209 dead in bushfires in Victoria, Australia (update: death toll increase)

[Lamia]

This is so terrible,so tragic
My heart goes out to everyone there that is affected,we are praying for them.

 

[dollydagger]

The fires were not all that far away from my house. 20mins drive, thankfully on the other side of the Yarra River.
I know people who have lost everything, one of my dad's friends is missing.
I could see the smoke out my window on the weekend. Apparently you can see the glow of the fire that is still burning at night, but I don't want to look.

 

[capt.charly]

omg...... i cant imagine that .........terrible....

 

[Begotxu]

i can't even imagine... in my country(Galicia, northwest of spain) we had a terrific year of sumerfires too, but nothing compares to this... my prayers go with those afected and those who lost their lives
It's a tragedy...

 

[Salvatore]

That is terrible and so sad!

 

[xsavagex]

Its absolutely terrible. Everyitme i watch the news i get all teary, hearing all the stories.



I have a question though, how come its being called the worst natural disaster, when it was lit on purpose by people and didnt occur naturally?

 

[Lamia]

I know the feeling becouse my town was burning this summer and the fire coudn't be stoped by 10 days,fortunately the fire was in the mountain where there were no people living,but still when you see it it's so sad and heart breaking.

 

[*Bianca*]

I have a question though, how come its being called the worst natural disaster, when it was lit on purpose by people and didnt occur naturally?

I may be wrong but I don't know if all of the fires have been ruled as arson yet, although all are being treated as crime scenes. Those who have been caught and charged were responsible for the NSW fires.

Regardless, mother nature certainly hasn't helped - deep in drought plus record high temperatures (I think some towns reached 47.5°C (117.5°F) over the weekend) It's pretty crazy.

 

[*Bianca*]

Those poor, poor children.

Horror and Tragedy in Australia's Worst Ever Wildfires
By Rory Callinan / Brisbane Monday, Feb. 09, 2009


It was where they found the bodies that brought home the full horror of the fires. In one house police found four children huddled together. They knew they were children by the size of their skulls. Near a road they found the body of a man who appeared to have crashed his Harley Davidson motorcycle and then died as he tried to outrun the flames. Six died in a multi-car pileup as drivers tried to avoid falling trees and raging fires. One man died on a sports-field — perhaps believing that the short grass would halt the flames. Dozens left it too late to flee thinking they could fight the flames and then get away at the last minute. Many were found huddled together in the smoldering ruins that had been their homes.

"It's a level of horror few of us have anticipated," Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on a national television program. "The nation needs to brace itself for what I believe will be a very challenging time ahead. It's very tough and uncertain out there at the moment." (See pictures of Australia's deadly wildfires.)

By Monday night the death toll in Australia's worst ever natural disaster had risen to 131. That number will rise as police and fire crews go deeper into the disaster zone and uncover further horrors. More than 750 homes have been razed and over 770 sq. mi. (2000 sq. km.) in the southeastern state of Victoria have been burned. "We know tragically many lives have been lost," Victorian premier (governor) John Brumby said in a television address to the state. "We have grave concerns for many more. Out there it has been hell on earth. It's one of the most tragic events in Victoria's history."

Australians had gone to bed on Saturday night knowing that dozens of fires raged across southern Victoria. They knew, too, that at least a dozen lives had been lost. But, like the authorities, they had no idea of the scale of the disaster that had been unfolding over the previous few hours. Fueled by 115 F degree (46 C) heat and powerful northerly winds, the fires were laying waste to houses, schools, whole towns. On Sunday morning, as the weeping, blackened survivors emerged from the ruins telling of horrific scenes of bodies dead beside the roads and of missing relatives and neighbors, the full extent of the disaster began to dawn.

The worst hit areas were between 35 miles and 60 miles (60 km to 100 km) northeast of Melbourne. There, the town of Kinglake lost 20 of its residents, St Andrews, 12, Marysville eight, and Steels Creek seven. It happened quickly. Marysville motel owner Christine Adams says that the only warning was a red glow in the sky. "We sent the guests packing and put a few things in the car and then we saw the flames. It was like a huge fireball that came over the hill. It was moving very fast and we grabbed a few more things and headed out of town in a convoy," says Adams whose hotel burned to the ground.

They were the lucky ones. Falling trees later blocked the road out of town trapping 50 residents overnight. "They got caught and they spent the night trapped in Gallipoli Park," says Adams. "There have been a lot of casualties but we don't have any idea." As information dripped in, it was hard to discern between fears, hopes and the truth "There are so many rumors," says Adams. "You hear somebody has died and then they walk through the door. We are on an emotional roller coaster at the moment."

