Military exercise sparked big Australian wildfire

[KiwiElf]

Military exercise sparked big Australian wildfire
AP October 24, 2013, 6:16 am

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/19522774/military-exercise-sparked-big-australian-wildfire/

A military training exercise ignited the largest of the wildfires that have ravaged Australia's most populous state over the past week, investigators said Wednesday.

More than 100 fires have killed one man and destroyed more than 200 homes in New South Wales state since Thursday.

Fire investigators found that a massive fire near the city of Lithgow, west of Sydney, began Oct. 16 at a nearby Defense Department training area, and that the blaze "was started as a result of live ordnance exercises" at the army range, the Rural Fire Service said in a statement.

The fire has burned 47,000 hectares (180 square miles) and destroyed several houses, but no injuries or deaths have been reported in the blaze. It was downgraded from the highest emergency category on Wednesday.

The Defense Department declined to comment on the investigators' findings, but had earlier confirmed that an explosive ordnance training exercise was conducted Oct. 16. The Defense Department was also investigating any link between the exercise and the fire.

The revelation drew anger from Mark Greenhill, mayor of the community of Blue Mountains, which has been ravaged by several of the fires over the past week.

"I would have hoped on a day like that - which was a dry day, a hot day, with the winds - the Australian military would have known it wouldn't be a good time to be igniting," Greenhill told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell came to the military's defense.

"I want to ensure that this doesn't detract from the efforts that Defense have made over the past week in assisting the state's emergency services battle these fires," he told the Seven Network.

Meanwhile, winds that were fanning wildfires and showering embers on threatened communities eased late Wednesday, after scores of Blue Mountains residents evacuated their homes.

Residents were told they could return to their homes Wednesday night, as cool weather settled across the region and fears lifted that the fires could spread and threaten homes. There were no reports of property loss or injuries on Wednesday.
While many hours of firefighting are still to come, "the broader risk to a much larger, more widespread population has certainly eased," Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said.

I wonder who's going to "pay" for this?? - KE

[Positive Vibe Merchant]

they will deny all charges of course.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Holy crap.

I am horrified but not surprised.

thank you for sharing this.

[Sidney]

Shocking even more that this discovery made it to mainstream. Maybe thats a good thing. The residence need to get angry as hell.

[KiwiElf]

I can see some big lawsuits coming! Hundreds (if not thousands) of people have lost everything; possessions, cars, boats, houses - thank god loss of life is minimal. What this article fails to mention is, that as a result of these catastrophic fires (which by all accounts are still out of control), is that the newly placed law allows the Australian authorities to evacuate and/or bulldoze your house without having to go through any other due process, should it be in the path of the fires (35 x individual fires as of yesterday). An 11-yr old boy was blamed for starting one of the fires and has been arrested...

[panopticon]

I'm not a fan of the O'Farrell Government but it needs to be mentioned that the State government introduced laws on the 18th to protect the jobs of volunteers while they are away fighting these fires (source (http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_more_info_latest.cfm?CON_ID=21516)). The NSW Rural Fire Service is mostly volunteers (17,000 of them) and they are the ones who are giving their time and putting themselves at risk to fight these fires (I posted about this here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?64545-Blood-Red-Skies-and-glowing-blue-shadows&p=747347&viewfull=1#post747347)).

I don't think there has been a new law introduced to do with State powers (though I wouldn't put it past them).
To my understanding it is a State of Emergency that has been issued as a way of protecting the fire fighters who, as I've said, are volunteers.

This situation is not over and these fires will continue to burn for months. This was a very early start to the "fire season" in NSW and will continue to be of concern into Summer.

The Statement from the RFS in relation to the State Mine fire is here (http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_more_info_latest.cfm?CON_ID=21573) and Defences response to it here (http://news.defence.gov.au/2013/10/23/defence-statement-regarding-state-mine-fire-near-lithgow-nsw/).

Shannow spoke about this in his thread here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?64545-Blood-Red-Skies-and-glowing-blue-shadows&p=745873&viewfull=1#post745873).

