Latest news with #CountryFireAuthority
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Watch: Trapped dog rescued from nearly 30-foot mine shaft
June 3 (UPI) -- Firefighters in Australia came to the rescue of a wayward dog who found his way into a 26-foot-deep mine shaft. The Country Fire Authority in Victoria said a Labrador named Ted wandered off his owner's property with a Labradoodle named Penny on Thursday and the dog duo made their way to Pronk Track in Trentham. Penny was found Monday standing vigil next to the mine shaft that now contained her adoptive brother. "When we arrived, as you would expect, Penny was quite agitated, but luckily one of our firefighters knew the owners because they lived next door to them," Trentham Fire Brigade Capt. David Wheeldon said in a news release. The fire brigade summoned the owners of the dogs as well as the Country Fire Authority's Oscar 1 rescue crew. "Throughout the morning, we were providing Ted with plenty of food and water," David said. Firefighters descended into the mine shaft and were able to bring Ted back up to the surface level for a reunion with Penny and his owners about 2:53 p.m., the CFA said. The Trentham Fire Brigade and personnel from Forest Fire Management Victoria located a number of nearby mine shafts and secured them to prevent future incidents.
UPI
7 hours ago
- General
- UPI
Watch: Trapped dog rescued from nearly 30-foot mine shaft
June 3 (UPI) -- Firefighters in Australia came to the rescue of a wayward dog who found his way into a 26-foot-deep mine shaft. The Country Fire Authority in Victoria said a Labrador named Ted wandered off his owner's property with a Labradoodle named Penny on Thursday and the dog duo made their way to Pronk Track in Trentham. Penny was found Monday standing vigil next to the mine shaft that now contained her adoptive brother. "When we arrived, as you would expect, Penny was quite agitated, but luckily one of our firefighters knew the owners because they lived next door to them," Trentham Fire Brigade Capt. David Wheeldon said in a news release. The fire brigade summoned the owners of the dogs as well as the Country Fire Authority's Oscar 1 rescue crew. "Throughout the morning, we were providing Ted with plenty of food and water," David said. Firefighters descended into the mine shaft and were able to bring Ted back up to the surface level for a reunion with Penny and his owners about 2:53 p.m., the CFA said. The Trentham Fire Brigade and personnel from Forest Fire Management Victoria located a number of nearby mine shafts and secured them to prevent future incidents.
The Age
4 days ago
- Climate
- The Age
‘Seemingly endless fire season' predicted for Victoria this winter
Climate scientist David Karoly said there had been long-term declines in average snow cover and depth, and the length of the snow season, over the past 30 years. 'To get the big snow dumps ... that build the snow base and allow it to survive rainfall … is associated with cold temperatures that flow from the Antarctic region. And unfortunately this season, and for many of the past few winters, there's been much above average temperatures.' Abnormally warm and dry conditions have been repeated in South Australia, with communities in the state's southern coastal areas, and significant portions of western, south-western and south-eastern Victoria, warned to prepare for unseasonable bushfire risks. Loading Winter follows an autumn that was book-ended by a cyclone in the Brisbane region and floods in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, while inland areas suffered record-breaking drought because of the position of the Southern Annular Mode. Bureau of Meteorology climatologist Caitlin Minney said it was unclear when the drought would break. All the while, the continent was ringed by a marine heatwave that killed coral in both Queensland and Western Australia and millions of fish in salmon farms in Tasmania. In South Australia, a bloom of Karenia mikimotoi algae has blanketed thousands of square kilometres of the ocean with discoloured water and foam for weeks, killing fish, sharks, rays, seahorses and other gilled species. The SA government said experts believed the marine heatwave – 2.5 degrees warmer than usual – combined with calm conditions, light wind and small swells had led to the bloom off the coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, Kangaroo Island and the southern coast of Yorke Peninsula. King said the link between climate change and heatwaves, both on land and in the ocean, was clear. It was more difficult to attribute specific rainfall events to global warming, though a warmer atmosphere could hold more moisture. Closer to home, Country Fire Authority Acting Chief Officer Garry Cook said bushfires remained a real risk despite the onset of winter. 'The lack of rainfall and dry vegetation across many parts of the state is a great concern for firefighters this time of the year, and we're asking people to remain vigilant and not become complacent just because we're not in summer any more,' he said. 'While cooler days are arriving, the landscape remains dry enough to allow fires to start and spread quickly if a burn-off gets out of control, especially when coupled with strong winds.' Cropping and grassland areas would be grazed out or mostly bare, according to the Australian and New Zealand council for fire and emergency services, but forested areas would be at increased risk of fires. Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said the ongoing drought across parts of Victoria and SA was causing 'a seemingly endless 2025 fire season'. 'Tasmania is also likely to see organic soils smouldering throughout winter due to the state's ongoing deep soil dryness,' he said.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Climate
