OT: Oz Fires

[MBXB]

I hope all our Ozzie friends are out of harm's way.

[GJPinAU]

All OK in NSW and QLD (well, except for the floods) but the guys in Victoria have taken a big hit.

This is a major disaster and we hope all in Vic have made it through safe and sound.

cheers,
Greg

[Ken35i]

Okay where I am, inner suburbs of Melb. But the outter northern/north east/east/south eastern suburbs are a little sketchy. Mum has a place in Bendigo (a large town north west of Melbourne) she saw thick smoke and embers flying all over the place, everything is really dry and there's dead grass/trees/twigs/bushes etc. all over the place; all flamable, all it needs is a few embers to spark a fire and it's all up in flames. There is 1 person dead and some property lost up that way.

Uncle has a place in outer south eastern suburb (Beaconsfield) and that area is surounded by fire, but by a great distance and it depends which way the wind is blowing to determine a threat, so he's keeping an eye/ear out.

It's pretty horrible, especially northeat of Melbourne, well into the mountains. Entire towns wiped off the map.

I could go on, but not the place.

[LunatiC]

Here in Victoria it's all we've been hearing about.

The fires are about 45-50km out of Melbourne (look it up in wikipedia if you don't know where it is), it has killed as of the date of this post 173 people. Men, women, children. Some people died defending their properties, most people died because they didn't even know the fire was coming -- it was travelling that quick.

Bushfire isn't the right word for what has happened here, it implies a smaller fire that could be controlled. These fires had fireballs, catching everyone off guard. One guy that passed away was a Melbourne news reader (Brian Naylor) and was a well known TV personality for more than 30 years. He passed away with his wife -- he had everything prepared for evacuation, everything packed up, keys in the ignition, but decided to go around the back of his house to inspect something and passed away right there and then.

Townships have been completely obliterated, people are living in tent cities, and donations have been coming in fast (both money and blood). Very sad week for Australia. The stinger in the tail is that there is substantial evidence that this was the work of arson, and there is still more evidence that may lead to arrests. If it comes down to that (and I sincerely hope it does), I hope they burn in hell.

Just to let people know, Melbourne (and Adelaide) has been in a heat wave for the past 3 weeks. During one week, temperatures were a consistent 40-43 degrees C (that's 104 - 110 F for our American brothers) with a very low humidy of about 6%. Overnight temperatures were a low of 30C (86F). Last Friday Melbourne hit its highest temperature on record at 47C (116F) with north winds from inland Australia ripening the conditions of bushfire.

[Ken35i]

It was actually saturday. I remember because I was hung over in bed for most the day. I looked outside and was really eery. Brown sky from the dust in the air, all the plants wiltered, no birds or animals around, very windy and of course bloody hot.

I'd say nearly all the fires lit were deliberate. By sick people who get off on seeing fire burning **** and most of these people are fire fighter volenteers. I saw a documentary about the Ash Wednesday fires (another bush fire disaster) and most of those fire were deliberately lit by sick people in the fire brigade. I'm not saying people in the fire brigade are bad or the volenteers, but it's what these fire starting sickos usually do. And it doesn't help when the media 'hype' up these 'perfect fire days' 2-3 day before the heat wave.

As I type this, it is raining where I am. Only lasted about 3 mins...but there you go. I hope it goes to the mountains.

[tim eh?]

That is horrible that anyone would do that, I hope they are caught.


I hope all our Ozzie friends are out of harm's way. well said, me too.

[stx133]

need to vent..

Have been working near the areas of the fires, have had the highway closed a couple of times in the area as well as lots of back roasd still closed.

Great to see the Government is still using its safety first policy with speed cameras set up on the side of the road in the direction of the motorists fleeing the affected areas when the highway reopens. i could understand having a marked police car and an officer holding a sign suggesting that caution be used. a speed camera will not be of much help when the fines get sent out in 2 weeks to addresses that no longer have houses, let alone mail boxes. how F@#$%D is that.

[Ross]

I've not been aware of this until two days ago. Horrible situation and doubly so if these fires are indeed deliberately set.
You Ozzies are among the best humored bunch here so I suspect will endeavor.
Prayers and good thoughts for you to be out of harms way.

[Zeppa]

I`m from southern vic , being a member of the SES its been a busy week . The fires have brought out the best and worst in people . Arsonists are still starting fires and looters have been a problem .
We have found the Emergency Management of our authority to be somewhat cumbersone , top heavy and inefficient . Therfore our unit has adopted a small community down the mountain from Kinglake ( one of the hardest hit areas ) . We have a convoy of equipment and essential supplys leaving today . We are doing this off our own backs due to inaction by our authority .
There are alot of people still living in the fire affected areas with little or no support from the goverment . Big Kudos to the CFA and DSE , these guys are true heroes and have been working there arses off for the duration .

[whiskychaser]

I have a vested interest as I have a brother out there. I assume he is ok as he is on the west coast though I dont honestly know. Maybe I should ring him. The info here is that the fires were started deliberately. If this is so, I hope you deal with the culprits accordingly. It doesnt count for much as I'm a pomme but you guys take care anyway

[MBXB]

If it was indeed arson, they ought to hunt those f*****s down.