The Victorian Bush Fires

[starrylizard]

Fourteen deaths have so far been confirmed in Victoria and more than 100 properties lost, as swamped fire crews battle dozens of blazes.

There's already 14 confirmed dead and they fear that as many as 40 may have actually died, but they're trying to be hopeful about it. Some places had temperatures of up to 48C(118.4F).

It's just so saddening. I've travelled through a lot of these areas and towns in recent years and it's hard to believe. My heart goes out to all the families affected.

Edit: Shit! It's 6:30pm and the latest official figures are 65 dead and the number is expected to rise. Whole towns that I've driven through and stopped at... just wiped out. The fires swept right through. I had to move away from the TV because this is making me bawl my eyes out.

Comments

[pavaneofstars.livejournal.com]

I've been hearing about this in the news all weekend and read a story on it this morning. So sad, the loss of life. It sounds as if people didn't have the time to evacuate and got caught in it. There were also some miracle stories of survival, so that is good. Where are you in relation to all of this? A safe distance I hope.

[starrylizard.livejournal.com]

I'm in Canberra, so yes, thank you, very safely away from the fires this time. It's all so sad, the death toll just keeps rising.

We get fires every year, but these ones are similar to the ones here in Canberra several years ago in that several large fire fronts met up and became just impossible to fight. Imagine huge walls of fire coming at you.

So where people usually stay and defend their properties, a lot just weren't expecting the ferocity of these ones and had no way to escape once they were upon them.

Then we've got floods in Queensland...talk about a land of extremes. *shakes head*

And I'm babbling. Stops doing that.

[pavaneofstars.livejournal.com]

Natural disasters seem to be increasing at an alarming rate everywhere these days. I read that they suspect some of the fires were arson and if caught the perpetrators will be facing murder charges. Why someone would do that is beyond me.