Posted on 07/12/2008 4:50:21 PM PDT by naturalman1975
A crew of 44 Australian and New Zealand firefighters will leave for the United States today, to supervise teams battling fires there.
Most, including firefighters from Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, will leave from Melbourne airport just before 8:00am (AEST).
The nine Victorians come from the Country Fire Authority, the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria and Melbourne Water.
DSE state duty officer John Lloyd says the American fire season, which normally runs from mid August to mid September, has come early.
"California in particular has had a large number of fire starts, and their current weather prediction for next week, is that they're going to get some more dry lightning storms through California and the northern Rockies," he said.
According to estimates overnight, 322 fires were still active in California, with 1,459 contained out of a peak number of 1,781 blazes.
But authorities in the state said the highest "red-flag" warning remained in effect through Sunday in northern California on account of gusty winds and low humidity.
The raging fires claimed their first fatality on Friday (local time), when sheriff's officials in Butte County discovered the burned body of a person inside a home gutted by flames in Concow near the town of Paradise, some 144 kilometres north of Sacramento.
News of the death came as California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered an extra 2,000 members of the National Guard to be deployed.
Many thanks to our Australian friends!
Love those Ozzies!! Dittos on the thanks to Australia!
They’ll gladly work for beer.
God Bless you and thank you our Downunder Allies
Good on ya mates!
How very good of them, and it's part of those ties that bind us together.
A few words of warning for them: don't choose cabrito on the menu unless they like goat meat, don't get in a fight over eating the 100% proof worm in the bottom of the tequila bottle, and stay away from the tatoo shops - they could come out looking like Persian rugs with Elvis lying on top.:)
Although a few are,most Aussies are not named "Ozzie".
“Department of Sustainability and Environment”
Many thanks to our Aussie friends.
And they have the most adorable accents :)
Oceans of it.
Thanks as always to our Australian friends.
Every member of the Sierra Club ought to be consripted to help fight these fires. After all they were instrumental in causing these fires.
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