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Aussie's Report

DickT

DickT

Been watching the news looks like you guys down below are getting hit pretty hard with the wild fires, is everybody ok and safe. I saw the majority of the fires are in the south east but also saw a lot of small and scattered out breaks.
 
Yeah, it's bad. Like an apocalypse.

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/new...l-fires-ravage-state/1427746.aspx?storypage=0

A Town that just dissapeard: Hints of horror abound in remains of Marysville

has video: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090208/ap_on_re_au_an/as_australia_wildfires


http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/08/96-dead-in-worst-fires/ said:
February 8th, 2009

96 dead in ‘worst fires’
Posted: 11:16 AM ET

(CNN) — At least 96 people have been killed in Australian wildfires which the country’s public broadcaster Sunday called the worst in the nation’s history.

Kendra Jackson, leading senior constable of Australia’s Victoria state police, told CNN the latest death toll Sunday. The number of dead is now far higher than the toll of 75 in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983. Close to 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of land have burned.

Thousands of weary firefighters spent Sunday fighting a losing battle to contain the flames.

“It’s an absolute feeling of helplessness,” said Michelle Achison, who lives in a suburb of Victoria, the state most affected. “There are communities that are completely flattened. There’s nothing at all. And each and every one of us knows somebody who will lose everything.”
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Best wishes mates.
 
Yes it is very very sad.....

The worst bush fires ever in Australian recorded history......Not for land burnt but for the death toll and the property loss....

I must admitt, I released a few tears this morning watching the news.....As Quad has put up, 96 dead and 80 people so badly burnt that they will not survive.

700 homes burnt to the ground....

People were saying that there wasn't even smoke at their house then 5 minutes later they are running for their lives, with no time to even save the pets....and you can see their car is all melted where the flames were hitting the car.....

Totally unreal stuff.......one guy was saying that he and his wife got out of the house, got in the car and looked over to see there 2 neighbours getting hit by the flames and not making it.....It all happened that quick in most places....

And As I have stated in another thread, most of the fires that have killed people were started by arsonists (spelling?).......SICK FREAKS.....

If they are found they will be charged with murder...

The hippyseedco (Neil) is in the central coast where their is a big fire burning....But I haven't heard of any property damage from it yet...
 
Death toll is now up to 112 with more than 750 houses lost. This just sucks.
I am sure Hippy will be alright, he doesn't live near the bush as far as i know.
 
That's grim.

I wish the arsonists could be staked out in the path of one of the blazes.
 
It's hard watching the news and seeing the devestation of property and more importantly the loss of so many lives.

We seem to be a country of extremes one end is heat and fires and the other is flood and rains. I give it to the emergency services they are giving everything they have to combating these fires.
 
toll is going to climb a lot. So many missing and emergency services are finding cars melted with whole families who tried to escape.
 
As a kid, I used to go through Marysville on my way to Lake mountain for cross country skiing (more like cross country 'slushing' coz we dont really get snow!!) and to now hear that the whole town is gone just amazes me. I can't imagine going thru there now and not seeing the ski and chain hire shop, the service station etc....

My heart goes out to all affected.

A big thumbs down for the parasites who call themselves 'reporters' or worse, 'journalists', who are standing in front of evac and assistance centres shoving their cameras in the faces of those traumatised. Sure, get your images and leave people to grieve away from the media.
 
ring sting said:
A big thumbs down for the parasites who call themselves 'reporters' or worse, 'journalists', who are standing in front of evac and assistance centres shoving their cameras in the faces of those traumatised. Sure, get your images and leave people to grieve away from the media.
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Agreed, as if these unfortunate people haven't got enough to worry about. Losing family members, houses belongings.

I have also heard that Rudd called in the army to help with fire fighting and general cleanup. Aparantly we will not know the final losses for quite a while, this is real scary stuff.
 
Next will come the rubber necking grief tourists to have a look at how unfortunate these poor folk were.

Same happened up here after the storm in November, and I remember back in 1983 seeing the same thing thru the Dandenongs after the Ash Wednesday fires. Tie these people to a power pole and make em watch while their house/car/life's work is torched (I like pets and people, so no buring of them).
 
I feel for you guys. We haven't had to worry about fires here but apparently they are quite common in our western states. Fortunately, we seldom have many people die from them - I guess it's the media letting people know.

And yeah, the worst fires over here also seemed to be started by arsonists. They deserve to burn in hell where the fire never goes out.

Mike
 
Yeah the eucalypt forests tend to burn worse than most. The oil inside gets to a certain temp & then the tree explodes. Some estimated fire as high as 10 storey buildings.
One guy who only just got out said that his steel gate was on fire...several reports of the white line on the road being on fire too.

Scary part is we're a long way from the end of the fire season here.
 
I feel sorry for those aussie folks & hope they get the help they need to recover.

I know what they say about arson, but wildfires also start over the simplest things - throw a cig out the vehicle, camp fire & sparks blown around or other legal fires going, lighting,etc.. but in a dry area it doesnt take much to get out of control!!!
raging wildfires are very rare here! not to say we dont get fires but nothing major IMO.
 
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