Correct me if I'm wrong, but if this was a ground fire, it does seem the oak trees protected you after all. If you were surrounded by pine or eucaliptus, which are much more inflammable, I'm not sure you had been so lucky. Happy New Year!
You're not wrong, I suppose, since not having the oaks could have made the fire worse. But it didn't 'prevent' it which we might have naively expected, or wrongly understood. That said, we couldn't see any significant difference in the pattern of fire progression between areas that are exclusively oak and those that are a mix with addition of pines and (some) eucalyptus, except for one thing: where there was pine (and perhaps eucalyptus) the fire lingered and re-ignited for much longer after the main event (resin!).
We have a seven pines on our property and five eucalyptus trees that will eventually be felled; the rest are primarily oaks and sweet chestnuts. The surrounding properties have many more of the offending trees.
You comments made me recall a particular moment. I was watering a huge patch of fire with a garden hose -- yeah, it did nothing -- when a gust of wind completely engulfed me in smoke for about 20 seconds. I started laughing hysterically about the futility of the situation... and later wondered what the people around must have thought :) Fun times.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if this was a ground fire, it does seem the oak trees protected you after all. If you were surrounded by pine or eucaliptus, which are much more inflammable, I'm not sure you had been so lucky. Happy New Year!
You're not wrong, I suppose, since not having the oaks could have made the fire worse. But it didn't 'prevent' it which we might have naively expected, or wrongly understood. That said, we couldn't see any significant difference in the pattern of fire progression between areas that are exclusively oak and those that are a mix with addition of pines and (some) eucalyptus, except for one thing: where there was pine (and perhaps eucalyptus) the fire lingered and re-ignited for much longer after the main event (resin!).
We have a seven pines on our property and five eucalyptus trees that will eventually be felled; the rest are primarily oaks and sweet chestnuts. The surrounding properties have many more of the offending trees.
Happy new year! :)
Wow Saar, this sounds truly terrifying. I'm glad you guys made it through w/out losing your house. Your community sounds great there.
Bushfires are no joke, I'm glad you made it through. Sounds like you have a nice community to help. Best wishes for the new year!
You comments made me recall a particular moment. I was watering a huge patch of fire with a garden hose -- yeah, it did nothing -- when a gust of wind completely engulfed me in smoke for about 20 seconds. I started laughing hysterically about the futility of the situation... and later wondered what the people around must have thought :) Fun times.