Wiped out: Towns destroyed by killer fires (Victoria, Australia)

[depakid]

Source: ABC


Almost nothing left: Marysville lies in ruins.
----------


Devastation: The scene at Labertouche 125 kilometres west of Melbourne yesterday.
----------

The town of Marysville in central Victoria has been almost completely destroyed by bushfires.

Aerial pictures taken by the ABC show street after street of completely destroyed homes in the town. Most are just piles of rubble. Some still have walls standing and a handful appear to be mostly intact. Twenty-six people are now confirmed to have died in the fires north of Melbourne and this morning there are unconfirmed reports of bodies being found in cars overtaken by the fires in Gippsland in the state's east.

Six of the dead have been found at Kinglake, six at Kinglake West and four at St Andrews and Wandong, all north of Melbourne. More bodies have been found at Humevale, Bendigo, and Arthurs Creek. Stuart Ord, of the Department of Environment and Sustainability (DSE) confirmed there have been substantial property losses in the Marysville area.

Raylene Kincaide from Narbethong, south-west of Marysville, has lost her home and says the whole township is gone. "It's just devastating. We've lost everything. It's not good," she said. "Our little town had gone 20 minutes after we left. Probably 95 per cent of the houses are gone. She said they are worried that some residents are missing and have not been accounted for. "My partner was up there and he left when he saw the cattle burning. I've been in Ash Wednesday, but this is worse," she said.

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485378.htm

---

ABC reports in another story: The overall death toll is expected to rise into the forties as crew reach the worst-hit areas later today.

[ProgressIn2008]

1. Oh god. nt

[Why Syzygy]

2. How hot did it get? In Fahrenheit? .. found it

Witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash as temperatures hit a record 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C) Saturday and combined with raging winds to create perfect conditions for uncontrollable blazes. A long-running drought in southern Australia — the worst in a century — has left forests extra dry.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlUCqDbfvOMgcnOmIjSnqFNni6iQD9672KHO0

[depakid]

7. 118 degrees yesterday

After "the change" came through at 6 pm, temperatures plunged to below 70 degrees in about six hours time.

That has helped immensely in fighting these blazes.

"The Department of Sustainability and Environment's Peter Farrell says it is challenging to assess the fire properly. "With some of the cloud cover and thick smoke that's over, we've been unable to get good infra-red scanning of the fires," he said.

"We're relying on ground intelligence coming through and it obviously takes a little longer for that to come through."

Nan Oats is helping residents at Panton Hill, south of Kinglake. "Kinglake West I know has lost its service station, its store and the police station," she said. "Kinglake I think still has the fire brigade, the pub and the police station and then they say everything else is gone, but I don't know."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485386.htm

[hedgehog]

3. The houses burned but the trees look untouched?

Clearly the heat was intense, but the condition of the trees makes me wonder if fires like this happened before. Maybe the current drought is the normal and the previous wet was abnormal.

[aquart]

4. Trying to make it less frightening in your mind?

This is only the beginning.

[hedgehog]

6. No, just trying to fathom what happened. I live in a very wet spot.

Fires like this are just barely conceivable to me. Sort of like trying to explain 4 foot of snow to someone from Atlanta.

On edit - I have the notion that the Great Plains were was settled by white farmers during a relatively wet time, so they were totally unprepared for the dry years.

[byeya]

24. Sand Dunes in Nebraska

You are 100% correct. When Fremont went west for the US Government, several years after Lewis and Clark, he commented on the desert in Nebraska and other places. The thin topsoil there has only built up since the early 1800s and should not be grazed by cattle much less farmed.
The Oglalla aquifer has dropped 30 feet or more to grow wheat in Kansas and other states where rain and surface water will not support it. In Kansas, for example, farming is more mining than agriculture.

[intaglio]

11. Many Eucalypts are very flame tolerant

and some require fire to split the seeds

[Hekate]

12. The aerial shot shows trees with completely blackened leaves or just skeletal...

I'd say they were pretty well burned up.

As a Californian, it seems to me that survival depends on the species of the tree. I don't know if eucalyptus grows back from the stump, but its aromatic oils can cause it to literally explode in fire. Perhaps the seeds survive instead. We have both types of trees native to California.

Imported species of trees are unlikely to survive fires like this.

My heart goes out to the people of Australia.

