Posted by sigismund on October 30, 2011, at 16:02:11
In reply to Re: The question » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on October 30, 2011, at 10:42:17
Eucalyptus oil has a flash point of only 49C. When it was hot and windy around Melbourne that year the temperature would have been near that. Add a fire front with oncoming winds and you can imagine the front leaping ahead by 100 metres a time. Marysville was this town surrounded in the distance by hills with eucalypts. These hills weren't close but the whole town burnt to the ground.
It's really silly to plant exotic trees anyway. Though if I lived in that kind of country I don't know what would be the best preventive. Where I live is a rainforest area. When it was cut down for dairy farming 100 years ago, they had a lot of difficulty getting it to burn.
poster:sigismund
thread:1000612
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20110926/msgs/1001217.html