An essay on NSW bushfires in 1994

From Saturday 1 January to Saturday 15 January1994, advanced S stunnedh Wales experienced its mostdevastating scouring brush asides on record. There had been aprolonged El Niño event Ð frequently of the coast ofNew S come erupt(a) of the closeth Wales had endured an extended periodof below average rainfall. This had resulted indrought conditions in many areas and a build-upof real dry fuel. There were ingeminate warningsthat the ®re strength was the worst for more than than20 years. Fires flared and receded and entire townsfolkswere evacuated Ð many more than once. Morethan cc fires raged over mammoth areas of coastalNew South Wales, from tweed Heads in thenorth to Ulladulla in the south, and many ofthese were started by arsonists. Thebushfires were particularly largeand spartan around Sydney. TheKu-ring-gai and thoroughfare Cove nationalparks were ablaze and some(prenominal)homes on Sydneys north prop up werelost. The fires were at last broughtunder control, bu t only after amassive firefighting effort. There wereover myriad firefighters involved,14 000 ®re units and water tankers,51 helicopters and five fixed-wing,water-bombing aircraft. There are some(a) parts of Sydney andnearby areas where fires outhouse spreadquickly due to the landforms. These are thesandst genius plateau areas where sandstone rockoverlies shale rock. In dry periods the vegetationon the plateau dries out rapidly making it idealfuel if a bushfire starts in the valleys below. Thenorthward-facing huckster and upper valley alsotend to dry out rapidly as they are under theinfluence of northerly winds and more directsolar radiation (see the diagram). Fires canspread precise quickly and engulf the plateau area,placing houses at severe risk. many nationalparks around Sydney are also very vulnerablebecause they have large areas of these landforms,as are suburbs such as Terrey Hills andLane Cove. risk of infection ZONESDistribution of the New South Wales ®res, 1994Sandst one plateaus and the spread of bush®resWe w! ill quiz one of the 15 days, 7 January1994 Ð a day set forrard by the Police MinisterTerry Griffiths as `catastrophic Ð and analysethe briny ®re events. The persist on situation was typical of thoseassociated with bushfires. The synoptic chart for7 January 1994 shows hygienic and bouffant atomic number 74 tonorth-westerly winds of up to 50 km/h frontwards of aneastward-moving cold front. In Sydney, themaximum temperature was 37.8°C and the relativehumidity dropped to 8 per cent by 3.00 pm. From the early afternoon a disastrous series ofevents unfold. · At 1.00 pm a bushfire breaks out in the BlueMountains area to the west of Sydney. This isa typical sandstone plateau area. The ®reheads towards the town of Springwood andthreatens many homes.

· A fire at Mangrove Mountain, on a sandstoneplateau to the north of Sydney, forces theevacuation of several(prenominal) thousand homes in theGosford area. The ®re is believed to be thework of an arsonist. · A evidence of emergency is declared in the Cessnockarea as a fire, once more thought to be the workof an arsonist, forces 200 residents to evacuate. · Several serious fires, many the work of arsonists,threaten berth and forests on the south coast. · Firestorms sweep done several northernSydney sandstone plateau suburbs, destroying20 homes. · Many other fires break out during the day andnight, several burning out of control. The major impacts were economic, environmentaland social. · scotch impacts: 205 homes and 20 otherbuildings destroyed, $167 billion cost· Environmental impacts: 800 000 hectares burnt,including sections of suburbs an d nationalparks; thousands of native animals perished! · The main social impacts were: 4 deaths, 120people injured and 800 people left homeless. hypertext transfer protocol://clearlyexplained.com/ spirit/earth/disasters/bushfires.htmlhttp://www.bom.gov.au/inside/services_policy/fire_ag/bushfire/bushfire.htm If you want to get a exuberant essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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