Hekate

[Bear down under]

14. Most eucalypts will grow back after fire

Even when the smaller branches and the foliage are gone, most forest eucs will grow back from buds beneath the bark on the lower branches or even on the trunk, though it still takes a few years for the tree to return to normal. Normally the fire is sufficiently brief that it doesn't penetrate to the cambium beneath the bark.

Most but not all -- the mountain ash, Eucalyptus regnans, the tallest flowering plant in the world, is one that doesn't regenerate. Seedlings will come up in the ashes, but they take a couple of centuries to reach anything like their full height of 350 feet or so, and there are mountain ash forests in Victoria still recovering from the hideous Black Friday fires of 1939. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(1939)

Mallees make several trunks from the base, the lignotuber, and grow back from there. They are characteristic of the drier parts of the country and much shorter in stature than the forest species.

The acacias and the understorey shrubs -- the grevillias, banksias, leptospermums etc -- survive by having seed vessels that split in the heat to release their seeds, even though the original plant be killed. (An American species that does the same trick is the Monterey pine, Pinus radiata).

[hedgehog]

15. I'm wondering if the houses burned because an attempt was made to make the plantings around them

resemble the British Isles. I'm guessing that a lot of plantings around the buildings provided enough fuel to set them on fire.

[Hekate]

18. We get that a lot here in California. Irrigation makes everything grow like crazy, so people from...

... other, wetter, parts of the US have imported all kinds of shrubbery and trees from other climates. Over time it's been a continual process to educate people who live in the urban-wildland interface to plant defensively -- and well back from the actual house.

When we get into drought (a natural cycle that will be exacerbated by global warming) the forests and wildlands turn to tinder. California evolved to burn. There are seeds of many plants that don't germinate until they've been cracked open by fire, and there are others that grow back from the stump. I didn't know eucalyptus was one of those--Southern California has lots and lots of them planted in the last century as windbreaks around citrus groves -- and I mainly know them as a fire hazard and as something that can topple onto your house or car seemingly without provocation.

Once people understand the ecology, I think they can psychologically handle the recurring cycle of fires better. It's really really scary when they get too close, though. There was a fire in the hills above my housing tract last summer, and I'm still finding charred leaves in my backyard. As I said before, my heart goes out to the Australians.

Hekate

[Bear down under]

21. Not a very significant factor

Not in the firestorm conditions of this weekend, anyway, when anything that can ignite will burn. That includes grass. Of course if a mile-wide firefront comes raging down your street your house has little chance -- but often the real danger is 'spotting', when burning embers (twigs, leaves, bits of bark etc) are blown for as much as a mile ahead of the front, both by the prevailing winds and by the draft of the fire itself. If embers land on your roof (or your car) or even on the grass next to your house you're in big trouble.

In any case, Oz gardeners and civic authorities have mostly moved away in the last 40 years from "English-style" gardens and parks to ones more in harmony with the Australian ecology, with fewer watered lawns and much greater use of drought-resistant native trees and plants -- which of course poses its own problems in a fire-dependant ecology -- but whatever species you choose to provide it, shade is a necessity in a hot climate like ours.

The ABC radio news was saying a couple of hours ago that the death toll of the Victorian fires has reached 50, with fears that it will rise. That already makes this weekend's fires worse than the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983.

[tabatha]

16. Are the eucalypts very flammable?

[Ex Lurker]

17. Look on the lower right

those trees are green.

[progressive_realist]

22. Eucalyptus is not native to California.

Although you would be hard-pressed to realize that, given its extent. It is much like the Himalayan Blackberry up here in Western Washington. It's everywhere, but it ain't native.

[Hekate]

33. I tried to imply that they were non-native by saying "they were planted." Butterflies...

We have a grove of eucalyptus near the ocean here in Goleta (next door to Santa Barbara) that has become a major stopping point for Monarch butterfly migrations up and down the West Coast, from Mexico to Canada and back. Tens of thousands park themselves in the trees in great clumps overnight, and as the sun warms them they begin to flutter about and mate in the sunbeams. O8)

The local Natural History Museum offers docent-guided tours, local activists prevented more trees being chopped down to make way for houses and condos, and it was declared a protected area. The day I was there with my friends we just missed a busload of tourists from Asia and as we were leaving we saw a busload of school kids arrive.

