Australian Bush Fires Turn Deadly

[cappie]

Australian bush fires turn deadly

At least 25 people have been killed by wildfires in southern Australia, the deadliest in the country for decades.

The deaths occurred at four towns in Victoria state, state deputy police commissioner Kieran Walsh said. Police fear as many as 40 may have perished.

Firefighters are battling dozens of fires in parks and bush land, amid a heatwave, with temperatures set to reach 47 C (117F) this weekend.

Aircraft are dropping water bombs and thousands of firemen are on standby.

More than 100 homes have been destroyed in nine major blazes in Victoria.

Officials say they are battling against the worst fire conditions in the state's history.

Six people have been killed in the township of Kinglake, four at Wandong, three at Strathewen and one at Clonbinane - all in Victoria state.

In Kinglake, north-west of Melbourne, one resident said the whole township was pretty much ablaze and that the fire front came through in a matter of minutes.

He said that some 200 residents had taken refuge in a local pub and that no fire engines could get into the town.

Tens of thousands of firefighters are trying to contain blazes in two further states - New South Wales and South Australia - but blazes there were largely contained or burning away from residential areas.

However if winds pick up, the authorities fear that the fires could spread.

Fightback

The fire service is using water-bombing aircraft to contain fires. Thousands of volunteers are using water hoses.

"It's just going to be, probably by a long way, the worst day ever in the history of the state in terms of temperatures and winds," Victoria Premier John Brumby said.

"It is extremely dry. We do have some concern about the winds winds picking up and having an impact on the fire," a spokesman for Victoria state's Country Fire Authority told Reuters.

[cappie]

49 people confirmed dead. Mr Brumby Victorian premier said volunteer firefighters and aircraft were coming in from NSW and South Australia, while the Australian army will also be brought in to help.

Mr Rudd the Prime Minister said the nation's prayers are with those affected by the fires.

''Our first response as human beings is one of the deepest empathy for people whose lives have now been devastated,'' Mr Rudd said.

''This loss of life, the numbers of injured, the horrific injuries, our thoughts and our prayers go out to each and every one of them as they now try and deal with this tragedy and recover from the damage which has occurred.''

[Saint Therese]

From the danger of fire, deliver them, O Lord.

[cappie]

Hell has unleashed its fury on Victoria, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says, as the death toll from Victoria's devastating bushfires climbs to 65.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='cappie' post='1775164' date='Feb 7 2009, 03:07 PM']Firefighters are battling dozens of fires in parks and bush land, amid a heatwave, with temperatures set to reach 47 C (117F) this weekend.[/quote]

That's just crazy!

[Archaeology cat]

[puellapaschalis]

[cappie]

At 6.20am today the official death toll was 108, with at least 750 homes destroyed - 550 of those in Kinglake, north of Melbourne, and surrounding areas. And much worse is still to come.

The towns of Kinglake and Marysville have been wiped out as if they had been bombed, and -authorities are treating the disaster like a terrorist attack, with almost 312,000 hectares of land affected.

Almost half of Victoria may be declared a crime scene, with arsonists believed responsible for several of the fires. Police said an offender implicated in the fatal fires could be charged with the offence of arson causing death, a crime with a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail.

Marie Jones of Canberra, who was visiting a friend at Kinglake, said a badly burnt man had arrived at the property where she was staying with his infant daughter, and told her his wife and other child had been killed.

"He was so badly burnt. . . . his little girl was burnt, but not as badly as her dad, and he just came down and he said, 'Look, I've lost my wife, I've lost my other kid, I just need you to save [my daughter]'," Ms Jones said.

Bodies in burnt-out cars will have to be removed first so that roads can be opened to the public before gutted buildings can be combed for remains of the missing. Victoria's morgue was full last night - and hospitals and universities were being asked to store bodies until formal identifications could be made.

Some of the 80 people in hospital were not expected to survive. Ten people remain in a critical condition.

The once pretty alpine town of Marysville was reduced to a tangled mess of smoking rubble and twisted iron.

Most residents were evacuated to nearby Alexandra, which was under threat from fire last night.

But some of those who left too late or stayed to fight the fire lost their lives.

The fire that began at the old Murrindindi sawmill near Yea earlier on Saturday raced across the Black Spur and razed the hamlet of Narbethong and then Marysville, house by house, street by street.

