Bushfires in Australia kill 84 people so far

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/744864/worst-day-in-history-vic-fires-kill-14

:depressed The smoke can be seen from New Zealand!!

I know the temperatures back home have been insanely high down South and then you get idiots who deliberately start fires :bang

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

The northern part of my state back home is experiencing terrible floods as well and Crocodiles are roaming around freely due to the risen water levels.

Crazy weather patterns

[BlackSwordsMan]

crikey!

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

The northern part of my state back home is experiencing terrible floods as well and Crocodiles are roaming around freely due to the risen water levels.

Crazy weather patterns

Yeah, tragic stuff in Victoria, and the pictures remind me of Canberra in 2003 when we lost 500 homes in a day (a miracle only 4 people died), and the firestorm was 50-80m high. I'll never forget that day.

Sadly, an increase in extreme events like this this is entirely predictable under enhanced global warming theory as we have witnessed a significant fall in rainfall in SE Australia over the last few decades whilst temperatures have risen.

For most of this summer - Nov-mid-Jan - the ENSO index was indicating a weak La Nina, and that's why we had cool temperatures and lots of rain across the middle of the continent. However, in January the index fell back into neutral territory (ie. normal summer conditions). Since then the temps have spiked in the SE, and the rainfall has shifted to the north. We now have the classic dominant northern lows/southern highs pattern. It has been 36C+ for over a week here in Canberra, finally broken by a cold front last night. Thank fuck for that.

The worry here is that even in such a relatively cool summer we have had devastating fires - what will happen during the next prolonged El Nino event???

BTW, did anyone watch Scorched? Interesting and plausible scenario in which thousands of people could die in a Sydney bushfire.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/744864/worst-day-in-history-vic-fires-kill-14

:depressed The smoke can be seen from New Zealand!!

I know the temperatures back home have been insanely high down South and then you get idiots who deliberately start fires :bang

I'm no hard-right winger, but anyone caught lighting a bushfire in this country should be shot on sight. It is effectively an act of terrorism against your own society.

[Chief]

how do so many people die in the fire

I mean when u see one approaching you from far away, you evacuate right ?
Or did these fires spread like bombs or something.

[TDMVPDPOY]

how do so many people die in the fire

I mean when u see one approaching you from far away, you evacuate right ?
Or did these fires spread like bombs or something.

staying back to fight the fire for their houses, fuck the houses in that area aint worth shit anyway, they should just get all there belongings like photos and other things that aint replaceable and leave immediately, its not worth risking your life or harm to ur body. By the looks of things, it looks like nearly every house has a gas tanker in the backyard or someshit, why dont they make these all underground......

that part of the state thrives on tourism and agriculture, and every year it always has a natural disaster.....during the summer its fire season, during the winter it floods...the shittest part of this is the state govt wont build a dam there to catch the flood waters when the states water supplies is only at 30% capacity and declining every day.

theres a change in the weather this week, but hot tempretures is coming back next week or someshit.... :(

[portnoy]

how do so many people die in the fire

I mean when u see one approaching you from far away, you evacuate right ?
Or did these fires spread like bombs or something.

what a fuckin moron ...I'm pretty sure bombs don't spread on their own....god there are some pathetic stupid losers in the world ...how do people die in a fire????? are you serious ...really really serious??? why not do the world a favor and set your lard ass on fire and maybe the answer will come to you....

[Chief]

what a fuckin moron ...I'm pretty sure bombs don't spread on their own....god there are some pathetic stupid losers in the world ...how do people die in a fire????? are you serious ...really really serious??? why not do the world a favor and set your lard ass on fire and maybe the answer will come to you....

Fuck Off Idiot

People like you are the ones that should set themselves on fire, blowing off steam online makes u a real tough guy eh.

a small amount of people dying is one thing, but when u reach 100, u gotta think how, u hear about the fire coming when it's been raging for day's.

[portnoy]

explain to me how bombs spread themselves again??? I sent that to a friend of mine who is a physicist working on DOD projects .... what a pathetic shit-for-brains you are jackass

[DieMrBond]

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd said arsonists in Victoria had committed mass murder as the death toll in Australia's worst ever bushfires rose to 131 this afternoon, with the final toll expected to be much more.

Authorities are being warned to expect a toll of 230, The Australian quoted sources inside state emergency meetings as saying.

The public response to the catastrophe has been immediate, with thousands of people donating millions of dollars to the official Red Cross relief fund. Concerned friends and relatives have also used the Herald Sun bushfire message board to post pleas for information on loved ones.

Fires were still burning out of control and putting towns at risk in the Beechworth and Yackandandah regions in the state's northeast. Shortly after 4pm (AEDT) a third town, Toolangai, was also put on alert.

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

At least 750 homes have been destroyed 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.

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.

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".

Weather conditions have eased since Saturday's firestorm, but firefighters were still battling 31 active blazes across the state as of 11.00am (AEDT), authorities said. The communities of Stanley, Bruarong, Dederang, Gundowring, Gundowring Upper, Kancoona, Kancoona South, Coral Bank, Glenn Creek and Running Creek remained under threat, they said.

Residents of Taggerty, Acheron, Snobs Creek and Eildon were also on alert. Some fires would take weeks to contain, authorities said, and it could also take weeks to formally identify some of those killed.

Other teams were working to clear debris from towns gutted over the weekend to allow those lucky enough to escape a chance to return to their properties.

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.