I don't know what the Monarchs used for a rest stop before the eucs came to California, but they love it.

As for me, I won't park under one since the day I saw a new pickup truck smashed nose to tail with all 4 tires flattened by a magnificent euc. :wow:

Hekate

[XemaSab]

26. Eucalyptus is imported in California

n/t

[Hekate]

34. I know, see above. nt

[Mind_your_head]

5. Good Lord! How come there has not been one peep about Australia's

troubles in USA news?

It's all 'about us', isn't it? :sarcasm: MSM f*cktards!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: <---- no wonder the newspapers are dying and people are switching off their cable teevees.....Sheesh. Life isn't all "happy"/"happy"...and it isn't all sex/sex.....there is REAL LIFE happening to REAL people ~ friends whom we have never met ~ what's so difficult to understand about that, MSM? REPORT IT! It's NEWS!!!! Not entertainment, it's "happenin'" ....it's NEWS! That's (supposedly) your JOB!!!!

[depakid]

8. There have also been devastating floods in North Queensland

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6472425,00.jpg

Supplies rushed to flooded north Qld

Just as the floodwaters began receding, a low pressure system travelling south has dumped heavy rain in the past 24 hours, topping flood levels. The weather bureau is now predicting the Herbert River in Ingham to rise beyond the 12.2 metre peak that flooded thousands of houses, caused hundreds of evacuations and cut road access since Monday.

Authorities fear the river could peak to 12.5m at about 9pm (AEDT) on Saturday and cause major damage to roads and homes. More heavy rain is expected between Cairns and Mackay on Saturday night and Sunday morning. Flooded rivers will fuel king tides expected to hit most of the tropical north coast during the early hours of Sunday. King tides have already hit Karumba and Weipa.

Queensland's emergency services and SES volunteers are concentrating on restocking food and essential supplies to isolated communities and residents in the worst flooded affected town of Ingham, north of Townsville.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/supplies-rushed-to-flooded-north-qld-20090207-8090.html
--------

The point is well taken, though. Aside from those living near the Canadian border- the only news from outside the American corporate media is provided by BBC.

Contrast that with a country like Australia- where free to air TV (SBS) provides news from countries around the world- sometimes in their own languages.

[Mind_your_head]

10. A LOT of people look to America for hope......

WOW....America has so much to give to the rest of the world. But those stupid-ass republicans that can't stop f*ckin' each other and little boys can't get "cleared out of the way".

They need to be "cleaned out of the way" - once and for all!

Last chance....do it!

[Delphinus]

23. Thanks - had no idea.

Only knew about the heat from Canetoad (and maybe the E/E forum). I feel so out of touch sometimes!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. We USED to have a cable station that provided 24 hours of world news

Newsworld International (NWI) carried mostly Canadian content (fantastic during the invasion of Iraq, since Canada didn't have any troops there to "support") but also featured English-language broadcasts from around the world.

OK, now remember how everyone was buzzing about Al Gore was going to start a liberal equivalent to Fox News? Well, of all the stations on all the cable systems in the world, he had to buy Newsworld International. Not one of the dozens of shopping channels or fundie channels, but one of the best-quality and least-known stations on cable. (The claim was that nobody watched it, but I found it only by accident, and it was never promoted in the way, say, the increasingly bad BBC America is.) Instead of turning NWI into a liberal news station, he turned it into The Current, made up entirely of viewer-generated videos.

Not a liberal news station. Not a source of world news. A vanity station.

Between the destruction of NWI and Gore's status as a founding member of the DLC and an avid supporter of everything Reagan did, I have trouble going along with the adulation he enjoys on this board.

[Princess Turandot]

25. It's on the front page of the NY Times Online. I think that's still published in the US nt

[Dulcinea]

29. CNN.com has it.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/08/australia.wildfires/index.html

[rvablue]

39. Maybe the cable jerks aren't, but in all fairness I saw an extended piece on this

on the network news last night.

[Mari333]

9. 25 confirmed deaths. also, looks like they were deliberately set

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlUCqDbfvOMgcnOmIjSnqFNni6iQD96732R00

update..its 35

http://www.news.com.au/

[Mind_your_head]

13. D*mn

k & r

:kick:

[RFKHumphreyObama]

19. Very sad

I have friends and relatives in Victoria. This is a nightmare. My deepest and sincerest thoughts, prayers, condolences and sympathies to all those who have lost family and property:cry:

My grandparents lost their holiday home in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria. Goodness knows, there have been some horrible bushfires in other states during the time that I've lived here but not on this level.

