Comment by thomasfoster96 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thomasfoster96 | Hacker News Reader

As the BBC article suggests, generally the most accurate maps of where recent fires are and how much they’ve burnt are the state government fire or emergency services websites. Unfortunately they are state-by-state (which isn’t usually a problem, but does mean there’s not a good whole-of-Australia map), and some of them show all emergencies, not just fires.

ACT: https://esa.act.gov.au

New South Wales: https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fires-near-me

Northern Territory: https://www.pfes.nt.gov.au/incidentmap/

Queensland: https://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/map/Pages/default.aspx

South Australia: https://www.cfs.sa.gov.au/site/home.jsp

Tasmania: http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/Show?pageId=colGMapBushfires

Victoria: https://www.emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/

Western Australia: https://www.emergency.wa.gov.au

> there’s not a good whole-of-Australia map

This one (from WA) covers the whole country, and shows a) where the fire fronts and b) what's been burnt. This website is actually linked to in the main article (MyFireWatch):

https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au/

It's also the one that ends up being doctored then played around social media.

As a 'side note' though, the article mentions:

> In contrast to MyFireWatch maps (left), blue symbols on New South Wales Rural Fire Service maps (right) give 'Advice' warnings, indicating no immediate danger

This is blatantly misleading. Blue means there are fires still active in the area, the MyFireWatch shows exactly where those active fires are. And personal experience has shown that Blue can become Yellow and then Red within a space of 10 minutes.

> [...] MyFireWatch shows exactly where those active fires are.

I didn’t link to MyFireWatch precisely because it is showing ‘hotspots’ from the past 72 hours, which is not necessarily the same thing as mapping actual reported fires, hence the confusion of some of the maps talked about in the article. The data on MyFireWatch on areas which have burned is also very inaccurate for some states (Tasmania and Victoria at least).

MyFireWatch explicitly says not to use their map in an emergency[0], because the ‘latest’ hotspot data can be up to four hours old, can be up to 2km out of place (5km in extremes), and may not show fires obscured from or otherwise undetectable from the satellite.

[0] https://myfirewatch.landgate.wa.gov.au/disclaimer.html

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