Canberra Fires of 2003
The Canberra bushfire began on Saturday 18th January 2003, with reports suggesting that it was started by a Lightning Strike, to the north of Canberra. In the few hours the few hours that proceeded, the fires raged out of control. Another fire close to the one started by the lightning, ended up joining it, creating a massive fire front, roaring towards Canberra. No warning could prepare the people of Canberra for what was happening. They did not have much time to fight the fires. They were instructed by the fire crews to leave their houses and flee.
Over 300 homes were lost. One suburb, Duffy, was hardest hit. Just about every house in this one suburb was destroyed or partly burnt by the fires. Damage was reported to be in the hundreds of millions, with many treasured possessions lost, never to be recovered again.
This story of survival was heard on the radio station Nova 97.9. A neighbour from Duffy lived near a farm. The man who owned the farm didn’t even try to save his home. He knew that he would never save it, so he went down the road, took his hose and helped his fellow neighbour save their home. That home was saved. However, the man with the farm lost his home. His neighbour said that he saw him the next day sleeping in his tractor with his dog on the side of the road.
That is a story of Aussies doing their best to look out for their mates.
Canberra was declared a disaster area by the Federal Government. Millions of dollars was donated by the people of Australia to help those people in crisis in Canberra. Millions of Aid Money was also handed out by the Government to those whose homes were destroyed.
In one day an entire large are of Canberra was lost. Due to one fire. This fire was also fueled by strong winds of 50 km/h fanning the fire front and propelling it towards Canberra. Due to the fact that Canberra is surrounded entirely by bush and scrub area, the fire had lots of natural fuel to help it along. The entire surrounding area of Canberra is Trees and farms. This would have helped the fire a lot to travel faster than usual.
Preliminary observations of the gardens of houses affected by the bushfires highlighted the importance of trees and shrubs that retain dead leaves and other material.
The following story was told to me by a nineteen year old man in his dorm room at College on a Saturday afternoon in March. He is from Monroe, New Jersey, and lives with his two parents, his younger brother, his dog Cougar, and his cat affectionately known as Hellspawn. His father works as a contractor, a security guard, and a fire extinguisher inspector, and his mother works at a local garden center.
Australia is currently the driest continent in the world and has a vast history of fire to prove it. Bushfires in the Adelaide Hills were first described and recorded in 1827, and have occurred at frequent intervals since that time. Fire weather can reach extremes in places such as Rudall River National Park in NW Western Australia. Temperatures are often above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), dew points can drop to —37 degrees Celsius, and the winds, uninhibited by trees, can reach speeds of 50-60 km/h (31-37 mph) at any given time in the year. The fuels there may appear to be completely dead, and gaps between plants may be a meter or more (Gill, 1995). In 1966 a massive fire at Brooyar, Queensland had flame heights of 20-25 meters (65-82 feet). In addition to being devastating, the fires are also very unpredictable. A bushfire in the Baulkham Hills in January of 1975 completely destroyed property and some homes, while leaving others untouched. Serious fires occur in the Dandenog Ranges at frequent intervals, and housing there has always been a difficult problem with fire control [3]. Fire has also been used for centuries as an important tool for land management (O’Neill, 1993).
Fires were a very common obstacle at the time, but nothing was even close to the fire of 1871. On October 8th, firefighters received a call from the neighbor of Catherine O’Leary. Neighbors reported seeing a number of flames coming from the cow barn. Firemen instantly spotted the fire, but miscalculated how big it really was. This event was historically known as the Chicago Fire of 1871 (“People 7 Events”).
There were a lot of items lost in the flood. Even trucks, cars, and even airplanes. This hurricane has been up to 50 inches of rain. The resulting floods inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, displaced more than 30,000 people, and caused more than 17,000 deaths. Losses are estimated between 70 and 190 billion dollars.
Wildfires started as an annual and seasonal occurrence in the south western region of California since the early 1930’s in part because of the hot dry summers and the hot dry turbulent Santa Ana winds that blow in from the desert during the fall months. Now it has become a yearlong event (Mckay, 2010). These conditions greatly contribute to the “fire season” throughout this area. This set of circumstances in conjunction with downed power lines and humans that ignited fires took place in October of 2007. This led to a series of fires that burned more than 500,000 acres, destroyed 1,500 homes, killed 9, injured 85, and forced the successful evacuation of around 500,000 people out of harm’s way.