[ColbertWatcher]

20. Kick and rec for more attention.

This is devastating.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. I am shocked to think of heat and fires like that in the MELBOURNE area

If you look at a map, that's one of the southernmost cities in Australia and should therefore be cooler in the summer.

What a tragic situation.

[canetoad]

30. Hi Lydia

This is just up the road from me. We are totally shell shocked. Death toll is 95 at the moment, fires still burning but slowly being contained.

It's true we are in the south of the continent, but the danger comes with the northerly winds which are like a blast furnace.

[Eugene]

31. BBC: Australian fires toll passes 100

Source: BBC News

Page last updated at 19:41 GMT,
Sunday, 8 February 2009

Australian fires toll passes 100

The death toll from bush fires in south Australia
has reached at least 108, the worst in the country's
history.

Thousands of firefighters, aided by the army, are
battling several major fires, and the number of dead
is expected to rise as fires are put out.

Arsonists responsible for lighting the fires could
be charged with murder, police have said.

Entire towns in Victoria state were destroyed as
fires were fanned by extreme temperatures and wind.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7877178.stm

[roamer65]

32. For some reason, Australia seems to bearing a big brunt of global climate change.

Either drought or flood, no middle ground.

[Barrett808]

35. Indeed, and it's qute sobering. A snapshot of the future for other continents. n/t

[Faygo Kid]

36. Exactly. We are going to see profound extremes like never before.

Those who think there is no global warming because January was cold are in for a rude awakening.

Another thing the Repukes can unanimously join against: Programs to stem global warming. Count on it.

[RamboLiberal]

37. Amazing how the RW idiots here tout how cold this winter

has been here as some kind of proof there is no global warming. While ignoring the record breaking heat in Australia and now these devastating fires. Duh!

And I feel for all down under who lost lives and homes.

[marions ghost]

38. Email from my brother in Melbourne

My brother lives on the southeastern outskirts of Melbourne, population about 4 million. Melbourne is sprawling and suburban like LA, but surrounded by dense eucalyptus and scrub forests. Most of the deaths have occurred in the outer lying towns/burbs.

This was sent last night:

> We are fine but the number of dead grows every hour. The worst fire
> front is in the Kinglake area, up near Healesville in the Dandenong Mts.
> (about an hour from us by car). With gale force winds coming off the
> desert and 115 F degree heat it was predicted to be a horrible day. On the
> day prior the Victorian premier advised the state to prepare for "the
> worst fire conditions in history". The conditions on that day were only
> half the problem. The other half is that the state is hyper-dry after 10
> years or more of drought.
>
> We spent the day at home but kept an eye on the nature reserve our place
> backs on to. Next time the threat gets this big I will leave for
> the beach because the fire fronts move at an unbelievable pace. No
> doubt you've seen footage in which the front actually leaps ahead.
> The firefighters are still hard at it. Keep an eye on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting) http://www.abc.net.au/news/ and The AGE, Melbourne Newspaper http://www.theage.com.au/

[KamaAina]

40. Point of information: The ABC cited is the Australian Broadcasting Corp., not our ABC

although NBC actually did lead with this on the Today show this morning (now that they've got splashy video of ruined homes and even towns :eyes: ).

[Annie_in_Victoria_Oz]

