Bushfires at Michelago

I decided to check out what I could of this fire today. I traveled along that road between Michelago & Old Cooma Road.
I was surprised how much was burnt & how in the middle of a paddock there were thin strips on long, brown UNBURNT, grass.
These photos were taken on my camera phone as I forgot my camera (rare occurrence).
[img]http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs120.snc3/16742_226578436904_533761904_3627671_3238340_n.jpg[/img]
Just to the left of this photo is where the fire started.
[img]http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs100.snc3/16742_226578796904_533761904_3627675_1201574_n.jpg[/img]
I came back via Michelago & saw a few helicopters refiling their buckets. The NSW Rural Fire Service Super Tanker was supplying the water to the helicopters.

Technically-speaking, the Sentinel maps cannot have an oversight. They are automatically generated from satellite imagery. Note the Sentinel site disclaimer includes…

4. Not all hotspots are detected by the satellites. Some heat sources may be too small, not hot enough, or obscured by thick smoke or cloud.
5. The satellites detect any heat source that is hotter than normal. As well as fires these may include industrial operations such as furnaces.

This last one would explain why a good chunk of the time there is a “bushfire” at the Wollongong steelworks just about exactly where the coke ovens and blast furnace are.

I noticed last night while listening to bushfire updates on ABC radio that the Michelago fires were not appearing and was quite surprised. Must have been the cloud/smoke?

The orignal posting linked to this url…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25223017@N00/4192759878/

Interesting thing – I was just looking on the Geoscience Australia Sentinel map ( http://sentinel.ga.gov.au/acres/sentinel/index.shtml ) and there’s nothing about these fires on there at all. Bit of an oversight? The NSW RFS site ( http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/ ) does have some info on them.

i heard a bit of this story on RN this morning – one poor resident had to listen to thirteen of her eighteen retired greyhounds burning to death – must have been truly awful. seems like luck as much as good management, again, prevented any serious injuries here. thank goodness the rains came, slightly…

That’s a great (and scary) pic. Do you have a larger version handy?