35 dead in Australia's worst fires in years; temperatures rising

they cannot get to alot of the people because of the fires, they were given the choice to stay and defend their home or evacuate early and unfortunately some stayed but then tried to evacuate too late and a few have actually been found dead in their cars as the car is the worst place to be in a fire, many cars just exploding. 

It is apparently what happened to alot in the ash wednesday fires as well, they stayed but then tried to evacuate at last minute and with the ferocity of the wind and heat, the fires were on them before they could basically even blink and then there was no escape.

I know with the bunyip fire yesterday that the wind was carrying embers and fires were actually breaking out up to 6 kilometres ahead of the main fire front.  Basically one minute you were well away from the fire and the next a new fire has broken out all around you.

One family stayed to defend their house and ended up in there dam where it was the safest place they could be and watched their house burn down.

This kind of thing is going to happen in the future as well, you cannot stop deaths in such crisis's no matter how well prepared you may be unfortunately. 

Not all of my information is first hand, some is second hand even third hand, I know a lot from friends and other people who have been caught up and their properties in danger due to the bunyip fire which is not far from where I work.  Foxtel skynews is also running it non-stop here in australia and they have alot of people ringing in with their personal stories and some of them are absolutely heart wrenching.  I had to stop listening in the end as I was in tears from the stories. 

I was lucky that the Cranbourne fire yesterday and also one lit again this morning were not too big (Certainly worried me with my mare at the Cranbourne Equine Hospital)

I also know exactly what those people in the fires are going through emotional wise due to the Langwarrin fire a few weeks back now (deliberately lit and then rekindled the next day) and it certainly throws you and you really panic more than you would think you would. Maybe me more so because of the cats, dogs and horses we have.  I won't forget the fear that went through me and the skaking and even the mind does go blank about what to do.  We ended up next door, all of us giving each other moral support as we watched the smoke and then when Elvis arrived it made you realise the situation is a lot worse than you think as he is only brought in if the situation is really desperate as it costs so much to use him.   the trying to work out where to evacuate the horses too, how to get one onto the float that does not like going on floats, what to save and what to leave behind, its hard when you don't have long but we were lucky that day that the fire as the fire thankfully went off into the quarry next door to my nextdoor neighbour.

That day though we did have time to think even though alot of my thinking was panicing.  Many of the residents in these firestorms as they basically have become do not have that time to think.

I really would not know what to write or compose as I find it much easier to respond to what is already written  and you are already doing a great job of what you have been keeping people informed with.

NSW's is getting the extreme temperatures today that we had yesterday and they now have up to 60 fires burning and and I believe about 7 or 8 of them are of real major concern as they are out of control.  They have also already questioned one guy about the fires as many were deliberately lit up there as well but he has so far been released.

 

I guess what I also find most amazing is how South Australia, Victoria and New South Wale's are in a major drought.  Victoria's drought is going on 8 years now and everything is tinder dry, not much rain.  Where I am is what's called a green drought, enough rain to make it green but thats all, no growth and not much else either but I guess it looks better than those places that are drown and dusty or even now down to dirt.  We are going for the worst bushfires in history down here and then there is Queensland, the top of Aus, in the worst flood in years, maybe even the worst on record.

 

We certainly don't do things by halves in Aus.

Official death toll for the fires is now up to 50, with 650 homes lost, according to the TV news.

They expect it to also rise to over 100 deaths as well and of the 650 homes around 540 of them are from the kinglake area.

Why did I have to check the news out.  One reporter from channel seven said when she arrived she saw farmers walking their paddocks euthenising their horses and cattle that were still alive but beyond help basically.

Hi all,

Well we have just finished watching the extended 6pm Evening News here in Sydney Australia, and the situation down in Victoria is not good. The Bushfire Death Toll has been revised to 65 Civilian Deaths, and this is expected to rise still, some 30 people are in hospital with serious burns - 3 of which are not expected to live. 

More then 600 Homes have been lost in the past 24hrs, and this along with the Death Toll is expected to rise in the coming days as Emergency Crews are able to enter areas where extreme fire activity has prevented them from doing so up to now.

Around 5 small townships (Villages) have basically been wiped off the map, losing around 90% of their dwellings. these are the areas that have experienced the highest fatality rates. The Victorian Bushfire are now being said to be the worse Bushfires in Australian history.