41. Killer Fires keep raging here

G`day, I`m in Victoria, living at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges. I am about 30 ks from one of the large fires and things are getting worse ! Two of the large fires may join into one overnight, and then I am and maybe 500,000 others will be in line of danger.
It is a nightmare with no wakening. Here`s a bit from a web site,I wanted to post
~~~~~~
"Drought, strong winds and heat combined to produce Victoria fires (why it was so bad)
Herald Sun ^ | 11th February 2009 | Alice Coster

Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 8:38:39 AM by naturalman1975

CONDITIONS for a perfect firestorm led to Australia's greatest natural disaster at the weekend.

Drought, hurricane-force wind and record temperatures after a record heatwave combined to create Victoria's deadly Black Saturday bush fires.

The University of Melbourne's senior lecturer in fire ecology and management, Kevin Tolhurst, said conditions on Black Saturday were some of the worst the world had seen for a potential outbreak.

He said the fires were so hot the energy they released could have supplied Victoria with electricity for at least two years.

Up to 80,000 kilowatts per metre of heat was expelled as the fires raged on Saturday.

Dr Tolhurst said this equalled about 500 atomic bombs landing on Hiroshima.

"Eyewitness accounts said they didn't see evidence of fire and then all of a sudden they felt the area around them was exploding," Dr Tolhurst said.

The unprecedented bushfires were so savage because of the previous week's heatwave. He said this sapped up the vegetation's moisture, making the land tinder dry.

"What was quite unusual and unique about it was the fires took so readily and developed so quickly. The conditions were so dry the fuel ignited," Dr Tolhurst said.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Kinglake the people heard the deafening roar as it sped towards them, wiping many out as they ran.
Those that had not left either perished or are now homeless and broken people. Our hearts are all broken and we know it will be weeks before Victoria is safe again. The bush is mainly Eucalyptus, and have volatile oil in them, and they can explode. The heat from the biggest fire on Saturday was creating lightning !!, which just started more fires.The embers from eucs stay glowing for hours, and will start spot fires as far as 14 ks away from the fire front.
And it looks like at least two were set by arsonists....not that they needed to as the state sweltered in 44 C (118 F) heat, lightning alone will cause many.
So, just wanted to say to you guys, wer`e in deep shit here, the death toll is looking to get as high as 240 or more.
181 bodies found so far, though there`s a whole town in Marysville that is roped off as a crime scene, so bodies are still lying where they fell, only a handful of houses are left standing, I can only imagine many will have died there.
I have had the water bombing choppers over my home heading up the mountain , and to top it off, the main water reserves are in the line of tonights fires, if ash gets in there, were stuffed!
I`m so happy to hear that America are sending 36 of their best to help.There is currently 5000 fighting these fires, but we will need many more hands.
But, give us time for the fires to go out, we will all pull together and help re build, so far the donations of clothes food etc have been enormous ,and 44 mill has been given by the people so far, but..the appeal isn`t till tomorrow :) (we too are heading for a recession) but Aussies will look after others before themselves in times of need, that`s what I love the most about being an Australian. Thanks for posting those pics, they give you a slight idea at the devastation. from the air, all you can see is black for as far as the eye can see. Please, keep your fingers crossed for us Down Under, we gonna need a bloody lot of luck from here on.
thanks for reading my slightly too long rave.
Annie

ps, the reason the trees look like the leaves are untouched, is because of the speed the fires raced threw in some parts.
Eucalyptus will in about 2 = 3 weeks time send out green shoots all up the trunk, Ive seen burnt out forests and it looks both pretty and eerie with the black background.Some will be dead and in time seeds will germinate.Some of our plants like the banksia enjoy heat to open up the seed pods. the survival stories are amazing, one woman had no where to run, jumped down into a wombats burrow,and the fire raced over the top, and she lived.Lucky there weren`t snakes hiding down there!others drove into damns,others crashed as they tried to drive away, but no visibility, so many burnt to death in cars,some still in their drive ways, as the cars wont start when the air is so choked with smoke,leaving little oxygen to ignite engines.
I'm glad your getting news reports there, and very happy to see so many discussing it.

[marions ghost]

42. My heart is there

I've been to the Dandenongs and points north many times and know it as one of the most scenically beautiful and peaceful areas near Melbourne. I also spent a lot of time in Gippsland and the Prom. I'm an American but I lived in Frankston many years ago and my brother and sister still live there. My brother said he expected these fires would happen eventually, as a result of the now ten-year unprecedented drought.

