I don't know if this made it onto your news but it certainly has dominated ours.
At present, fueled by temps well above 100 F and high winds, widespread bushfires (forest fires) in the state of Victoria have destroyed 70,000 hectares of land and taken at least 84 lives.
Many small towns have been simply wiped off the map and at least 700 homes have been destroyed in 24 hours of horrific fires.
Many people trying to flee were caught on the road as the gale force winds blew huge burning ashes onto their cars.
Most were lucky and made it through.
Others were not and died in their cars as the fire, moving at up to 60mph engulfed their cars.
And the prediction is that the body count could rise as high as 100 by the end.
So many townships and villages are still cut off by fire and authorities fear what they will find when they finally are able to reach them.
One man interviewed said it had been a "Hard day".
All he had was the clothes he was wearing.
His car and house were gone.
But he said at least he and his wife were safe; some of their friends had lost 2 young children.
So spare a prayer for those people.
Record low temperatures seem ok about now.

Thats rough Kombi, are you in the path?
 
Prayers on the way.

No, mate.
I live in NSW, about 700km north.
But I can't see the land recovering very quickly.
That part of the state was very lush and leafy in places and popular for honeymooners.
The photos of it now resemble Dresden after the Allied bombing raid during WW2.
About 3 years back they had some bad fires in the highlands and we thought people had learnt their lessons about making sure it didn't become a tinderbox again.
Problem is the treehuggers made a fuss about the Country Fire Authority doing back burning.
Back burning is a controlled burn where leaf detritus is burnt away.
Many trees depend on fire to open their seed pods so it is a necessary thing.
But the Greenies (as they call themselves) said it destroyed ecosystems so it was downgraded.
Problem is, Victoria recorded it's hottest day since the beginning of European settlement today and in the past week it has been so hot that railway tracks have buckled.
So unprecedented heat plus wind plus dry forests were just waiting for it.
To give you some idea, a large and well established town called Bendigo lost 50 homes to a fire.....that's streets and streets of houses.
And these weren't out in the sticks; they were on the outskirts of a really big town.
There is unconfirmed but reasonable suspicion that some fires were deliberately lit and authorities have stated that anyone who is arrested and charged over it will be tried for murder.
It isn't the first time there has been massive loss of life from fires in Australia.
On February 16th, 1982, better known as "Ash Wednesday" here in Oz, 75 people died in fires in both Victoria and South Australia, the next state west along the southern coast of Australia.
But even before the figures rose above 75 to the current total firefighters in Victoria who had fought on Ash Wednesday said today was worse.
ALL of the fires today are in an area in Victoria....none are in South Australia.
Plus the way people fight fires these days and the way residents are taught to evac or protect their own properties are much better as a result of the bitter lessons learnt in 1982.
Despite this there are still probably 100 people who have died.

Those kind of fires are not good. Regards, Rick.

Well, the count is up.......108 dead and rising as police and fire brigades begin to search through the rubble.
And there are 750 homes destroyed, 100,000 hectares burnt out....the list goes on.
Two children were burnt alive in the front of their house while the mother stood helpless outside.
Three people survived by hiding in a wombat hole covered with wet sheets and blankets.
Another man appeared carrying his child.
He was very badly burnt and his daughter was burned too, although not a badly.
He said "My wife is dead and my other child died. Please get this one to safety."
Some of the stories of survival are miraculous but the stories of loss, well, are indescribable.
It's already declared the worst natural disaster in Australia.
All we can do is wait for the rest of the day as the smoke clears and they find more bodies, because they will.......that's a certainty.

I've been keeping up with that on the net since yesterday...

Our prayers are with you guys over there.

Barry

I caught a peice of that on the World News...absolutely horrid....Here in
the Southeastern states, we are subject to such devastion in often hot,
dry conditions in our summer months....I fear it terribly, and am most
respectful....I'm very sorry to hear this happening there, Kombi....I pray
that the fire will come to be controlled real soon...my heart goes out to
those unfortunate...There will be prayer...............................................BH51....

QuoteTwo children were burnt alive in the front of their house while the mother stood helpless outside.

