A hundred fires in the state of Victoria where 173 people were killed by fire in 2009.

Dry, plenty of feed, and very high winds.

Normal-ish for this time of year, Christmas to February is going to be a cow.

I hope you and yours make it out of this season without loss.

Stuart is lighting his farts and wreaking havoc on the countryside.

Muslims.

Australia has a hot dry climate with lots of brush. One spark and it's burning. The USFS has (in the past) sent fire fighters to Australia to help fight fires during our winter (their summer), but with the gov't shutdown, this might be on hold for now.

When the late, unlamented American Muslim traitor and murderer, Anwar al-Awlaki, was rendered into wormfood (halal, of course) by an unmanned drone, we hoped it would end both AQAP and the English-language web-magazine for terrorists, Inspire. Unfortunately, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is still bent on killing infidels and destroying America; and Inspire is still telling faithful and feeble-minded Muslims how to wage war in the name of Islam. In the latest issue of Inspire, they exhort Muslims to burn down American forests as a way of killing people, destroying their homes and spawning economic chaos.





While AQAP assumes Muslims will not hesitate to kill Americans or detonate explosive devices in public places to incite terror and indiscriminately murder, they recognize that some might demur at burning down a forest. After all, "only Allah can create a tree," and destroying one might be some kind of sin. So Inspire also printed a missive from Shaikh Harith al Nadari, interpreting the Quran in such a way as to say, it's okay. But it is easy to make the Quran say absolutely anything -- most Muslims not only don't read the Quran, but can't, since the only real Quran is in Medieval Arabic, so who's to challenge some hokey imam?








Anyone who has lived in an area prone to wildfires knows how easy a fire can start, despite all the proper precautions, and how difficult they are to stop. If a terrorist takes it into his mind to start a devastating conflagration, even an imbecile lacking the rudimentary skills to assemble the timed fire-bombs suggested by Inspire, there is no feasible way of stopping him. If just a spark, a discarded cigarette or an unattended campfire has the ability to lay waste a tinderbox forest, consider what can be done with just a five-gallon gas can; consider, also, that the forecast this year is for a hot dry summer.



As far as keeping track of those with jihadist intent or sympathy, the forecast for that is no better than the weather, thanks to organizations like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). CAIR has filed complaints and lawsuits against law enforcement agencies (such as the NYPD) that seek to keep Americans safe by uncovering terror cells and maintaining surveillance of people receptive to the message of jihad; and the DOJ has threatened the same agencies with punitive actions if they attempt to investigate behavior indicative of jihadist leanings.

Yea, take care down under. A map of the fire locations is very disturbing.

yep, wish I could gets odds on this in Vegas.

unfortunately most of the outback of Australia is made to burn.....the plants life cycles revolve around it because the country normally burns with frightening regularity......the arid land eucalyptus groves can be real scary because of all the volatile oil in the dried leaves it takes nothing to get a fire started and have it a raging inferno in a blink of an eye.....

hope you guys down get through the fire season down with as minimal loses as possible.....

Google Hay plains, not much to burn where I am.

Arson, lightning and accidents.

One of our high risk items on the project is bush fires. One of our proponent projects had one a couple of days ago. This in rather remote areas with construction camps and the like.

And with eucalypti it moves like greased lightning.

This answer is closest to the mark.......

The Flora in Oz has evolved to become receptive to fire. The Aboriginals have been lighting fires for 40,000 years as their nomadic lifestyle moves to new areas and burns the old.

There are many trees that have seed pods so hard, they have evolved so they explode during a bush fire an propagate.

The bush, trees and general flora renews after a fire. I owned an acreage on the outskirts of Sydney that was struck by firs one Christmas and within 3 months, it was clean, beautiful and lush, with green foliage everywhere and all the dried and dead underbrush cleared up and the soil cleared to grow natural grasses. Before the fire, I was foolishly raking and clearing as much underbrush as I could and it was dangerous and tiring work. The fires keep the snakes in check which is a good thing.

Heat "is" Australia, and you don't need a fire. Many many times I went to work when the temperature soared way past the ton, to return to a cremated yard where all the plants were scorched brown and totally dead. This is usually in February.

By cutting off the old foliage, a new lush green replacement is weeks away. This was particularly noted with tree ferns which have trunks a foot thick and grow 15-20 high in the right conditions.

In Oz, it is just the way it is.

Worry is that it is only October , Feb is going to be an issue with the right conditions.

Oh, oops!

Military exercise sparked big Australian wildfire

see: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/23/australia/3168637/

They got a couple of kids for lighting another.

If you grow up in the center of the US, where it rains at least occasionally throughout the year, realize that you can have very different weather in other parts of the world.

California is like that; the old song goes, it never rains in California. Between May and October, that's literally true - it almost never rains, and that's why Cali usually has bad wildfires in the late summer and fall.

There's also lots of eucalyptus around the Bay area, and yes they burn like crazy when they catch. The Oakland Hills area are very pretty, but the scars of the disastrous 1991 wildfires are still found there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_firestorm_of_1991

Yes, born and grew up 30 miles from Oakland and there for the fires and living my first 35 years in California (Bay Area and Central Coast) this was the case. What's going on down here is at least another order of magnitude.

Yes, and if I am not working in the new year I will go give a hand with the Rural Fire Service...they will be desperate for fresh blood then, but I am not looking forward to it.

Trust me, I am not a praying man but my mind is there with you all. It has taken little time for us to dial in to the way of life down here, our neighbors, our new found friends and all. All welcomed with with open arms. Simple and earnest, like us. As you advised early on when I mentioned the potential move that we may not want to leave. Pretty close...

Good, we need families like yours.