Yikes! Melbourne Wildfires!

[Lady_Guenivere]

This is just awful! I can't tell you how sad it makes me to think of the people who have lost their loved ones and those who have lost their homes.

Devastating.

 

[ishtat]

The visibility here is severely affected by smoke from the fires - hundreds of miles south of here.
The good news: today it is 24 degrees (76F) at 9am. Yesterday it was 30 (86F).
Top temperature expected today here is 31 (88), yesterday it peaked at 41 (106).
It is cooler again in Victoria.

The bad news - there was no rain with the cool front. Fires are still burning, some out of control. The poor buggers fighting them are the ones that have lost family and friends, homes and whole communities.

And the death toll is still rising. Now 173 confirmed. No idea how many missing, people are scattered all over the place. Several villages have been obliterated.

I listened to a speaker from the CFS (Country Fire Service ) a few minutes ago who said the death toll was now, officially more than 180 and it was anticipated to approach 300. At least 6,000 people are totally homeless with a minimum 800 homes 100% destroyed.

He confirmed that the temperature before the fires hit was up to a range of 47 to 49 degrees celsius ( 116 to 120 degrees fahrenheit) with 50 mph highly variable winds.

Many of the people who died tried to make a run for it at the last moment but the fires either outran them, or they were caught in crashes, or by falling trees.

Many of the survivors either left early or stayed in their houses. In the latter cases the trees and bush generally burned first, the fire then moved on and the people then vacated their houses.Their houses then burned down after the bush was burned out. However, some people could not do that because their houses were already ignited by falling embers lighting leaves in the gutters with those fires spreading to the roof before the arrival of the main fire front. Those people had no chance.

The response has been phenomenal. Firemen and rescue services have worked until they dropped from exhaustion and the entire community in the districts affected and in the rest of Australia have been fantastic in pulling out all the stops they can to help.

 

[ishtat]

Murder suspect charged.

A 39 year old man was charged today with:

1 Recklessly and intentionally causing a bushfire.

2 Causing death by Arson (21 people died in this particular fire involving the township of Churchill)

3 Possession of child pornography.

His identity has been kept secret and he has been removed from East Gippsland (the fire area ) to Melbourne for his own safety.

 

[3113]

A 39 year old man was charged today with:

1 Recklessly and intentionally causing a bushfire.

2 Causing death by Arson (21 people died in this particular fire involving the township of Churchill)

3 Possession of child pornography.

His identity has been kept secret and he has been removed from East Gippsland (the fire area ) to Melbourne for his own safety.

If he is the one, then that's very "lucky." Arsonists are the hardest criminals to find, and stop.