risk, so that is great
But there is a lot more that could be done.

As for burning off, you cant burn off in farming areas.... Burn off what?

[gordon_s1942]

Burning off generally only applies to forested areas either natural or plantation of which I several hundred square Kilometres of both plus open farm land (primarily grazing).
I have seen fires here happily race up one side of a steep hill throwing hot embers before it to jump the gap to the next flammable area as fires dont burn well downhill.
Farmland CAN burn as shown many times unless its a total dust bowl as the grass can be super heated to the point of combustion.
All fires create their own wind patterns and can swirl burning debris hundreds of feet into the air before allowing them to drop onto unburnt territory.

At times I have seen the local Farmers tow a disc plow along their boundary fence making a 2 metre wide break in case either by nature or Man, a fire starts on the verge between their fence and a road.

[lsemmens]

All fires create their own wind patterns and can swirl burning debris hundreds of feet into the air before allowing them to drop onto unburnt territory.

NOT a bushfire, but, when I was a teenager we went to a farm for a bonfire. Given the fuel on the fire, Stumps lots of light stuff etc, the pile was at least 3m high. When we lit it. the clouds above parted. and we could stand no closer than about 20 feet for a few seconds.