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Seemingly endless fire season' predicted for Victoria this winter
Climate scientist David Karoly said there had been long-term declines in average snow cover and depth, and the length of the snow season, over the past 30 years. 'To get the big snow dumps ... that build the snow base and allow it to survive rainfall … is associated with cold temperatures that flow from the Antarctic region. And unfortunately this season, and for many of the past few winters, there's been much above average temperatures.' Abnormally warm and dry conditions have been repeated in South Australia, with communities in the state's southern coastal areas, and significant portions of western, south-western and south-eastern Victoria, warned to prepare for unseasonable bushfire risks. Loading Winter follows an autumn that was book-ended by a cyclone in the Brisbane region and floods in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales, while inland areas suffered record-breaking drought because of the position of the Southern Annular Mode. Bureau of Meteorology climatologist Caitlin Minney said it was unclear when the drought would break. All the while, the continent was ringed by a marine heatwave that killed coral in both Queensland and Western Australia and millions of fish in salmon farms in Tasmania. In South Australia, a bloom of Karenia mikimotoi algae has blanketed thousands of square kilometres of the ocean with discoloured water and foam for weeks, killing fish, sharks, rays, seahorses and other gilled species. The SA government said experts believed the marine heatwave – 2.5 degrees warmer than usual – combined with calm conditions, light wind and small swells had led to the bloom off the coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, Kangaroo Island and the southern coast of Yorke Peninsula. King said the link between climate change and heatwaves, both on land and in the ocean, was clear. It was more difficult to attribute specific rainfall events to global warming, though a warmer atmosphere could hold more moisture. Closer to home, Country Fire Authority Acting Chief Officer Garry Cook said bushfires remained a real risk despite the onset of winter. 'The lack of rainfall and dry vegetation across many parts of the state is a great concern for firefighters this time of the year, and we're asking people to remain vigilant and not become complacent just because we're not in summer any more,' he said. 'While cooler days are arriving, the landscape remains dry enough to allow fires to start and spread quickly if a burn-off gets out of control, especially when coupled with strong winds.' Cropping and grassland areas would be grazed out or mostly bare, according to the Australian and New Zealand council for fire and emergency services, but forested areas would be at increased risk of fires. Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino said the ongoing drought across parts of Victoria and SA was causing 'a seemingly endless 2025 fire season'. 'Tasmania is also likely to see organic soils smouldering throughout winter due to the state's ongoing deep soil dryness,' he said.
Sydney Morning Herald
21-05-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
It began as an ordinary Monday. Then I accidentally set myself on fire
'Life changes in an instant. The ordinary instant,' wrote the late US writer Joan Didion in her 2005 memoir The Year of Magical Thinking following the sudden death of her husband and editor, John Gregory Dunne. One moment, Didion writes, he's sitting opposite her at the dining table nursing a single-malt scotch, very much alive, talking: 'Then he wasn't. Wasn't talking.' Life changes in an instant. The ordinary instant. September 16, 2024: My husband has taken our youngest to school and our 17-year-old is in the shower. I'm working from home, and I get up from my desk to make a cup of tea. Then I wasn't. Wasn't making a cup of tea. In the days that followed, here's how I recalled what happened next: At 8.52am, I get up from my workstation and walk to the kitchen ... I … put the kettle on [the top of the stove] to make myself a cup of tea. I am wearing a flowing top and, as I turned towards the sink, my top catches a spark from the flame … In the millisecond it takes me to clock the flame it's already devoured my top (a favourite!), and the highly flammable one beneath it. It surges across my chest, up my neck and catches under my right arm. It claws at my eyelashes and sears the left side of my face. My hair is next. The more it takes, the more it wants. I exhale, and my world shrinks, warping behind a blinding, suffocating curtain of orange and red. 'What would you do if your clothes caught on fire?' pose the authors in the Country Fire Authority's primary-school manual Home Fire Safety: Lessons for Year 1 and 2. 'Would you run around to put out the flames? Would you blow on the flames? Would you stop, drop and roll?'
