(photo:Gazette)
Upper Blue Mountains Sunrise Rotary Club made a presentation to the Katoomba Leura Rural Fire Service (RFS) in the presence of Hon Susan Templeman, Federal Member for Macquarie at our regular Tuesday meeting.
The presentation of two Akron ProVenger Select Flow Fire Fighting Nozzles was made possible from donations of funds from both Rotary in New Zealand and Rotary in Japan. These Rotary Groups gave donations to Rotary District 9685 to help with Bushfire Recovery. Katoomba Leura RFS were very active in the disastrous fires in the Blue Mountains.
Upper Blue Mountains Rotary were pleased to provide support to the RFS. Both groups are volunteers and Susan Templeman praised the efforts of both groups.
The presentation of two Akron ProVenger Select Flow Fire Fighting Nozzles was made possible from donations of funds from both Rotary in New Zealand and Rotary in Japan. These Rotary Groups gave donations to Rotary District 9685 to help with Bushfire Recovery. Katoomba Leura RFS were very active in the disastrous fires in the Blue Mountains.
Upper Blue Mountains Rotary were pleased to provide support to the RFS. Both groups are volunteers and Susan Templeman praised the efforts of both groups.
Katoomba RFS is the go-to RFS in the Blue Mountains National Park area. They have about 1,000 people years of experience – Ray has been a member for 27 years and Peter 47 years. Peter wrote the book on back burning which is used now by other RFS across the country. Importantly it takes into consideration Aboriginal experience in burning in the open flatter country as well as decades of experience in the mountainous and impenetrable country around us here in the Blue Mountains.
The Australian Flora needs to burn to germinate and should be burnt at regular intervals and correct intensity to balance the ecosystems that rely on it. There is no place in Australia where this is more evident than in The Blue Mountains – if there were no fires, the trees and shrubs would not propagate.
The topography of the Blue Mountains presents precipitous cliffs that drop 80 metres to dense bushlands and steep gullies. The mountains are unique as there are only two key ridges that are passable to road traffic – the Great Western Highway and Bells Line of Road. This has resulted in two ribbons of development, stringing out along the ridge tops. It could be argued that modern prevention and suppression should make bushland safer. It does make it somewhat safer than before although no method of hazard reduction will guarantee absolute protection on a bad fire day. These cliffs, gullies, and canyons make dousing a fire hazardous for firefighters and their equipment.
It is estimated that, although millions of hectares were burnt earlier this year across Australia, The Blue Mountains National Park still has about 50% of forest untouched.
The Katoomba Rural Fire service is ready.