To begin with, during the year of 1870 and 1871 Chicago was facing extreme drought. During that time period the city of Chicago was built mostly from wood, making everything extremely flammable. Richard Bales author of “The Great Chicago Fire” states in an online article, “October 8, 1871, just after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. How the fire started is still unknown today, but an O'Leary cow often gets the credit.” Although we are not certain what and how the fire started, we know that it quickly spread. Legends say that the O’Leary’s cow knocked over one of the fire lamps therefore starting this massive fire. You might be asking yourself, how is it possible for a small fire to spread so quickly? “Hot air rose from the flames and mixed with the cool air above it, creating convection whirls. Witnesses called them "fire devils." A fire devil could pick up a burning piece of wood and send it flying. New fires started where the flaming objects landed. (McHugh)” Firefighters were exhausted from fighting a large fire the night before; and were sent to the wrong neighborhood at first. After finally arrivin...
With the winds and waters sweeping away taking away people’s lives and property the storm made it to be one of the costliest in the history of America. According to FEMA:
July through October only had a few showers that did not contain much water, and even when it did rain, it flooded. They were going through a very long drought, and they had already had a fire the night before and the blaze destroyed four blocks. The wind wasn’t on their side either. The wind was rushing up from the south east, and the gust of wind spread the fire from building to building in a matter of seconds. The fire alarms were not helpful either, because many of them were very hard to get to. And of course back then, at that time, there were no phones! When William Lee raced to the fire alarm at Gull’s drug store the “ fire was only 15 minutes old. What followed was a series of fatal errors that set the fire free and doomed the city of Chicago to a fiery
There were many things destroyed and many people displaced from their homes and family. Studies show more than 400,000 people in the New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf area were forced to travel away from everything they knew (Katrina Displaced 400,000, Study Says). The emotional damage of the storm is not something easily communicated but the financial toll calculated is somewhere around $96-$125 billion, the insurance losses were looked at at around half that (Hurricane Katrina Damage Facts and Economic Effects). With so many people not where they should be and facing the financial hardships of the storm’s aftermath, the economy suffered. As well as the oil and gas pipelines damaged in the storm and unattainable through the debris. All these costs affected production, sales, and caused the Gross Domestic Product and economic growth to change from 3.8% to 1.3% by the October-December quarter. Total estimated costs to property was es...
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was one of the largest disasters in American history. Practically overnight the great city of Chicago was destroyed. Before the fire there was a large drought causing everything to be dry and flammable, then a fire broke out in the O’Leary’s barn and spread throughout the city. Many attempts were made to put out the fire but there were too many errors and problems in the beginning. After the fire many people were left homeless and had to help build their city again (Murphy, 39)
The water not only ruined the farm land, it ripped through thousands of houses. The flood drove out nearly 931,159 people from the area. It is estimated that 162,017 homes were lost. More than half a million of the people who lost their homes were African American (Bessie
Throughout recorded history, fires have been known to cause great loss of life, property, and knowledge. The Great Fire of London was easily one of the worst fires mankind has ever seen causing large scale destruction and terror. Samuel Pepys described the fire as “A most malicious bloody flame, as one entire arch of fire of above a mile long… the churches, houses and all on fire and flaming at once, and a horrid noise the flames made.” (Britain Express 1).
It wrecked havoc, demolishing everything in its path. Leaving nothing but mounds of trash. The surviving people were forced to leave due to massive flooding and the destruction of their homes. New Orleans was not the only place hit by Katrina, but it was one of the areas that was hit the hardest. Millions of people were affected by this tragedy and the cost range was up in the billions.
It not only destroyed the homes of the people who lived there but it also messed with their head. It caused then to think differently and jump to conclusions. Though they eventually recovered the emotional and mental damage stuck with them.
Fire at any level can be devastating, yet the effects that wildfires have on every worldwide country really has left its mark on the land. As written by world renowned wild fire spokesperson Smokey the Bear, “Every year, wildfires sweeps through parts of the United States setting wilderness and homes ablaze. On average these raging infernos destroy about four to five million acres of land a year. But in 2012, wildfire burned more than 9.3 million acres, an area about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined” (U.S. Wildfires). Destroying homes, crops, towns and of course forests. Yet the effects of these fires can be seen from a negative perspective as well as some positive. Plus there are natural causes as well as manmade that makes these destructive fires erupt and become almost unstoppable in seconds.