A plane associated with fire fighting activities has just gone down West of Ulladulla (source (www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_more_info_latest.cfm?CON_ID=35555)).
-- Pan

[panopticon]

I went and checked the legislation that allows for these actions to be undertaken (always up for a look see if the State is going beyond what I view is its purview):


RURAL FIRES ACT 1997 (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/rfa1997138/)
STATE EMERGENCY AND RESCUE MANAGEMENT ACT 1989 (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/searma1989331/)

The Rural Fires Act already provides much of the powers that are used by RFS volunteer firies in executing their functions (eg stop fires, save lives, protect property) however there are some areas that are not covered by this legislation. The State Emergency & Rescue Management Act extends the ability of rescue services and emergency crews to do their job and limits their liability in the event that something goes horribly wrong (the success of the back burn operations could have turned to disaster quite easily and the Commissioner was right to call it an 'aggressive and high risk strategy') out to a maximum of 30 days.

There were areas of the legislation that I didn't agree with (for example allowing for the possibility of making someone pay for their own wall/building being pushed over/demolished in Section 37A (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/searma1989331/s37a.html) subsection 2 is just ridiculous, though I don't know if this has ever been enacted) however I understand that under extreme circumstances some protection needs to be offered to those who are working to save lives & property.

-- Pan

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

let's hope the chemtrail merchants don't profit off of their poisoned-sky approach to everything!

gasp! choke!

[KiwiElf]

Thanks for clarifying that Pan,... not quite what we heard on our local MSM (hah! whats new? ;))

[panopticon]

Defence accepts responsibility for the 47,000 hectare (116,000 acre) State Mine fire:


Air Marshall Mark Binskin speaks about the incident at the Marrangaroo Army Range last week which sparked the State Mine fire, near Lithgow.

"Let me start by saying that Defence continues to treat this matter very seriously and will not shy away from our responsibility to fully examine this activity, and, importantly, to support the official New South Wales Police investigation," he said.

"The Defence inquiry will look at the specific circumstances surrounding the explosive ordinance training activity and the fire on the training area.

"We'll ascertain the factors as a part of our own inquiry but what I do know to date is it was an explosives activity - it was a demolition activity in support of our people that train for operations around the world. It was about 23 degrees, with light winds at the time I made the decision to do it. The fire scale was on the lower end of the scale and there wasn't a fire ban."

Air Marshall Binskin says the explosion occurred around midday, and the personnel spotted the fire a short time later. He says the RFS were at the scene within 30 minutes of the incident.

"We always have our own fire equipment on standby for this, but it's quite difficult because it was in an area where there is ordnance. Within 30 minutes the Rural Fire Service were there as well," he said.


It's also been confirmed that the 43 year old pilot of the water-bomber that went down west of Ulladulla was killed.

-- Pan

[ghostrider]

irresponsible , I let a buddy of mine in the service fire my 203 , he fired it into pine straw and caught the woods on fire , we raced and with shovels put it out pronto , if one is paying attention , a disaster like this is easily avoided ... the ole saying I will limit my actions as not to cause harm to others ...

[Shannow]

Shocking even more that this discovery made it to mainstream. Maybe thats a good thing. The residence need to get angry as hell.

the residents WERE as angry as hell...that's how it made it to the mainstream.

It made it for 18 hours or so as the Marrangaroo base fire, before (after nearly burning it out) it became the "State Mine" fire.

The locals knew that it started at the base, knew that they would not allow the fire service in to fight it...and were royally pissed at the diversion.

We were all surprised that they admitted it in the end...

[KiwiElf]

Has just featured on our late news tonight, ie military admitting it, ie an "accident".

[Lifebringer]

A home owner refusing to leave his home and battling the fires in the back yard perimeter to keep it from his house, died fighting the fire with buckets and left behind a loyal pet that the neighbors have been taking care of since yesterday. We did good for the loss of life, and weather, but this "military blunder' we could do nothing about. It was meant to be I believe so an investigation can come about, and the discovery of a few "unknowns" by city and national authorities.