"We looked over and there was a wall of flames looking at us and everything went pitch black. There was no warning," Joanne Fisher of Kinglake said. "I've never seen anything like it in my life ... You see this on TV, it doesn't happen to you."

It was believed the fire in Bendigo was caused by a cigarette, but Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said she was sickened by the fact some other fires might have been deliberately lit.

"It makes me very angry ... to then have someone who may have lit these fires. Fires are so devastating. The injuries we are seeing. We are talking about a massive death toll."

Police had designated affected areas as crime scenes.

A survivor told news.com.au that arsonists should hope the police caught them first. "Watch your back, that's all I want to say to them. Watch your back, 24/7."

Teams of disaster victim identification experts were flying in from all over Australia. Extra fire crews were being sent from interstate.

Mr Kevin Rudd offered army troops to help firefighters control the fires. He and state Premier John Brumby also opened up $10 million in emergency funding yesterday.

"This is of a level of horror that few of us anticipated," he said this morning.

[DieMrBond]

There is no escaping from that when it gets going. How can you outrun something that is surrounding you, smoke is everywhere causing worse visibility than a snowstorm, but with the added bonus that the air chokes you.

You tell me how you escape?
Horrible weekend.

[Chief]

explain to me how bombs spread themselves again??? I sent that to a friend of mine who is a physicist working on DOD projects .... what a pathetic shit-for-brains you are jackass

a bomb in the sense that fire breaks out and engulfs the entire area as if a bomb was dropped on it.

club fires, home fires, fires that grow fast.

if the fires spread normally, people have time in the unaffected areas have time to evacuate, but we're talkin about 100's dead, unbelievable.

listen ur an asshole, u don't know how to be respectful towards people, u start calling people names, ur classless, go fuck off already.

people like u are a cancer on the internet.

[TDMVPDPOY]

its not even 24hrs yet, so far they have raise $2m for the victims of this infernal since yesterday.....

[KidCongo]

how do so many people die in the fire

I mean when u see one approaching you from far away, you evacuate right ?
Or did these fires spread like bombs or something.

Apparantly in one of the towns the fire moved 25km's (like 12 miles or so I think) in 4 mins.

[Rogue]

Bush fires in australia and kill 84 people so far?

[Albus Dumbledore]

So you Americans are still blaming every bad thing on your (now) former President?

[Chief]

Apparantly in one of the towns the fire moved 25km's (like 12 miles or so I think) in 4 mins.

thank you, that's what i was lookin for

fires movin 12 miles an hour is really fast if you have a house to evacuate or so. I hope they all evacuate to prevent further deaths.

[The Reckoning]

explain to me how bombs spread themselves again??? I sent that to a friend of mine who is a physicist working on DOD projects .... what a pathetic shit-for-brains you are jackass

ask your buddy what napalm is

(not saying it was napalm, but napalm spreads fast ... as the brushfires in this instance. so yeah it could be compared with a bomb.)

[Love is in the air]

It's true.... I can almost feel it in here....

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

thank you, that's what i was lookin for

fires movin 12 miles an hour is really fast if you have a house to evacuate or so. I hope they all evacuate to prevent further deaths.

He said 12miles in 4 minutes, but I think that is probably an over-estimate. Some of these fires were moving at upwards of 25km/hr though.

Many people died either inside or defending their homes, others in burned-out cars obviously trying to outrun the fire which caught them. Scary thought.

You also have to remember that although there is a fire-front, in a firestorm like this embers are raining down up to 20 km ahead of the fire front and starting spot fires which can quickly engulf an area.

In the Canberra fires of 2003, the fires were 30 km away in the hills at 1 p.m., by 2 p.m. they had hit the edge of the town, and by 3 p.m. 500 houses and 4 people were gone. We have truly monstrous fires when the extreme conditions hit, driest continent in the world and all that.

[BlackSwordsMan]

last I checked this morning 110 dead

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

Death toll is officially 173 right now, but they say it could be 300+ :depressed

[BlackSwordsMan]

Death toll is officially 173 right now, but they say it could be 300+ :depressed

damn

[Hedgie]

Bush fires are quite a common event down here, but this is something different. This thing has just ravaged everything. It's spread so quick that people have been caught. You hear stories of people trying to out run the fires in their cars and still can't make it. The radiant heat is setting houses alight even though the flames haven't hit it. There was one story where a dad put his kids in the car, turned out to get something, and his car caught alight, burning the kids to death. This fire is un-fightable.

With a possibility of 300+ deaths, words can't describe it.

[MiamiHeat.]

I'm no hard-right winger, but anyone caught lighting a bushfire in this country should be shot on sight. It is effectively an act of terrorism against your own society.

I read in another topic how you was against the death penalty and you lectured others on being ignorant an inhumane.

http://weblogs.amny.com/news/politics/newyork/blog/flip%20flops.jpg

[johnsmith.]

what a fuckin moron ...I'm pretty sure bombs don't spread on their own....god there are some pathetic stupid losers in the world ...how do people die in a fire????? are you serious ...really really serious??? why not do the world a favor and set your lard ass on fire and maybe the answer will come to you....

Is it safe to say you disagree with Chief?

[Alex Jones]

I read in another topic how you was against the death penalty and you lectured others on being ignorant an inhumane.

http://weblogs.amny.com/news/politics/newyork/blog/flip%20flops.jpg


Typical Bi-polar Aussie!

[desflood]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,490589,00.html

Horrible.