Victorian Bushfires

[Sully90]

The Victorian Bushfires have absolutely devastated our souther-regions like Kinglake, Marysville and other towns. Suburbs and towns have been wiped off the map and more than 108 people have lost their lives. This is Australia's most disasterous day since Ash Wednesday in 1983 in which 71 people lost their lives.

Please pay your respects to the firefighters working one day shifts to stop this inferno and to those who have fallen to this inferno.

[kyrgyz]

The Victorian Bushfires have absolutely devastated our souther-regions like Kinglake, Marysville and other towns. Suburbs and towns have been wiped off the map and more than 108 people have lost their lives. This is Australia's most disasterous day since Ash Wednesday in 1983 in which 71 people lost their lives.

Please pay your respects to the firefighters working one day shifts to stop this inferno and to those who have fallen to this inferno.Everything is in the Lord's Hand. I've already said my prayers for those who lost their lives. Sad. :(

[Sully90]

Very true. The number of fatalities has now risen above 130. Most of them have been trapped in their cars, leaving it too late to try and outrun the flames.

[bigwater]

Although I'm in the US, I've got several friends in Australia, and have been following this closely.

Here are some recent postings:



All okay here in Diamond Creek for now. The temperature reached 46.4 Cels or 115 deg FHT yesterday afternoon. Highest temperature recorded in Melbourne since 1885 and the big fires were less than 20 miles away last night. Somehow bypassed us with a wind change but 9 people perished within 25 miles of me. Scariest moment was last night when a searing gale force wind blasted through, full of ash and smoke, it stripped the washing from the clothesline and blew my front fence clean over. There was no way I was going further than 2 feet from the front door for more than 10 seconds to check we weren't on fire, it felt like standing at the gates of hell for about 5 minutes. As Lance said, our town, Diamond Creek is being used for an emergency relief centre for the outlying areas today. Weather is cooler but most of the fires are still out of control and several small local towns were completely destroyed during the night. It's now 4.30pm sunday and the death toll for our state has now reached 35 confirmed but many roads are blocked and areas still burning, making it impossible for police to check all burnt out properties for victims or survivors. We are on high alert with our fire plan which is to grab only the pets and photos if it turns this way. No heroics to try saving the house, if we are caught by suprise there is a dirt road beside my house leading into a large 5 acre cleared paddock that will be a safe spot to wait it out.
Thanks for the concern.




There is a lot of sadness here this morning as 32 fires are still out of control and the state death toll has reached 108 this morning with many more people still missing and a lot of areas still too dangerous or inaccesible to search. Hospital serious burns units are flat out with 78 admissions and at least 3 patients are not expected to survive.
Our local district has been hit hard by the Kinglake blaze with 32 deaths and 550 homes destroyed. I'm only realising as reports come in, that it missed our town by about 6 miles, which is a very small margin considering the speed that bushfires travel. At best we would have had 30 minutes warning or at the height of the gale winds less than 10 minutes. We're in a heavily tree lined area that's tinder dry with the drought and have had no rain for over a month. I'm working here during the day but will spend the nights at my GF's house in the inner suburbs for now.
The last few months I've been planning to sell up and move closer to the city, now I'm sure the decision was right and will double my speed to be out of here before next summer.




It's now 3pm monday and the official death toll has risen to 126 in the past few hours.
George and I passed our emergency relief centre set up at the Diamond Creek community centre a couple of hours ago. The hall and adjoining football oval are packed with cars and now homeless families. George lives at Whittlesea, the neighboring town to Kinglake and said the situation there is even worse with people sleeping on camp stretchers in the high school gym. Most have lost everything but the clothes they were wearing.
At least our politicians have acted quickly to help these people by providing them with immediate emergency money for essentials, calling in the army to assist and organising programs to re-accomodate them all as fast as possible.
The big down side of this disaster is the now confirmed suspicion that many of these fires were deliberately lit by arsonists. We're also holding our breath hoping that business low-lifes dont take advantage of the situation by profiteering from the disaster.


My thoughts are with all of you, not only the fire ravaged folks in the south, but the flood ravaged people in the north as well. Australia is definitely feeling the brunt of things right now. Keep us posted as to how you're doing.

[Sully90]

The death toll currently stands at 131 with more unknown due to Police Forensics access being futile to some areas. Australia is feeling the brunt of things now and, while I'm positive things will improve, a lot of families have been absolutely devastated by these events (such as the fires in Victoria/NSW and the flooding up in Queensland/Townsville.)

I'll post updates when they come through. Thanks, bigwater.

[ChicagoPhotoShop]

this is horrible. my thoughts and prayers go out to our friends down under.

[Dilly]

The death toll currently stands at 131 with more unknown due to Police Forensics access being futile to some areas.
185 now.

[bigwater]

Latest update from one of my frineds:


Tuesday morning 9am and still bad news. Winds overnight have whipped fires up and more towns are now under threat. I already know of one friend on the missing list. Death toll figures now at 173 confirmed. The army is searching in several burnt out towns, sifting debris for more victims and there have been reports of looting.


His posts are getting more brief and terse, and I'm starting to worry about his mental state as much as his physical. It can't be easy having to watch this stuff going on all around you, knowing there's nothing you can do about it.