Believe me I and my family here are glued to the situation and feeling so much concern for everyone. Annie, your first person account makes it very real. Thanks for posting at DU and please keep writing when you can.

I also relate to what you are going through as am now living in hurricane alley in the United States east coast so I understand the sustained stress and panic you are feeling all too well. I've been through a life-altering hurricane experience and realize that is what you all are facing now--a life-altering experience. When it's a natural disaster it's very humbling to realize the limits of human abilities to control what happens.

Know that we are watching and praying and sending love--and yes, I think it travels around the world. With half my family over there, I can't think anything else. I heard that we lost an old family friend (Aussie) in this fire. He was about 52 and a truly beautiful person. He was in his car trying to escape. I am so sad about that. This is very personal.

Stay strong and if the time comes to go, then go! Leave all property to fate and get out. I know you Aussies are tough and will pull together in this. I saw that kind of community spirit firsthand when I lived there. In fact this event is taking me back in time like nothing before--to that wonderful city of Melbourne and its surrounding areas of bush and eucalypt forest. I can visualize all these places that are in the news. :cry:

We are Keeping the Vigil.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[Annie_in_Victoria_Oz]

44. Thank you xx marions ghost

marions ghost

To give an update.Last night the CFA Stopped the Kinglake and Healsvilles fires joining...and today the wind has been kind. They have created many more fire brakes and hope to get the fire to turn back on itself.
Sam the much publicized koala has survived and is in the care of wildlife carers,she has burns to all paws,but the CFA guy that stopped and gave her a DRINK (no-one in Australia has ever seen a koala drink water,as they get it from gum leaves)saved her life, koalas when dehydrated have their kidneys shut down and the die. It is estimated that so far one million animals have died, many are being collected, some needing to be put down,others may survive.
Tonight the big tv appeal is on, prior to that Aussies kicked in...wait for...$56 million, the total at present is around $80 million :) and it`s only 11.30pm.
At the Whitlesea camp there is a gig going on, first to play was Colin Hay (who flew in from LA today) and another member from Men At Work, they sang..Do you come from come from a land down under..To see the crowd so proudly singing, and smiling!! was a joy to see. Then John Willianson came on, he made us all cry singing "True Blue", there`s a line in the song that says, "Is it standing by your mate,when he`s in a fight"...Bloody oath it is.as you know marions ghost :) xx
At the moment the winds are picking up, heading up the range towards Healsville, but, the fire in Churchill and Bunyip state forest are on the other end and side of the mountain, so, I`m hoping they wont let it get on the mountain, if it does and the Healsville and Kinglake fires do join and head north, well..don`t want to even think about that.
Theres still around 25 major fires in the state, if you want to look, here`s our CFA website (Country Fire Authority)
http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/incidents/incident_summary.htm
It updates every 5 minutes and if you go to the main page, you can learn more.
Friends that were fighting the fires just 500 metres from there home in Healsville are now safe, other friends from Millgrove (near Warbaton) are on evacuation alert,a mate was at his parents wedding anniversary on Saturday, his home is now ash, so I'm grateful he was not home, as they had no warning, and even less chance.
Some people died trying to start their cars, but the smoke was so thick, there wasn`t enough oxygen to start the engines
I saw video that a guy took while watching everything around his home alight, he and his wife were trapped, and in the vid, he said his goodbyes to his 2 sons, wished them a great life and told them how much he loved them.man it was heartbreaking footage!..Thankfully, they were on the news tonight, they had somehow been spared, while all around was ash.
We are still in a heap of danger, the fires will be burning for ages . and to top it all off, my bloody car has a stuffed starter motor !! I cant flee if I have to.I'm getting another one in on Saturday...fingers crossed that wont be too late.
I'm have Eucs on my block,as do all the homes here, could`t save my home ,would`t stay and try to.
I have 3 cats and 2 carpet pythons, I wont leave them behind.so the fires better not get here till next week.
On the news I saw a guy going threw the ashes of his home in Kinglake, all he was holding was the bits of the melted earn his Fathers ashes were in.
The many in the hospitals with burns is unheard of, Doctors are saying it`s worse than when we got bombed in Bali.~!!!!!!
I can smell the smoke here now...just went outside, it`s coming up from Gippland,the Churhill, Bunyip state forest fires..Farrrr out.
Ok, I`m gonna piss off now and call more mates to see how they are.
thanks so very much marions ghost for your lovely words.
It`s special to know that we are far from alone when were so deep in tragedy.xxx

[Dulcinea]

43. The news here (in the US) is saying that this is the work of arsonists.

