The First Fortnight

[izmeina]

So the first two weeks of the new year are over. So far so good. There was a pickly sizzling weekend from hell where the mercury hovered around 41-44 celsius. It simply meant melting and lurking around the Lair instead of the usual cafe crawls and culture vulture adventures
Other folks were not so lucky. A combination of hellish heat, winds and a few fallen wooden power poles meant a flaming inferno in the hills and 50 or so houses were burnt to cinders. The creepiest case of all was the picture in the paper of a real estate agent’s sign on the street outside a house in the hills. The sign proclaimed the virtues of this very desirable property along with a ‘sold’ sticker stuck on top. But after the week end the pictures of the house portrayed on the sign were all that remained. It was burned to a cinder while the sign itself was miraculously untouched


Not sure what the legal situation may be in such a case only that the buyers have already sold their own home so like the original owners now have no home to go to

So many people have lost everything they owned in the fires. It must be especially difficult for those who work up in the mines and see the stories about the bushfires on the news and can do nothing of course because they are thousands of miles away

The zombie jobs keep the Izzie out of mischief for two days a week. They are also a source of inspiration for stories.
But most importantly of all they provide a sense of meaning and structure and a new social network. It makes it that much easier for the goblin job to be relegated to the dustbin of ancient history
Even the grand project of reclaiming the Lair is making slow and steady progress.

So far so good. Another wicked stinking hot as hell weekend is on the way. So it’s a struggle keeping the weeds alive. But those bushfires have a way of putting a serpent’s petty problems in perspective

Comments

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Somewhat like the greenies trying to introduce container deposit legislation, every time a government tries to do something about improving building standards the usual suspects jump up and down screaming "Think about the extra cost for working families"

Back in 2007 the then state Labour government had drafted legislation requiring all new housing to be designed so that rainwater tanks or grey water recycling systems could be easily retrofitted. Something like the internal piping had to be set up during the building process and all houses with 3 or more bathrooms or a swimming pool had to actually instal the water tanks or recycling system. This was due to come into effect by 2009. And guess who scrapped the whole lot of these excellent rules when they got elected in 2008?
It is more than likely that the same fate would have awaited any attempt to change the building standards to make houses more fire proof when in such high fire risk areas. But it would have added $20,000 plus to the price of a new house. Here's guessing that $20,000 is looking like a good investment now. Of course there are no guarantees when there's lots of highly flammable trees, winds and a sizzling summer day. Hilly areas are especially vulnerable even in places that get nowhere near as hot as Perth

So now even if people can rebuild to a safer standard, there's still the fear of the next fire always lurking, the worry that the supply of potential buyers will dry up but worst of all the probability that insurance premiums will increase enormously and be unaffordable but essential like flood cover in Queensland

Heard the tennis players saying the other day that playing at 40 something in Melbourne is much preferable to 30 something in Brisbane thanks to that awful humidity. Izzie can so so relate to that

[ozfille]

More likely it will be the insurance companies demanding that the home owners improve the fire safety standards of their home before they even consider offering them fire insurance and at a premium rate as you said.