Best wishes to all our colleagues Down Under

[Andries]

My heart stopped when I saw the headline on BBC - a son-in-law pilots a RCAF C130, and my other SIL is air attack coordinator on duty in W Aus. for the past week. 
It strikes close to home when the details overlay like that! 

Sincere condolences to the friends and families of the three American crew that lost their lives.

[Riwaka]

I see the Coulson crews are back flying in Australia, Some big fires around Canberra in recent days.
----------------------------------
Extended video of the Nowra (Australian Airforce base with F-18s?)  forest fire incident. Urban (town) specification fire trucks sent to a rural area and get caught in burning high timber. Brakes? lock on in the heat of 2 of the trucks. Urban trucks also lack the external water spray, falling tree protection of the modern spec rural fire trucks. 

 https://www.smh.com.au/national/investigation-launched-into-near-death-experience-of-eight-firefighters-stranded-in-nowra-inferno-20200203-p53xei.html

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New Zealand logging crews benched for the summer. (So much of the logging is log exports to China).
Fire risk is getting up too.
Notice the headline title from the weevil words nz media.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/119236860/coronavirus-strikes-logging-crews-across-new-zealand

[Riwaka]

Dennis Neilson of Dana report on China situation.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/dennis-nielson-coronavirus-affecting-new-zealands-logging-industry/?fbclid=IwAR3cBr_gT8O3zIf9OofWp-G0wcS9SsOPhxmUiHykfRwR9ddFBSGDciRH434

Gisborne port to feel effects of chinese slow down

http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/frontpage-featured/20200204/the-perfect-storm-exporters-stop-buying-wood/?fbclid=IwAR218LRIxNQrYEnoUwwXg6qaw1nWVII4o1nTwB7hpGHH4v2aKRH3U9FEsnc

[Riwaka]

Coulson crew repatriated

https://7news.com.au/news/bushfires/nsw-fires-us-airmen-given-heroes-farewell-at-sydney-airport-c-682108?fbclid=IwAR37X5rs2rWAGPbvIz8nlhWRux5cYxKit63UaJ1H7e1U5db71MqCadxS9Kg

[sawguy21]

I read today that heavy rains have knocked down a number of the fires. Hope that gives them some breathing space.

[RichTired]

It appears about 1/3 of the fires are out, but flooding is now an issue in some areas.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51409551

But as others have stated, the lose of wildlife and property will have a lasting effect on the country.

[Riwaka]

BLM Idaho staff member reflects on time in Australia

Magic Valley BLM firefighter first in area to return from Australia | Bureau of Land Management

[Riwaka]

Couple build bunker to go through Aus bush fire.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-16/bushfire-bunker-helps-kiah-couple-save-historic-timber-cottage/11968904

[Riwaka]

DC 10 fire tanker heads home. (2/25/2019)

"Today we farewell our DC-10 as it makes the journey back to their home base in the US. The Very Large Air Tanker (VLAT) undertook 221 missions and dropped more than 8 million litres ( approximately 1.7 million gallons) of extinguishing agents since commencing in mid November 2019."

[Riwaka]

Preliminary report for the Coulson C-130 crash investigation.

https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2020/aair/ao-2020-007/

I see on FB - that Coulson is getting replacement C-130s out of the desert storage yard.

[Riwaka]

124K acres of plantation burnt in this part of Australia so the mills trying to process as much as possible. (abc -landline - facebook)

Sugar Pine Walk, Bago State Forest, Laurel Hill, NSW, Australia.
Started harvest recently.

YouTube

[thecfarm]

That was hard to watch.  :(