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| Opinion: Must read "Stay and Defend" First person account Posted: 13 Feb 2009 11:56 PM PST "We prayed and we worked bloody hard. Our house was lit up eight times by the fire as the front passed," Mr Sheahan said. "The elements off our TV antenna melted. We lost a Land Rover, two Subarus, a truck and trailer and two sheds." Fined for illegal clearing, family now feel vindicated Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie  After suffering court action that cost the family $100,000, Liam Sheahan believes clearing trees saved his home and his family. Photo: Paul Rovere They were labelled law breakers, fined $50,000 and left emotionally and financially drained. But seven years after the Sheahans bulldozed trees to make a fire break — an act that got them dragged before a magistrate and penalised — they feel vindicated. Their house is one of the few in Reedy Creek, Victoria, still standing. The Sheahans' 2004 court battle with the Mitchell Shire Council for illegally clearing trees to guard against fire, as well as their decision to stay at home and battle the weekend blaze, encapsulate two of the biggest issues arising from the bushfire tragedy. Do Victoria's native vegetation management policies need a major overhaul? And should families risk injury or death by staying home to fight the fire rather than fleeing? Anger at government policies stopping residents from cutting down trees and clearing scrub to protect their properties is already apparent. "We've lost two people in my family because you dickheads won't cut trees down," Warwick Spooner told Nillumbik Mayor Bo Bendtsen at a meeting on Tuesday night. Although Liam Sheahan's 2002 decision to disregard planning laws and bulldoze 250 trees on his hilltop property hurt his family financially and emotionally, he believes it helped save them and their home on the weekend. "The house is safe because we did all that," he said as he pointed out his kitchen window to the clear ground where tall gum trees once cast a shadow on his house. "We have got proof right here. We are the only house standing in a two-kilometre area." At least seven houses and several sheds on neighbouring properties along Thompson-Spur road in Reedy Creek were destroyed by Saturday night's blaze. Saving their home was no easy task. At 2pm on Saturday, Mr Sheahan saw the nearby hills ablaze. He knew what lay ahead when the predicted south-westerly change came. The family of four had discussed evacuation but decided their property was defensible, due largely to their decision to clear a fire break. It also helped that Mr Sheahan, his son Rowan and daughter Kirsten were all experienced members of the local CFA. "We prayed and we worked bloody hard. Our house was lit up eight times by the fire as the front passed," Mr Sheahan said. "The elements off our TV antenna melted. We lost a Land Rover, two Subarus, a truck and trailer and two sheds." Mr Sheahan is still angry about his prosecution, which cost him $100,000 in fines and legal fees. The council's planning laws allow trees to be cleared only when they are within six metres of a house. Mr Sheahan cleared trees up to 100 metres away from his house. "The council stood up in court and made us to look like the worst, wanton environmental vandals on the earth. We've got thousands of trees on our property. We cleared about 247," he said. He said the royal commission on the fires must result in changes to planning laws to allow land owners to clear trees and vegetation that pose a fire risk. "Both the major parties are pandering to the Greens for preferences and that is what is causing the problem. Common sense isn't that common these days," Mr Sheahan said. Melbourne University bushfire expert Kevin Tolhurst gave evidence to help the Sheahan family in their legal battle with the council. "Their fight went over nearly two years. The Sheahans were victimised. It wasn't morally right," he said yesterday. Dr Tolhurst told the Seymour Magistrates court that Mr Sheahan's clearing of the trees had reduced the fire risk to his house from extreme to moderate. "That their house is still standing is some natural justice for the Sheahans," he said. He said council vegetation management rules required re-writing. He also called on the State Government to provide clearer guidelines about when families should stay and defend their property. Houses in fire-prone areas should be audited by experts to advise owners whether their property is defensible, Dr Tolhurst said. Mr Sheahan said he wanted others to learn from his experience and offered an invitation for Government ministers to visit his property. He would also like his convictions overturned and fines repaid. "It would go a long way to making us feel better about the system. But I don't think it will happen." Source: The Sydney Morning Herald - Link |
| New York: Continental Flight 3407 DOWN - Conversation between the pilot and air traffic control Posted: 14 Feb 2009 12:15 AM PST 'All Of a Sudden We Have No Response' From Flight 3407 
Federal investigators have recovered the "black box" voice and data recorders from the Continental Airlines commuter plane that slammed into a house outside Buffalo last night, and streaming audio of the conversation between the pilot and air traffic controllers revealed all was calm moments before the crash. Continental Flight 3407 was approaching Buffalo Niagara International Airport at about 10:20 p.m. when it suddenly dove into the house, killing all 49 people aboard and one person in the home. Investigators have not determined what caused the crash - though authorities said the plane experienced significant icing - but whatever it was, it appears to have happened quickly and without warning. Air traffic controllers had a routine conversation with the flight crew, which included Capt. Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw, just minutes before the crash, then lost contact with the plane. There was no mayday from the aircraft, according to a recording of the cockpit provided by LiveATC.net. The flight was operated for Continental by Colgan Air. Renslow had logged 3,379 hours of flight time with the carrier since 2005, and Shaw had 2,244 hours, according to the Associated Press. Buffalo's air traffic control is available by streaming audio posted at LiveATC.com, and it suggests no one on the crew knew anything was amiss. At last contact, the air traffic controller said the plane was three miles from a radio beacon that was, in turn, about four miles northeast of the airport. The controller instructed Flight 3407 to turn left to intercept the radio signal that would guide it to the runway. Shaw calmly repeated the instructions. Tower: Colgan thirty-four zero seven three miles from KLUMP, turn left heading two six zero maintain two thousand three hundred until established localizer clears ILS (instrument landing system) approach runway two three. Flight 3407: Left two sixty two thousand three hundred until established and cleared ILS two three Colgan thirty-four zero seven. Tower: Colgan thirty-four zero seven contact tower one two zero point five have a good night. Flight 3407: Thirty-four zero seven. One minute later, Flight 3407 went silent. The air traffic controller tried to reestablish contact. When that failed, the controller asked the pilot of a Delta Airlines airliner in the vicinity if he could see the plane. Tower: Delta nineteen ninety-eight, look off your right side about 5 miles for a Dash 8. Should be twenty-three hundred (feet altitude). Do you see anything there? Delta 1998: Negative Delta ninteen ninety-eight. We're just in the bottoms and nothing on the TCAS (traffic collision avoidance system). Tower: Colgan thirty-four zero seven, Buffalo... At that point, air traffic controllers urged authorities on the ground to investigate. Tower: You need to talk to somebody at least five miles northeast, OK, possibly Clarence. (Clarence is the town where the flight went down.) That area right in there, Akron area. Either state police or sheriff's department need to find out if anything is on the ground. This aircraft was five miles out, all of a sudden we have no response from that aircraft. Tower: All I can tell you is there is an aircraft over the marker and we're not talking to them now. Flight 3407 crashed into a house, killing all 49 people aboard and one person in the house. Two others escaped with minor injuries. "It was a direct hit," David Bissonette, Erie County emergency coordinator, said during a televised press conference. "It's remarkable that it only took out one house. As devastating as that is, it could have wiped out the entire neighborhood." It's too early to speculate on what caused the crash, but the Buffalo News says air traffic controllers were concerned about foul weather. "We've been picking up rime ice here," one pilot told the tower, referring to the opaque, granular ice that forms on planes during ice storms. Another pilot confirmed ice in the area. At the time of the crash it was 17 degrees at the Buffalo airport, with light snow, fog, and 17 mile per hour winds. The Q400 is 107 feet long and 27 feet high with a wingspan of 93 feet and a fuselage diameter of almost nine feet. It has a maximum cruising altitude of 25,000 feet and top cruising speed of 414 miles per hour. Bombardier markets the plane as being one of the most technologically advanced and cost effective turboprops on the market today. There are more than 140 in operation worldwide. Scandanavian Airline Systems permanently grounded its Q400 fleet in 2007 after three crashes in seven months. The Danish Accident Investigation Board deemed the Q-400 safe, but last year Bombardier paid SAS $164 million in compensation. Flight 3407 flew under the Continental Express banner but was operated by Colgan Air, a subsidiary of Pinnacle Aviation. In an arrangement that is standard at most big hub airports, Continental subcontracts Colgan to funnel traffic into its hubs with smaller commuter planes. Continental began deploying the Q400 at Newark last year, saying the plane "ushered in a new era for regional flying" because at 74 seats it is bigger than many of the other regional jets it flies. It was the first deadly commercial airliner crash in the United States since a Comair flight crashed on takeoff from Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 27, 2006, killing 49 of the 50 people aboard. UPDATE 8 p.m. Feb 13: The Associated Press reports Flight 3407 experienced significant icing on the wings and windshield just before it started pitching and rolling violently. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board stopped short of saying ice buildup caused the crash and have not identified the cause. Listen to the air traffic control tape, which includes conversations with several planes:
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| SFFD: Arson suspected in fire that injured six San Francisco firefighters Posted: 13 Feb 2009 10:39 AM PST  Blaze that badly hurt firefighter called arson(02-12) 16:29 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A fire in a vacant home in Portola neighborhood that left a San Francisco firefighter critically injured was the work of an arsonist, the Fire Department said Thursday Investigators reached their conclusion after combing through the charred home at 627 Felton St. in the city's southernmost section. The fire broke out early Feb. 5, and six firefighters were injured when the roof fell in as they battled the blaze. The most seriously injured was Christopher Posey, a firefighter-paramedic who has worked 18 years with the city. He remains in critical but stable condition in San Francisco General Hospital's intensive care unit. From the beginning, Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White called the blaze suspicious, in part because there was no electricity on in the two-story dwelling when the fire started. Authorities have said Jimmy Jen, 54, a former city building agency employee whose ex-wife co-owns the home, is a "person of interest" in the case. Investigators said they were interested in Jen in part because three properties in which he was involved have burned since 1990. Jen has never been charged with arson and has denied he had anything to do with the fires. His attorney, David Millstein, said Jen was not involved with the Felton Street fire. Jen's ex-wife, Nancy Jen, has said she knows nothing about how the fire started. The Fire Department asked anyone with information on the blaze to call the arson task force's anonymous tip line at (415) 920-2944. |
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Source: WIRED - Link
Photo: Associated Press