Many of the worst stories are all too real. The Harvey family fled Kingslake ahead of the flames but told of how the children of a local businessman had perished in the blaze. "He [the businessman] apparently went to put the kids in the car, put them in, turned around to grab something from the house, then his car was on fire with his kids in it and they burnt," Victoria Harvey told reporters.

Several of the worst hit small towns remain cordoned off and surrounded by roadblocks. Police are treating the areas as crime scenes and are investigating arson as a possible cause of some of the fires. Of the possibility that arsonists could have started some of the fires, Prime Minister Rudd said: "There's no other words to describe it other than mass murder."

The death toll from these bushfires eclipses the 1983 "Ash Wednesday" fires in Victoria and South Australia which claimed 73 people. Victorian fire researcher David Packham was so concerned with the looming conditions last week that he issued a warning about the extreme danger of bushfires. He says now that a series of factors lined up to produce the "worst fire conditions" he has ever seen. Those conditions include extreme heat, dry winds, lightning strikes and arson, and vast amounts of fuel which should have been burned off under controlled conditions by authorities he says. "I woke up one night at 3am in the week before the fires and I thought things were not well. I was watching the weather and I did up a fire awareness notice which got published in some of the papers and sent around," says Packham an honorary research fellow at Monash University. "I did the calculations and you can work out the flame heights of a fire and there were some scary figures. Flames up to 60 to 70 meters [2-to 230 feet] high."

The fierce intensity of the fires is probably why so many people died. "The fire intensity was such that it exceeded the fires of 1939 [in which 71 people in Victoria died]," says Packham. "It was probably double that in intensity. If you are outside, the chances of you surviving are almost nil." That's because the heat radiation "can be so hot that it will cause death in a second or so. It's a shock to the body. The body completely fails. The lungs can sear inside and you die of asphyxiation as your lungs produce fluid."

Premier Brumby has announced a Royal Commision of Inquiry into the fires. "We want to make sure that every single issue, ever single factor, everything in relation to the horrific weekend, to the horrific fires on Saturday is investigated and uncovered," he told reporters as he toured the fire ravaged areas. Official advice to stay and defend their homes or leave before the fire became dangerous had failed to save people, he acknowledged.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1878114,00.html

 

[*Bianca*]

news.com.au

 

[*Bianca*]

166 dead and 31 fires still burning across the state.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25033480-5000540,00.html

 

[Maeve]

OMG These pictures really made me cry. It´s really terrible.

 

[model_mom]

I was so sorry to hear about all this....I can't imagine the horror of not being able to escape the fires. You wake up every day thinking that things will always remain the same till something like this comes along..... Please pray for all who were lost and those left behind who have to deal with the aftermath.

 

[jennifer~]

It looks like the end of the world in those pictures. It really is shocking.

 

[capt.charly]

i'll try to donate something ! i'll try to send 50 euros=95,6155761 dollars australien sorry i dont have lots of money...i woud like to send more

 

[*Bianca*]

Just to let some fellow Aussies know who may be doing some shopping this week:

COLES: Will donate this Friday's profits from its 750 stores nationwide.

DAVID JONES: $500,000 donation of David Jones gift cards. DJs will also donate the profit earned from all 37 David Jones stores nationally this Thursday, to Red Cross.

 

[smartarse]

woah! death toll rose to 173?
i heard the Prime Minister said it's mass murder of great proportions.

any updates?
is the fire subsiding?

 

[*Bianca*]

^Apparently the wind has picked up and many towns are still under threat. There are 25 fires still not under control.

(updated 1hr ago)
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25033819-661,00.html

 

[xsavagex]

So sad.

 

[Belowen]

I have a question though, how come its being called the worst natural disaster, when it was lit on purpose by people and didnt occur naturally?

Originally, a few different fires were lit. These fires combined to create a firewall/firestorm over 100km wide - and that is what brings the natural disaster title I think.

news.com.au

I can't believe some of the horrific stories I've ever heard... People who's sheep were on fire in the paddocks, families caught in the smoke while they were driving who couldn't see where they were going and ran into each other, and off the road... People who've come off their motorbikes on the road and run to try and get away from the flames but weren't fast enough... A man and his wife who drove to try and get to the sports oval (short grass can slow the flames) but the gate was locked, so he yelled to his wife to go to the neighbours & she did - she survived, but he didn't make it in time... The news is making me cry more than ever

I'm amazed and inspired by the generous outpour from the nation over the past few days. The amount of money that has been raised is incredible. The tally today was $15 million dollars from the general public, and it's rising steadily. Hamish and Andy were taking donations too, and while I was listening, people were calling up and donating $10,000 at a time...