After one terrible hour Marysville was no more. Few buildings escaped. Every public building - including the police station, post office, telephone exchange Catholic and Anglican churches - and the much-loved guest houses and a hotel, had been destroyed. Worse was the fact that some of the gutted cars and buildings had human remains in them.

Names were unavailable last night but the few residents who stayed and survived talked numbly yesterday of one firefighter's family being killed, of an age pensioner dying at home and of cars being found with human remains in them.

[homeschoolmom]

[DemonSlayer]

Yeah, it is insane how much the death toll has grown, apparently it may be 128 now and it could rise to 200.

[cappie]

THE Victorian bushfire emergency will get worse before it gets better, Premier John Brumby has warned.

"We've still got fires that are not contained,'' Mr Brumby told ABC TV tonight.

"There is a huge effort to get them under control.

"Tragically, we will have more deaths later this week."

Thirty-one fires are still burning as the death toll in Australia's worst ever bushfires tonight climbed to 134, with two more deaths confirmed at Kinglake and one more at Flowerdale, both located in northeast Victoria.

A 33,000 hectare blaze is threatening communities including Churchill and Wron Wron in south Gippsland.

A CFA spokesman said the fire threat had increased as freshening winds picked up. Nineteen people have now been confirmed dead in the region.

Towns at risk in northeast Victoria include Beechworth, Yackandandah and Toolangai.

Amid speculation some of the fires in Victoria were deliberately lit - and with reports yesterday that people were returning to relight blazes after fire crews had left an area - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: "There are no words to describe it other than mass murder."

At least 750 homes have been destroyed across the state, and 3733 people have registered with the Red Cross after evacuating their properties. The number left homeless is expected to be far higher, the Red Cross said.

It was confirmed that at least four children have died, but that figure would also be expected to rise as full details emerged.

A two-year-old girl was among 13 in intensive care in hospital. Twenty-two people with shocking burns were admitted to the Alfred hospital, the state's main trauma centre, where staff ran out of morphine trying to ease patients' pain.

Most of the damage was done by two massive fires - one that virtually wiped out towns northeast of Melbourne including Kinglake and Marysville with a 100km front - and a second inferno that raced across Gippsland. At least 35 people were killed in Kinglake alone.

TV veteran Brian Naylor and his wife Moiree were among the dead. The pair died when the fire at Kinglake swept through their property.

Bushfire experts told news.com.au that blazes with a danger rating of 100 are considered uncontrollable. Saturday's fire had a rating of 400.

Horrific deaths

Six victims were in one car trying to outrun the inferno which swept through Kinglake in minutes. A resident said the town was littered with burnt-out cars and he believed many contained bodies.

"It's going to look like Hiroshima, I tell you, it's going to look like a nuclear bomb," he told Melbourne's Herald Sun.

His daughter told of another resident who "went to put his kids in the car, put them in, turned around to go grab something from the house, then his car was on fire with his kids in it, and they burnt".

Among the survivors, families sat in dazed disbelief, surrounded by mattresses, dogs and whatever meagre possessions they managed to gather as they fled the fires.

Some talked of friends who had lost children, brothers and sisters, kids who have lost best friends and of a woman who has not seen her husband since Saturday. They said they had no warning before daylight turned to night and their communities were enveloped in a wall of fire and smoke.

[cappie]

WHOLE towns have been declared crime scenes as the toll from Victoria's devastating bushfires leapt to 173 and 24 blazes remain out of control.
The death toll from the Victoria fires is certain to rise further as more remains are found in more than 700 burnt-out homes strewn through the 330,000ha so far razed in Australia's worst bushfire disaster.

The death tolls in two of the hardest hit towns have jumped dramatically in just a few hours.

In the latest figures released by police about 2.30am, the death toll in St Andrews leapt from six to 22 and at Strathewen from seven to 26.

It is believed the jump in numbers came after rescuers found large groups of bodies were people huddled together as they tried to brave the blaze.

[Vincent Vega]

Is Queensland in danger, Father?

[cappie]

North Queensland is under threat from Floods. Almost three weeks after flooding began, north Queensland remains in chaos, with towns isolated, emergency services swamped and the Bruce Highway cut.

Emergency services were swamped by 903 calls for aid while the body of a man was found, one of two missing from a 4WD swept off the Bruce Highway near Tully on Sunday.

We learnt this poem at school it sums up Australia at the moment

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold;
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land -
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand -
Though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown Country
My homing thoughts will fly.

[Vincent Vega]

Oh dear.
Prayers for Australia.

Edited February 9, 2009 by USAirwaysIHS