News Response :: Power firm faces legal action over bushfires
Unless you've been living under a rock recently (or possibly in a country other than Australia) you'll know about the bushfires that recently caused so many deaths in Victoria. Some of the fires (definately the ones near Beechworth) where started by powerlines across the state, and, something that's not mentioned in this article, is that many more smaller fires have been started over the past couple of months by power infrastructure. The fact is the extreme heat, coupled with the high loads being handled by power infrastructure today, is putting an enormous strain on our power infrastructure. Today people want huge TV's, computers, gaming consoles and all of this is resulting on an increased load on our power systems. The power companies I'm sure are upgrading lines and supply services as quickly as is efficient but it does seem that current systems are starting to fail under the pressure.
But the main issue of late seems to be the heat, which brings with it alot of problems, particularly relating to cables expanding and contracting with temparature changes. While the heat has subsided now it's important to remember at the time alot of issues where seen, including the issues with trains not being able to run. The heat and strange wind conditions probably caused the fire at Beechworth (I'm not commenting on the one in the article because I don't have firsthand knowledge) and it simply could not be contained because of the weather conditions.
But I've gone on long enough, on to the article. It talks about a moronic group of bloodsucking lawyers (no offence meant to any lawyers out there, except the ones in the article) taking on the company that manages the power infrastructure that may have started the fires near Horsham. For one thing, this is jumping the gun because the cause hasn't been established, but secondly, what good is this supposed to bring. It'll be legal battle that will cost both sides heavily and only result in the power company having less money to maintain a network that obviously needs attention.
So this court case will do nothing except take money away from the companies that did incredibly well under harsh conditions to restore power. I'm disturbed that anyone would be so stupid and damn short sighted as to encourage this case, but it seems they are. It's court cases like these that add infinite amounts of red tape to everything and make it harder for things to get done. But hey, that's not important, all the lawyers in this case care about is the money.
The fact is, even if the power lines started the fire, what right do people have to claim money from them? IMHO none... Not an ounce... Fires are often started by faulty electrical equipment, but obviously these people seem to think that ANY faulty equipment is unnaceptable which means that power companies will have to shut down power more often to ensure that such things don't occur again, and yet they still will. These fires happen all the time, a possom gets fried by lines somehow and some sparks hit the ground, the heat causes earthing cables to warp an then they break causing sparks, and usually the CFA is on hand to secure the incident before it gets serious.
The fact is the weather was so shocking there is nothing that could be done to prevent the fire getting large enough to be unmanageable. People need to accept that these fires happened, stop trying place blame (except in the case of arson) and rebuild their lives. Cases like this do nothing for anyone in the long or short term, eventually the people may get some small settlement, or they may not, in the long run everyone looses.
Except the lawyers, I'm sure they'll sue again when the milk in their office goes off because the power company had to cut power to do complex checks to ensure their lines are still safe... And I'm sure they would to...
Article Source - http://www.theage.com.au/national/power-firm-faces-legal-action-over-bushfires-20090313-8xj2.html
News Response :: Doyle calls for ban on hailing CBD taxis
Well it seems our new Lord Mayor of Melbourne is calling for a ban on the hailing of cabs in the CBD... What a great idea, we'll obviously have a bunch of really nice cab ranks around the city so that people can... I'm sorry... Whats that... FOUR... Four cab ranks for the whole CBD. For the ENTIRE CBD, and you can't hail cabs elsewhere. What a stupid idea, people out on Saturday night aren't going to want to find a Cab rank at 3AM because they can't hail one on the street. Not to mention the issues associated with pushing everybody towards just a few cab ranks. I think I speak for all people who go out at night in the CBD when we say, just leave things the way they are. People who go into parts of the CBD where it is dangerous shouldn't be there alone anyway, and if you want to fix that then hire a whole bunch of security guards to patrol the CBD at night and to assist police.
Articl Source - The Age - http://www.theage.com.au/national/doyle-calls-for-ban-on--hailing-cbd-taxis-20090304-8o35.html
News Response :: Black Saturday warning fell short, Opposition says
Well it seems what we all knew was coming has already started. It would seem that the state opposition has decided it's been long enough to attempt to gain some political ground on the Black Saturday fires. The opposition has begun attacking the state govt for apparently not providing enough warning about the horrendous weather conditions that where expected for Black Saturday. To that I say, bullshit... Absolute utter nonsense... There where plenty of warnings including detailed warnings that filtered down through all levels of the CFA. Hell, my home brigade which is not even in what I would categorize as an extreme risk area put handouts in everyone's letterboxes advising them to use caution and to report all fires. We also advised them to make the decision to leave or stay early.
As the horror stories begin to filter out about what people have seen over the few days after black Saturday that appears to be a re-occuring thing. There wasn't alot that fire authorities could have done to warn these people when the CFA itself had no idea of what was coming. Especially when the fires where actually active. There where so many large fires appearing around the state that it took some time to put into place the incident management teams required to manage such events. Especially from listening to the Beechworth area fires develop live on a CFA scanner it was just complete madness.
The fact is that not a lot could have been done to save the lives that where lost. People would not have left their homes on Black Saturday and the fact is that that is all that could have saved them. If people had have left that morning they would have been fine. But why would they? All people would have done, had they been warned more, is try to fortify their house. Which would have been pointless. When you hear about fully loaded CFA appliances fleeing houses they where tasked to protect what chance does some bloke in a singlet with a garden hose stand.
The fact is, nothing could be done to prevent the tragic loss of life that occured on Black Saturday. An emergency alerting system may have decreased the number but IMHO people would not have left, nor does the CFA have the power to make people leave, when they should have. People still would have stayed, and prepared for the worst, and then, at the last minute as they saw how bad the fire was, they would have fled for their lives as occured on Saturday.
There are many things to take from this, but that the agencies involved didn't provide enough warning, is CERTAINLY NOT one of the things to take from this. The warnings where there, there is no need to put people into a panic as was done a few days ago with the text message. Besides, what would the text have said???
People have already hammered it into them NOT TO LEAVE if a fire front approaches, so a message stating that would be pointless, a message stating that bad weather conditions where expected would also have been pointless as nobody would have chosen to leave. They all would have stayed and fortified themselves and more deaths may have occured. It doesn't help that everyone is in such a spin over the catastrophe that was Black Saturday at the moment that they will jump everytime the smallest bit of hot weather approaches. Victoria Police and the CFA need to learn about crying wolf.
Fact is, none of this is helping, so the Victorian Opposition should just shut the hell up and find something that they can actually make a difference on, like, say, getting us some more trains in Melbourne. Anyway I've said my rant, and I hope someone takes something from this article written from the POV of a CFA Volunteer who is frustrated by people constantly saying more could be done. We can't freeze time and that's what it would have taken to fight these fires. There are some fires you cannot fight, and the ones on Black Saturday where those fires.
Article source - http://www.theage.com.au/national/black-saturday-warning-fell-short-opposition-says-20090309-8tb3.html
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