‘Catastrophic conditions’ wipe out ‘entire’ town as fires continue to burn
‘Catastrophic conditions’ wipe out ‘entire’ town as fires continue to burn
12 February 2017
published by http://www.sbs.com.au
AUSTRALIA - An entire town has been all but wiped out by bushfires that ravaged NSW’s Central West at the weekend as firefighters continued to battle uncontained blazes on Monday.
Initial assessments of fire affected areas across the state indicated that a total of 30 homes had been confirmed destroyed however only 50 per cent of the Warrumbungle region in which Uarbry lies had been assessed.
Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said 20 fires were still uncontained, after blazes burnt across “a very large area”, consuming everything in their path.
It was expected that cooler temperatures on Monday, after Sunday’s catastrophic conditions, would help crews gain an upper hand.
“We know there is clearly losses. Losses in homes, losses in buildings, losses in livestock and other agricultural assets,” he told the Nine Network.
“The extraordinary effort of firefighters. What they saved yesterday will far outweigh the losses that we report today.
“I know that is cold comfort for those who have lost so much and I don’t mean any disrespect or being insensitive, but we cannot take away from the amount of property, people, livelihoods that have been saved under yesterday’s conditions.
“The most critical thing out of this firefighting effort … to not have any reports of loss of life, or any serious injury to anyone in front of these fires or imapcted by these fires was our primary focus and was an outstanding result,” he said.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian echoed Mr Fitzsimmons’ relief but stressed that the fires still posed a threat.
“We are so relieved this morning that there hasn’t been loss of life, but our thoughts are with the many people who have lost their homes.
“We’re not out of the woods, however we are beyond the worst part of those catastrophic conditions which existed over the weekend,” she said.
Two fires remain at watch-and-act levels near the towns of Dunedoo and near Mudgee with RFS crews focusing on these areas on Monday.
“This is the worst day we’ve seen in the history of NSW when it comes to fire danger ratings and fire danger conditions,” Mr Fitzsimmons told reporters on Sunday.
The Sir Ivan fire, near Dunedoo, has burned through almost 50,000 hectares with an active fire edge of about 200km, Mr Fitzsimmons said.
The Kains Flat fire northeast of Mudgee has burnt through 5000 hectares.
Mr Fitzsimmons said critical backburning and patrol work will be undertaken in the coming days, and that an impact assessment team were already working to determine the precise extend of the damage.
“Clearly, the weather is going to be of some benefit but there is a lot of very dirty, difficult and dangerous work ahead for firefighters before we can come close to getting these fires under control.”
By Monday evening, the NSW Rural Fire Service had established that the Sir Ivan Fire in the Warrumbungle destroyed 23 homes.
Four homes were destroyed at Pappinbarra in the Port Macquarie-Hastings area. Two houses were ruined at Spring Hill Road Dondingalong Fire in Kempsey region and one house burned down at Binalong Road, Boggabri, in the Narrabri region.
Only 30 percent of the Narrabri region has been assessed.
The fire danger will remain very high on Monday in the Greater Hunter and surrounding fire areas, Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Neil Fraser told AAP.
No part of the state will face severe, extreme or catastrophic conditions.
SINGAPORE, Feb 9 People in Singapore are willing to cough up nearly 1 per cent of their annual income in order to guarantee the absence of transboundary haze for a year, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have found.
In total, they are willing to pay US$643.5 million (RM2.8 billion) a year large enough to make a substantive impact on the problem if used for land conservation and restoration, the researchers state in a paper published in Februarys issue of the journal,Environmental Research Letters.
The papers authors, Yuan Lin, Lahiru Wijedasa and Dr Ryan Chisholm, wrote: Our results indicate that Singaporeans experience sufficiently negative impacts of air pollution (in) their day-to-day life, or personal health during haze periods, that they are willing to trade off personal financial gain for improvements in air quality.
Transboundary haze is a long-standing problem in the South-east Asian region, largely caused by the drainage of carbon-rich peatland as well as companies and farmers in Indonesia using fire to clear land.
Singapore experienced its worst haze episode in 2015 from September to November, with the Pollutant Standards Index hitting hazardous levels.
Since then, Indonesia has renewed efforts to prevent fires, although a state of emergency was declared last month in Riau province over forest and land fires.
The economic impact of haze pollution here has been estimated using cost-benefit analysis before, but the researchers said that the figures could be an under-estimate because they exclude impacts such as non-hospitalisable health effects that are difficult to infer from economic data.
The 2015 haze episode was estimated to have cost Singapore S$700 million (RM2.19 billion) in losses.
The NUS researchers surveyed 390 people in public areas from November 2015 to February 2016 on their willingness to pay, should the Singapore Government be able to guarantee good air quality year-round.
The participants, from various age and income groups, were given options ranging from 0.05 per cent to 5 per cent of their annual income, after they indicated if they were willing to support such a haze mitigation fund.