If that's the case, can whoever set these fires be charged with 100+ counts of murder, too? I don't know the law in Australia. I know that would be the case in America. Please stay safe down there!

[Annie_in_Victoria_Oz]

45. Victoria on Fire..

Thank you xx marions ghost Updated at 11:03 PM

marions ghost

To give an update.Last night the CFA Stopped the Kinglake and Healsvilles fires joining...and today the wind has been kind. They have created many more fire brakes and hope to get the fire to turn back on itself.
Sam the much publicized koala has survived and is in the care of wildlife carers,she has burns to all paws,but the CFA guy that stopped and gave her a DRINK (no-one in Australia has ever seen a koala drink water,as they get it from gum leaves)saved her life, koalas when dehydrated have their kidneys shut down and the die. It is estimated that so far one million animals have died, many are being collected, some needing to be put down,others may survive.
Tonight the big tv appeal is on, prior to that Aussies kicked in...wait for...$56 million, the total at present is around $80 million :) and it`s only 11.30pm.
At the Whitlesea camp there is a gig going on, first to play was Colin Hay (who flew in from LA today) and another member from Men At Work, they sang..Do you come from come from a land down under..To see the crowd so proudly singing, and smiling!! was a joy to see. Then John Willianson came on, he made us all cry singing "True Blue", there`s a line in the song that says, "Is it standing by your mate,when he`s in a fight"...Bloody oath it is.as you know marions ghost :) xx
At the moment the winds are picking up, heading up the range towards Healsville, but, the fire in Churchill and Bunyip state forest are on the other end and side of the mountain, so, I`m hoping they wont let it get on the mountain, if it does and the Healsville and Kinglake fires do join and head north, well..don`t want to even think about that.
Theres still around 25 major fires in the state, if you want to look, here`s our CFA website (Country Fire Authority)
http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/incidents/incident_summary.ht...
It updates every 5 minutes and if you go to the main page, you can learn more.
Friends that were fighting the fires just 500 metres from there home in Healsville are now safe, other friends from Millgrove (near Warbaton) are on evacuation alert,a mate was at his parents wedding anniversary on Saturday, his home is now ash, so I'm grateful he was not home, as they had no warning, and even less chance.
Some people died trying to start their cars, but the smoke was so thick, there wasn`t enough oxygen to start the engines
I saw video that a guy took while watching everything around his home alight, he and his wife were trapped, and in the vid, he said his goodbyes to his 2 sons, wished them a great life and told them how much he loved them.man it was heartbreaking footage!..Thankfully, they were on the news tonight, they had somehow been spared, while all around was ash.
We are still in a heap of danger, the fires will be burning for ages . and to top it all off, my bloody car has a stuffed starter motor !! I cant flee if I have to.I'm getting another one in on Saturday...fingers crossed that wont be too late.
I'm have Eucs on my block,as do all the homes here, could`t save my home ,would`t stay and try to.
I have 3 cats and 2 carpet pythons, I wont leave them behind.so the fires better not get here till next week.
On the news I saw a guy going threw the ashes of his home in Kinglake, all he was holding was the bits of the melted earn his Fathers ashes were in.
The many in the hospitals with burns is unheard of, Doctors are saying it`s worse than when we got bombed in Bali.~!!!!!!
I can smell the smoke here now...just went outside, it`s coming up from Gippland,the Churhill, Bunyip state forest fires..Farrrr out.
Ok, I`m gonna piss off now and call more mates to see how they are.
thanks so very much marions ghost for your lovely words.
It`s special to know that we are far from alone when were so deep in tragedy.xxx


Dulcinea
you bet !
these arsonists will be given 25 years for murder, and, as they have incinerated Children, they wont survive jail, they`ll get there fair whack I`m sure.
Tonight we have a tv bushfire appeal going on, and to see all the donations is amazing, the big companies, the struggeling familes, the kids giving their pocket maoney, outlaw motorcycle clubs, every man and his dog are giving what they can.
Australians stand so tight together when it hits the fan, and , with luck the firefighters will slowly beat this, and we will all be up at the fire sites, putting in with the labour to rebuild. I know the uninsured families will get all the trademen they need, with no charge.
Thanks heaps for your post, I`m trying to stay safe, but..it up to the winds now.
Annie x
ps. so far 1 fire has been called arson, maybe another also, but many were just a result of Victoria summer. today they are looking for a 15 year old seen in a area where a grass fire started... Unreal to think a kid of that age, with all the deaths so far, could do that... for his sake, the cops better get him first. The locals from Taggerty want to have a public hanging for the lowlifes (2) thats been done for arson there.The cops refused all media near them so they wouldn`t be recognised !!!
in time, we will know who gets charged, and then, they go to jail, were there will have no where to run, and no way out, and no chance... that will be justice