The fires were horrible and I am glad to hear they are coming under control.
Maybe it is just me, but I find 400 000 ha very hard to visualize. 4000 km² is a figure I can visualize much better. I think square kilometers would be better for any figure over 100 ha, even if a decimal or two is required, although that proposition is certainly debatable up to 1000 or perhaps even 10 000 ha, but not much more. How do the American firefighters do with "mandatory metric.?" Do they get any special training before they can work (beyond US training)? --- On Wed, 3/4/09, Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> > Subject: [USMA:43357] Fire report from Geelong > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 7:41 PM > Dear All, > > The fires in my home state of Victoria are now (after > almost a month) just about under control. There are only > three fires still burning out of the 300 that were burning > on February 7 and the remaining three are not threatening > any towns and they are surrounded by fire breaks. > > Overall: > 210 lives were lost, > 2029 properties were destroyed, > 78 townships were affected, and > 400 000 + hectares were burned. > > All reporting of all fires was done using metric units > only. If you were given any other figures (say by news media > in the USA) then these were dumbed down by the news media > reporters. In a sense, you are being treated like little > children who need to be protected from the big bad metric > world! Hhhrrrmmmph! In all Australian fire services metric > units are mandatory. It is far too dangerous to try to use > multiple measuring methods when your life is immediately > threatened by fire. Multiple measures mean death! In the NSW > fire service (see below) to use an old pre-metric measure in > training or at a fire has been regarded as a 'reportable > offence' since the early 1970s. > > Here is a report from 'The Age' newspaper > (http://www.theage.com.au/national/heavens-open-and-a-hellish-season-ends-20090304-8oif.html > ) that shows some of the New South Wales (NSW) fire fighters > on their way home last night giving the 'thumbs-up' > sign of success. These are a small part of the 1000 fire > fighters who came from other states to help us here in > Victoria. There are many fire fighters from New Zealand, > Canada, and the USA (usually from the states of California > and Washington) who will also begin to go home soon. > > The management of the remaining fires will be done by the > Country Fire Authority (CFA) of Victoria. The CFA is one of > the world's largest volunteer fire fighting > organisations. It services more than 150 000 square > kilometres and about 3 million people. The CFA has > approximately 58 000 active volunteers with almost 1200 > career fire fighters and support staff. > > Note that we use hectares to measure the size of fires > here. This means that a small fire 100 metres by 100 metres > is a one hectare fire and all other fires are given in > simple whole numbers of hectares. There are no fractions (no > vulgar or common fractions and no decimal fractions) when > you are measuring bush fires in Australia. > > Cheers, > > Pat Naughtin > > PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, > Geelong, Australia > Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 > > Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat > Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of > companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, > quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands > each year when buying, processing, or selling for their > businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many > different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, > industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, > Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the > Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric > associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See > http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication > information, contact Pat at > [email protected] or to get the free > 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: > http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