The average persons willingness to pay was an estimated 0.97 per cent of his/her annual income.
However, about three in 10 respondents were unwilling to pay even the minimum option of 0.05 per cent of their annual income.
Wijedasa said that one of the solutions proposed for the haze problem is payments for ecosystem services.
This could take the form of richer nations aiding better land management and restoration by making regular payments.
Indonesia has estimated that it needs US$2.1 billion to help restore two million hectares of peatland in (the country). They have currently only received US$50 million from Norway and US$17 million from the United States.
“Could this shortfall be filled by Singapore (and other countries in the region)?
Tan Yi Han, who is not involved in the study and is co-founder of non-governmental organisation Peoples Movement to Stop Haze, said that the findings are helpful and should motivate the Singapore Government to spend on measures to prevent haze, such as a subsidy on certified sustainable palm oil, as well as aid to support peat restoration and protection efforts in Indonesia.
His organisations survey last year found that more than nine in 10 respondents were willing to pay more for certified sustainable products to help mitigate the haze, Tan said.
Most were willing to pay 5 to 10 per cent more.
Consumers game to chip in to avoid any haze include Steven Lim, who is in his 40s and self-employed. How much he is willing to contribute would depend on the amount needed to make an impact.
Maybe S$10? Multiplied by many individuals, it would be a lot, Lim said, preferring that the money goes to the Indonesian government.
– See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/money/article/singaporeans-willing-to-fork-out-1pc-of-income-to-ensure-no-more-haze#sthash.CRhWHQHj.dpuf
El capitán del primer batallón de la Unidad Militar de Emergencias (UME), Emilio Arias, ha descrito como “dantescos” los efectos del incendio forestal en el paraje natural de la Sierra de Gata (Cáceres), aunque ha sido optimista en cuanto a su extinción al darse una situación “bastante favorable” en estos momentos. Fotogalería ALCALDE 11 Fotos La Sierra de Gata, tras el incendio “El incendio se dio por estabilizado y ahora mismo sólo hay pequeños focos que se reactivan por lo que la situación es bastante adecuada para intentar extinguir el fuego”, ha explicado Arias en una entrevista en COPE. Arias ha descrito como “dantesco” el efecto del fuego en una zona “donde el terreno era precioso”. El mando único del Plan Director del Infoex decidía este lunes mantener activo el Nivel 2 de peligrosidad en el incendio de Sierra de Gata ante las previsiones de viento y altas temperaturas. Las mismas predicciones indican que habrá una mejoría a partir de las primeras horas de la noche del lunes, según ha informado la Junta de Extremadura. Más de 200 efectivos se mantienen en la zona. Intentar llegar a la normalidad es “un tanto difícil”, y que ahora hay que hacer valoraciones de los daños El incendio declarado el pasado jueves ha arrasado unas 7.500 hectáreas de alto valor agrícola, ambiental y paisajístico, de ahí que el Gobierno regional haya iniciado ya la evaluación de los daños y comenzado a preparar la recuperación de la zona. El director general de Medio Ambiente, Pedro Muñoz, ha afirmado que el incendio ha causado un “desastre” desde el punto de vista medioambiental ya que ha arrasado miles de hectáreas de pinar, olivar y pastos, además de haber producido cuantiosos daños materiales en algunas poblaciones. La asociación conservacionista SEO/Birdlife ha denunciado que el incendio afectó gravemente a especies amenazadas y a espacios protegidos de la Red Natura 2000, incluidos robledales, madroñales y castañares centenarios. Todo el área afectada es una zona ornitólogica de interés mundial. Por su parte, el alcalde de la localidad cacereña de Hoyos, Óscar Antúnez, ha alabado la participación ciudadana en el municipio para ayudar a los operarios del plan Infoex como “lo bonito dentro de la tragedia” y ha añadido que el “sentir general” de los ciudadanos de Sierra de Gata es de “frustración e indignación” tras el incendio forestal. El alcalde ha señalado que ha podido hablar con los vecinos de la localidad y que los “más afectados” son los que han perdido fincas o casas de campo, sobre todo una familia que ha perdido su domicilio de vacaciones habitual, que era una casa “recién reformada”. Asimismo, Óscar Antúnez ha indicado que intentar llegar a la normalidad es “un tanto difícil”, y que ahora hay que hacer valoraciones de los daños, tanto la Mancomunidad de Municipios de Sierra de Gata como la Junta de Extremadura, para ver qué ayudas se pueden proporcionar y de qué modo, además de cuáles serán los medios disponibles. Por último, el primer edil de Hoyos ha explicado que los vecinos, “más allá de la lamentación”, deben intentar hacer “una vida normal”, aunque ha considerado que es muy difícil “dado el paisaje que tenemos”, ya que casi el 90% del término municipal está calcinado, ha indicado.
Ver más en: http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/2532392/0/fuego/gata/dantesco/#xtor=AD-15&xts=467263