I can't imagine!!! God help her and all people who lost a loved one. My prayers are going out to you guys over there my friend. God bless.

Well, I can't really imagine, but I have a recurring nightmare about one of my boys and I have an inkling and it scares the life out of me every time.
Watching the house go up and hearing them screaming and then go quiet.........stops my heart even thinking about it.
There were other situations too where families were caught in a car and one child or one parent got out but the rest perished.
They found one car where an entire family of 6 had died.
My heart also goes out to the poor cops and fire fighters who have to go into every house or look through every car.
And it gets worse.
For every empty burnt out car lying in the middle of the road there is the next question.......what happened to the driver and passengers?
It could be weeks before we really know how many died.

I can't Imagine either. I do not know what I would do if something happened to my boys. Let alone hearing them scream and being completely helpless. this certainly is a tragedy. I read about it today after I seen the post, sounds bad! I am thankful you and your family are safe, praise God!!! God Bless.

Doesn't get any better, folks.
Fatalities now amount to 130.

My prayers go out to you.  The latest I heard now is that some of the fires were deliberately set?  I can't even express my thoughts right now.  How awful.

The death toll is now at 173 and expected to go to 200 by the end of the week. And 5000 people homeless.
 
It really worries me that most people died when trying to flee the fire or when they tried to take refuge in their houses and everything, including their houses, burnt around them.
 
I know it is a sad position but at a guess I would say that most of these people living in bushfire prone areas where simply not prepared to look after themselves. Alot of these small towns would have a local CFA brigade but at best this is one or two fire appliances to protect the whole community. For the cost of a fire pump, some hoses and equipment and some preparation around the home, they could have saved their houses and in lot of cases their lives.
 
It might seem like alot of money and effort at the time but what price do you put on your families lives?
 
The other thing that really gets me is that, even though fire conditions where extreme, no further resources were requested from interstate. This happened in the Canberra fires too. How many more lives have to be lost for these clowns to get their acts together and ask for help?
It it were my family that perished and now knowing how much resources are now being sent I would be wanting someones head on a post  and answers as to why this help wasn't requested before.
 
Sorry this is just my rant.
 
But on a better note the whole country is coming together and money, goods and services are being sent to help those in need.
AFL players are putting on a fundraiser game, the players from the Australia V New Zealand ODI cricket match are donating their match fees and the takings from the game are also being donated. Good the see, but isn't it sad that it takes a situation like this to make the country pull together.

I think you're right about mobilising man power to the fires.
They should've got trucks & crews from interstate as soon as it became obvious it was going to be bad.
Mind you Canberra was worse.
The fire commander there said he needed no help and hundreds of NSW crews sat on the border of the ACT waiting for the call and it didn't come.
And to be fair, over the weekend the NSW Rural Fire Service was already fighting fires at Peats Ridge and some others on the central coast.
Sydney was experiencing 40+ C temps too.
As far as fire pumps for each property, that would have helped a little but I fear not much.
People weren't dealing with normal fires.
First their houses and lawns and belongings got lit with embers and then the main fire arrived.......at 100+ kmh fueled by gale force winds.
A friend at work is an industrial arts teacher and a fitter and turner.
He said that the cars burning and exploding reflects SUPER high temps.
Cars are metal, are insulated, have tempered glass, the lot.
Even when someone burns out a car the fuel tanks don't go up.
But peoples' cars burned in driveways and the tanks exploded.
The doctors talk about burns that are from extreme radiant heat, not just contact with flame.
I know you're a firey and deal with fires all the time, 22hornet, but chunks of Victoria were big fire storms.
The reason people didn't get out was because the fire did not behave like it ever had before.
Even in a car they had no hope.......it was black with smoke, there was zero visibility and the fire was chasing them at 100kmh.
The descriptions remind me of the pyroclastic waves that volcanos cause.
The people who survived hid in water holes or the like.
But the chilling realisation is that some sick individuals out there actually lit them deliberately.
What can you say?

No words can express my sorrow. I pray for the victims, their families and the firefighters. Regards, Rick.