Excuse my ignorance, can anyone explain to me what makes it so difficult to extinguish the fire? (This question is not meant to be an ass) I tried to google it, but couldn't find a proper answer. I'm just really curious.
- A lot of the trees are eucalypts which are super oily and incredibly flammable. Some have been known to explode when they get too hot.
- It's been getting incredibly windy, which is taking burning embers far ahead of the main firefront and starting advance fires. Recently, a firey was crushed to death after the fire engine was blown over on top of him the winds are that strong.
Edit: 180km perimeter
I think the article says that one of the fires has burnt an area the size of the state of Rhode Island.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/11838160-3x2-460x307.jpg
* the number of active fires is high.
* we have no proper rain and the ground is like DEAD dry.
* the amount of resources we have to put them all out is not infinite.
* the transport network does not cover much of those areas.
* the population tends to cluster in or at the fringes of flammable regions.
* the weather and fuel load are combining into truly horrific, chaotic fire behaviour, that can create their own weather systems (fire storms).
It's a good question though! I wonder if we can invent some technology to solve this.
* the state-based Rural Fire Services are staffed mostly by volunteers
* and have been inadequately funded for the last few years, despite warnings that this fire season would be a shocker
* we don’t have enough fire bombers
* leadership by state and federal politicians has been a complete joke
so when you've got fires as big as european nations, it's impossible to extinguish, even contain.
Are they just trying to prevent the spread and wait till the fire kills itself?
Basically this whenever possible, often if it's not near a populated area they won't even try to limit the spread, they put themselves out eventually with the right conditions (wind, rain, geography). Near populated areas they do what they can, mostly controlled burns and having fire breaks that allow them to effectively concentrate resources (firetrucks, water bombers) where they can actually be useful, a firetruck can be effective where there's a firebreak but without one it would be suicide to be there.
We're hoping for rain, but that's probably not going to appear in any significant quantities for a couple of months.
They say the only thing that can help now is rainfall. And it's not gonna come. All that the fire fighters can do now is saving lifes, helping people to evacuate, trying to keep important roads safe, etc.