Yesterday morning I woke up it was 26 dead then in the evening it was 66. This morning I wake up and it's reached 108. It's crazy bad down south this year. Usually it's the Vics sending firefighters up north to help us out.

It's sad to think that a lot of these fires are deliberately lit. I don't think I've heard of or seen a bad bush fire that hasn't. 108 people dead (and rising) because someone was too lazy to extinguish their cigarette. :pity:

 

Man thats bad, horrible way to die.

 

Yeah, we have been somewhat lucky this year (if you can call it lucky) but we've had our fair share of nasties in years gone by. It's part of Australia, a lot of our natural habitat demands it so we can't really prevent it. I remember a few years back they just couldn't put them out. There were several major, out of control fires burning away. They thought they had one stopped when it reached a wide river but the flames literally leapt the river and continued on. They were put out eventually though thanks to some rain and a southerly. I remember at the time having black gum leaves and little bits of ash floating into my backyard and the evening sky was just red and black, and we weren't really that close to any of the fires. You could smell it too it was really strong. I can't imagine how it would look being in the middle of it. The death toll, of course, wasn't nearly as bad.

I can't believe how bad this one has been this year though. It is truly sad.

 

126 dead now...

I put this in spoilers as some may not want to read it. I think it puts the speed of the fires in to perspective.

Spoiler

Six victims were in one car trying to outrun the inferno which swept through Kinglake in minutes. A resident said the town was littered with burnt-out cars and he believed many contained bodies.

"It's going to look like Hiroshima, I tell you, it's going to look like a nuclear bomb," he told Melbourne's Herald Sun.

His daughter told of another resident who "went to put his kids in the car, put them in, turned around to go grab something from the house, then his car was on fire with his kids in it, and they burnt".

And a little bit of hope... a baby sugar glider rescued from the bushfires


God bless the me women and children down south. And God bless the firefighters and volunteers risking their lives to put these fires out. The things that some of these men and women would have seen must be horrific.

 

Horrible stuff.

 

Glad to know you are safe Penny. Prayers and thoughts to those who have lost there lives. Very sad indeed. I was watching the evening news, and they said people were passing away in the cars as they were trying to escape and the fire caught them. May they rest in peace.

 

I hope my friend is okay :(

 

That may have been me mentioning it in the other forum, it was on the news this morning. And, yes, for those who don't know backburning is essentially a controlled burning of "fire fuel", as you say, to prevent the spread of fires in to residential areas etc. and hopefully keep fires contained long enough to be put out.

This isn't the first time it has happened. In the ACT, near Canberra, a few years ago there were devastating fires caused by, what many presumed to be, lack of backburning. The then government was in big trouble. Obviously, nothing was learnt then, I doubt they'll learn from this either.

 

Sorry to hear the latest news Penny. The fire pictures look like what went through the last few years here in California.

 

oh crap now i really hope my friend is okay 200??!

:( :(

 

Interesting stuff Marty. I was thinking yesterday, after seeing pictures of people standing over decimated land that some kind of bunker/shelter should become standard in homes built in or around rural land. This was subsequently mentioned on the radio this morning as a possible option to prevent a recurrence of the enormous death tolls and of course would still allow people to "stay and defend". Of course, we get frequent fires, but devastating fires like the ones currently raging aren't that commonplace so these shelters probably wouldn't get as much use as we would expect them to (hopefully). Still I'd much rather be safe hiding in an underground shelter than trying to outrun inferno.

They're now expecting the death toll to top 300.

 

Animals emerging from the Victoria fires

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25038828-1243,00.html

Thought I'd share this tid bit. This is good to hear. I didn't think any would survive. Even if they managed to evade the flames surely the intense heat and smoke would have gotten to them. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

 

just like a man trying to exploit a woman when she is at her weakest......:pity:









smartest.
koala.
evar.

 

My son met a man, Gorden Reid, in Townesville Australia. In queensland. I would love if any of you could help me out about him. He hasn't sent cards or anything for about two years. He may have already passed away. He kept saying he would send me addresses of friends to get in touch with if I didn't hear from him, but he never did.
If anyone wants, they can pm me and I'll give his address etc. Jeff, my son, and I would love to know any info about him we can get. He's a wonderful man.
Thanks. I don't know any other way to get any info except from some of you that live there.

 

If you want to pm me his details and maybe a little about him (Gorden Reid is a pretty common name) I can have a browse. Of Course I'm nowhere near Townsville but I'll see what I can dig up for you.

 

Jews stop praying for rain in about two months. This is something that Australian Jews should pray with fervor.

משיב הרוח ומוריד הגשם
Masheev harooach oomoreed hageshem.

He brings the wind and causes the rain to fall.