Bushfire Smoke - Not safe to drive.

[AustHaflinger]

On hot days I like to take the Haflinger for twilight drives down to the river and back, total distance about 30km.

However we have had major bushfires to the east and the north of where I live in the Capital for about 2 months and the wind just changed bringing in thick smoke from the east. Visibility is reduced to about 200m and it is just too unsafe to be outside breathing in the smoke which exceeds safe levels by about 1000 times.

So Haflinger stays parked, doors and windows in my house locked up and the airconditioners are going flat out. 41°c tomorrow.

This is the view from my house in a clear winter day.

This is the view from my house a few minutes ago taken from the same position as the winter pic.

The other side of the valley only about 2km and the mountains 15km away are not even visible - the "distant" trees in the pic are only about 200m away.

So - no driving the Haflinger until the smoke goes away unless I go out and buy a P2 gas mask. Even though the fires have been going for two months and it until it rains it is impossible to put them out, the "normal" fire season does not kick in for another 4 weeks.

Garry

[heinkeljb]

Well, think about this Gary, normal fire season won’t have anything to burn - it all been burnt now.....

Does mean no food for you lot though! Unless you ship it in from somewhere that didn’t burn.

John

[AustHaflinger]

No John there is always plenty to burn - in 2003 the fires came into my suburb - all those houses you can see between my place and those across the valley are all new - most of those houses and some out of view got burnt down - 500 houses got burnt - unfortunately a fact of life here. Climate change is really starting to impact here, yesterday the average temperature for the country was the highest on record - soon to be exceeded by tomorrow's average and then to be replaced by Saturdays average.

Yes food is starting to get expensive but then we export all the good stuff and only the second grade stuff is left for the domestic market.

So driving the Haflinger is not really an option at the moment and it is running so well. As well as health warnings for people, there have been warnings for car air filters that the smoke will soon clog them up.

Garry

[Czechsix]

Yikes, having moved recently from Southern California, I can sympathize with that pic and the conditions. We used to run a few HEPA air filters inside, and they helped interior air quality quite a bit. Had to change the filters regularly though.

I remember reading something in one of my old fire science books, about a fire scientist from Australia that came for a symposium in San Diego. It was located at University of California, San Diego - a place that is loaded with gum trees. That are never tended, so the ground litter is often feet deep, bark hangs off them, etc etc. That area made him so anxious that he actually moved to a different hotel, far away from the danger zones that the Scripps family started.

Anyway, Garry....pretty area when it's not burning.

Greg

[AustHaflinger]

Hi Greg,

Yes the West Coast of the US made a big mistake when they starting planting our Eucalypts over there. Yes they are hardy trees that require little water but most need fire to reproduce and have evolved (with the help of our indigenous people) to encourage fire through the production of eucalyptus oil which is highly flammable. Less intense fires tend to hug the ground but intense fires go through the crowns of the trees - tree to tree. I suspect fires in California are more intense than they used to be because of the Eucalypts planted there.

Yes the mountains are a major wilderness area covering 6000sq km and is a great area to explore - been up there in the Haflinger in winter - no where near as cold as Alaska but cold enough for me. I am following your options for heat in the cabin because I froze last time I was up there and would like some sort of heating - am leaning towards a 2kw diesel burning heater but am interested in what you decide.

Garry

[Czechsix]

Hi Garry

I really need to fab up some doors first, before getting into heat.

Then again, it might be worthwhile to install an alternator and get some more wattage going, then I could just do heated snow machine suits, which would largely solve the issue. However I think I'm going to move towards fabbing up door frames and then doing either a fiberglass skin, or a vinyl skin on them. Once the cab has somewhat decent wind protection then I can install the CO safe propane heat systems.