Bushfires ‘equal to 1500 Hiroshimas’
Bushfires ‘equal to 1500 Hiroshimas’
21 May 2009
published by www.theaustralian.news.com.au
Australia —
The Black Saturday bushfires generated as much energy as 1500 Hiroshima atomic bombs, the royal commission investigating the disaster that killed 173 people was told today.The energy released in just a few hours on February 7 was sufficient to meet all Victorias domestic and industrial energy needs for a year, wildfire behaviour expert Dr Kevin Tolhurst said.
The fuel load per hectare feeding the Black Saturday fires averaged 25 tonnes, he said.
In forest areas it was as high as 45 tonnes per hectare, creating fire balls and plumes of flames caused by combustible gases generated by the heat of the fire.
Dr Tolhurst said researchers had developed warped ideas about bushfire behaviour because they had studied comparatively small fires.
This had flowed through to training of fire fighters and advice given to the public.
Dr Tolhurst, who has studied extended video of the February 7 fires, said most people expected a fire front that was like a wave of fire, which would pass in a matter of minutes.
But during the Black Saturday disaster fire activity had lasted for hours in some cases, with up to an hour when radiated heat remained a danger.
Theres no one front of fire, Dr Tolhurst said. Its not a continuous wave of fire going through.
The strong wind change caused by the arrival of a cold front late in the afternoon of Black Saturday created a horror situation.
Thats the worst situation you can have, Dr Tolhurst said.
Although cold fronts can bring cooler conditions, bushfires burn just as intensely for a number of hours after their arrival.
The change in wind direction to a southerly or south-westerly will blow out the eastern flank of any fire burning at the time, pushing it in a new direction on a much wider front.
The size of the new fire front and the speed it travels will catch people out, Dr Tolhurst said.
He said 80 per cent of the damaged caused by bushfires in Victoria occurred after the arrival of a cold front and change in wind direction.
Dr Tolhurst said the Black Saturday fires produced huge convection columns and pillars of smoke that made them burn more intensely.
The convection columns caused air to be sucked into the fires at ground level, creating localised cyclonic winds of up to 120kph and snapping trees off three or four metres above the ground.
Higher winds created by fires could carry smoke and embers in a direction different from the prevailing wind that was driving the main fire front.
This meant spot fires could occur not just ahead of the main front, but off the fires flank. On Black Saturday spot fires occurred up to a record 35 kilometres ahead of the main fire, Dr Tolhurst said.
It also made it difficult attempt to judge whether a fire was coming towards you by looking at the direction the smoke was blowing.
Someone in the path of the fire could be in the clear in terms of seeing smoke.
Dr Tolhurst, a researcher and lecturer at Melbourne University, said the drought conditions and heatwave leading up to Black Saturday meant bush and forest areas were pre-dried, meaning fires burned more intensely.
