Victoria Fires

[Furore]

Death toll rises from bushfires - New Zealand's source for World News on Stuff.co.nz

Huge Wandong blaze kills 14 people, rips through homes | theage.com.au

Some countries get cyclones, some get earthquakes or tsunamis, Australia gets nasty bushfires and seems to be getting them worse and worse as the years go by.

The reason I care as much as I do, is that the fires in Victoria are raging unusually strong and it seems like my aunt, uncle and cousins may have lost their home and possessions just like many other people in the area. They come from Wandong, and it's pretty much been wiped out.

The death count's rising every so often on the TV and so are the number of people injured, including some with severe burns who will likely go to the death count sooner or later. If the burns don't do it, the infection that sets in very well might. Hundreds of homes have been lost and the fires are still raging strong.

With reports of flames 60-70 feet high moving at speeds faster than the speed limit on country roads (often quite high), bushfires like these I see as an often overlooked disaster in terms of how severe people see natural disasters in general. You really have to witness it in action before the severity hits you...

Your thoughts?

[Aerif]

Jesus...

I thought you'd mentioned it before somewhere, but I didn't really take much notice because most of the time I have my head in the clouds. Then I saw it on the BBC.

Wandong (or the town the BBC showed) looks post-apocalyptic after the fires, and the sad thing is that some of it is probably arson. Though I'm sort of surprised that so few people have been killed (although you said the death count is still rising, so...), since the fires are moving so quickly.

Thank goodness Scotland will never have to worry about huge fires like this (seeing as all we bloody get is rain).

[Furore]

The evacuations tend to go pretty well, but they still expect to find some burnt remains in some of the hundreds of houses that burnt down. Some people want to stick with their home and while in some cases their homes can be defended, sometimes it's just too much.

The death count on TV is just the people confirmed dead thus far, it'll grow as the burnt remains are checked and people's heads counted.

[celebrity.skin]

One REALLY depressing thing I heard was that one of the arsonists who has confessed to starting one of the fires did so because he was a volunteer firefighter and his unit had not been called in to help out, so he started one to get on the job.

What the **** kind of mentality is that?

[RamesesII]

There F'd up if you ask me i see that as mass murdering no a lot of arsonists are fireries because they like to put them out or something its a condition of some sorts they get a rush from lighting them and being called out to put them out.

[Sean]

The US suffers from the same problems in certain parts of California.

It's tough to control. People living in California lost millions and their insurance didnt' cover it, even though they had paid over 200K a house in failed sprinkler systems to save their houses in case of brush fires.

[Govinda]

I read about this today. How horrible. Lives lost, homes destroyed. I hope your aunt and uncle are out, Silver.

Here's to them stopping the fires soon. Are they close to Melbourne?

[Doc Rocco]

I don't think they've spread to Melbourne yet, but the entire state is boiling. The winds are blowing the heat across to the east, though, and yesterday was the hottest day on record. 47 degrees or something stupid. I'd say if they don't stop soon, Melbourne will be in trouble. Which is a rather obvious statement.

The death toll has passed 100 as of yesterday, and the number of buildings destroyed passed 700. I really do hope those arsonists are pleased with themselves. Words cannot describe the feeling of loathing when I think of them. Lowest of low. [/rant]

[little.miss.VIOLENT]

I live up in Brisbane, and the only thing that's been on the news lately is those fires. It's so horrible. And apparently someone has been going back and re-starting the ones that have been put out. I don't know how or why someone could be so f****d up as to do any of this, and I certainly don't know how they could live with the fact that, because of their idiocy, so many people have died, and over 5000 people have now been left homeless.

[Furore]

Well, these particular fires officially resulted in Australia's highest ever loss of life from a bushfire, if I've heard correctly.

181 confirmed deaths with police estimates of 300, 1033 homes destroyed with towns such as Kinglake, Marysville, Narbethong and Strathewen being more or less completely destroyed. I'm very thankful to hear my relatives are fine, my uncle stating the fires burnt up to around 100 metres from their house. I'm guessing they lost some of their farmland, but they have their homes and their lives which is more than some were left with. The property next to them was destroyed.

And some of the fire is still raging strong so this could get even worse.

[lottiepop]

Is it just me or does the weather seem to be abnormally tempermental these past few weeks?

I know some of this was caused by arsonists (which is terrible, who could do such a thing?!), but some of it was simply caused by bushfires, which I hear do happen.

The thing is I can't understand why people would do such a thing to their fellow human beings. Like the president of Australia said this is mass murder and the people who started these fires should be treated as serial killers.

[RamesesII]

Just an update on the fires about 7000 ppl have had their homes disintigrated so far i think there is about 250 to 300 dead. But by god i tell you what all the support from everyone is unreal its just amazing despite the recession and all the financial crap australia had already raised a whooping 10 million in one day and its now up to about 60 mil in three days thats just money raised thats not including items donated or anything its just so good to see spirit like that it makes me proud to be australian.And a thank you to the american fire fighters who i heard were coming to help as well.

[celebrity.skin]

Coles were doing amazingly yesterday (for those who don't know, every person that shopped there yesterday... their money would be donated to the appeal). A friend of mine who works there said they had every register open, and was probably their busiest day ever. Each customer she served had an order over $100. Their largest was probably $592, and on her register alone, she collected $648 worth of donations (cash) for the Red Cross. Little kids handed in their pocket money. Many people were stocking up on toilet paper, pet food, canned food and laundry products for the weeks ahead. Many were wearing the little yellow ribbons.

And this was only in one, little Coles.

Obviously, a lot of what Coles did today was for marketing purposes. However, many of the customers (if not all) were just doing their weekly grocery shopping, only stocking up and changing grocery days. I am curious to find out how much was raised yesterday, to be honest.

I'm really proud of Australia!

[Casanova[OCAU]]

This is terrible. I went to go help volunteer today. The silver lining to all of this is that the country's really come together to help out these families.