rcaffin wrote:Well, that summarises it nicely - while noting that you can NOT survive a nuclear weapon.
Lophophaps wrote:Consider farm sprinklers positioned perhaps 2-3 metres above the ground so that every part of the area around a house or building has water from two or more sprinklers. Have farm sprinklers on the roof. If the house or building had a good design, would the sprinklers make a difference? Could the sprinklers run on town water? Is town water likely to cease during a fire?
Lophophaps wrote: Could the sprinklers run on town water?
GBW wrote:Maybe we should bypass one new attack submarine @ A$3 billion each and buy a dozen or more Erickson Air-Crane helitankers @ A$40 million each but that's too sensible.
Indeed, the calls for investment in more and bigger aerial water bombers rather than in effective pre-emption of bushfire damage is the classic demonstration of misinformed people making foolish proposals. Every experienced fire fighter in Australia (and in the USA and Canada) knows that water bombers can never control an intense forest wildfire.
Consider these factors:
• Firstly, because of atmospheric turbulence and smoke, water bombing aircraft cannot get at the seat of a rampaging forest fire; they must stand off from the head, and then the drop is evaporated by radiant heat well before the flames arrive;
• Secondly, in tall, dense forest, the water drop often cannot penetrate the canopy in sufficient volume to make a difference – it is intercepted by the tree crowns. This occurred over and again in the recent fire in ash forest in the Otway Ranges in Victoria. The delivered water simply did not get to the ground.
• Thirdly, water bombers cannot (or do not) operate at night and under high winds, the very conditions when the most damaging forest fires occur. Three of the last four towns to burn in WA, and both towns that burned in Victoria in 2009, burned at night.
• Fourth, water bombing is extremely dangerous for aircrew, as the aircraft are operating at low altitude, in uncontrolled airspace with poor visibility. It is only a matter of time before there is a shocking accident and an aircrew fatality.
• Water bombing can also be dangerous to people on the ground. If the drop from a Very Large Air Tanker is made from only marginally too low, the huge tonnage of water is capable of smashing houses and vehicles and killing firefighters;
• Fifth, water bombers use vast quantities of fresh water, probably one of the most precious resources in Australia, especially in Western Australia where the current drought is over 30 years in duration and reservoirs and ground water aquifers are drying up. Sea water could be used, provided the tankers have access to it, but dropping salt water onto catchment areas or farms would only add to the problems caused by the fire.
rcaffin wrote:When lightning is dancing over Wollemi NP, you would need an awful lot of them, located very closely. The costs would be politically difficult.
Volunteer bushfire fighters are much cheaper.
Cheers
Roger
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