ON Sunday an anniversary quietly passed, commemorating a day when hell had more than enough fury.
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In Southern Tasmania, Black Tuesday dawned on February 7, 1967, with high temperatures and low humidity, but by 9am conditions were containable. Subsequent reports of the day show an extraordinary alignment of conditions by lunchtime, when ordinary indicators suddenly became soaring temperatures, rock bottom humidity and incredibly ferocious winds.
This perfect fire storm killed 62 and injured 900. Tasmania caught its first glimpse of a marauding monster, with its unfathomable random selection of destruction, where timber dwellings survived while brick buildings burned. About 1300 homes were lost.
On Black Saturday, February 7, 2009, savage fires in Victoria killed 173 and injured more than 400. More than 2000 homes were lost.
The same catastrophe has been played out in the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires that killed 175 in Victoria and South Australia, the 2003 fires that wiped out Canberra suburbs, the Dunalley fires in 2013 and East Coast bushfires in 2006-07.
On each occasion we were gob- smacked. Speechless and terrified of the ferocity, and all the while paid and volunteer firefighters marched into harm's way and saved lives, stock, pasture and buildings.
The Canberra fires were particularly alarming because this wasn't a remote bushfire unleashed but a fire that spread from the bush to the suburbs, where fuel loads didn't matter. Now we have the benefit of water bombing and sophisticated alerts and spotting, using satellite technology, but the menace of climate change has not diminished the challenge.
All the wonders of the new age won't replace the fireys and other emergency service staff and volunteers, who now have to prepare for storms, fire and floods simultaneously. Give them a thought today.