It is reported that our State’s Fire Services here in NSW have deployed some 200 Volunteer Firefighters from Southern NSW Rural Fire Service Volunteer Stations and a hand full of NSW Fire Brigade Pump & Tanker Crews across the boarder to assist Victorian Fire Crews. This along with 50 odd Firefighters from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />South Australia has brought the total Firefighting force to some 8,000 Firefighters committed to fighting these bushfires.

Southern Australian State including the State of Victoria, have been forced to endure days of high temp’s in the High 30’s to low 40’s for the past week, with yesterday reaching a all new high for Victoria – reaching 47 Degrees Celsius.

The past 24hrs has been a very sad day for many Victorians, and the next couple of days are expected to be very days as more fire victims are found.

My thoughts are with those how have lost every thing and family members and to my fellow Victorian Firefighters, hoping they remain safe and well during the fight.

Grant

At 9:30pm, death toll now at 76 people killed.

To give some the idea how fast these fires have been travelling, earlier today news footage showed a fire front travel around 200 meters in about 5-6 seconds, how fast was the quickest man in the 100 meters finals of the last Olympic Games – 10 seconds or something!

You could not out run these fires.

I heard some 19 year old kid started one of these fires... and two 14 year old girls started one in Narre Warren... Anybody got any information on these rumours?

A friend of mine lost 3 close friends in Yarra Glen due to yesterdays fires. Apparently their bodies were found this morning.

Good story, so terrible for those living it.

Sory I haven't been about, pc troubles.

 

One of the two in Narre Warren was just down the road from my work and they had to evacuate my work.  I had already finished working for the day and got out of there just before the road was blocked off.  Did not even know there was a fire as it was only just smouldering when I left.  I went through some light smoke but thought it was from the Cranbourne north fire further away which was on the border of Narre Warren so they go between calling it a Cranbourne North fire and a Narre Warren fire.  One of the fires was started by some idiot throwinghis ciggarette butt out the car window and the other was started by a guy using an angle grinder.  Both these guys have been caught I believe, at least it is definate for the one using the angle grinder and a second guy was caught who I think was for the other Narre Warren/ Cranbourne fire and both are being charged.

 

I must look to see if there is an updated story on this fire to comment on because the death toll has reached 131 last I knew before going to bed and they expect it to double.  The Alfred Hospital burns unit is only taking burn victims from the fires now and they have said they have never had so many admitted in such a short time before nor in such bad conditions.  They took victims from the Bali bombings but they say the fire victims are much much worse. 

This current fire has made Ash Wednesday (74 deaths across SA and Vic) and Black Friday (71 deaths in Vic) look like childsplay, its been called the darkest day in history as the fire is now classified as the worst disaster Australia has ever had and it looks like it may get worse as temperatures are going to heat up again next week and as it is they still have out of control fires and with the heat returning the firebugs will no doubt come out again. 

The Army hae also now been bought in to help relieve firefighters and help with the massive cleanup that is going to take months.

I truly home the arsonists are caught as I highly doubt they will get out of jail for what they have caused this time around.

 

Now I must head off to work but will look back here when I get home.

So terribly sorry for all those who have lost family, loved ones, pets etc, just devastating.

I am here in NZ and have a question.  I just do no understand this policy of "stay and defend or  get out early"  Why do they not get out at first sign of any fire, anywhere near you.  If you live in the bush and seeing how quickly it can spread or turn, why on earth do they not evacuate and any sign of risk.  I know some people can't get out and they start so quickly, but surely surrounding districts should get the hell out.  I see on the news all these towns are under threat or at risk and yet they are undecided whether or not to evacuate.......I mean what the....

 

There is 2 sides to the stay and defend or get out early and I can understand both sides.  The problem with this fire that they have not had with any other fire was the speed of it.  As the authorities have said that they prepared for a king tide but what they got was a tsuanami, nothing could have stopped this disaster unfortunately. 

In the smaller fires around the stay and defend did work and houses were saved unfortunately nothing could stop the waves of fire that has hit a lot of Victoria. 

One problem that also arrised has been the lack of warning, many are asking why they were not wanted earlier.  Kinglake I believe only had a very small warning time as the fire was kilometres away and suddenly within moments it was on them, it came up from behind.  The authorities on the news this morning have said their major problem with getting out the warningsis that by the time the warnings got out to the appropriate places the warnings were out of date because the fire was just going and doing whatever it wanted and nothing could stop it.

There is going to be an inquiry into everything though including the 'stay and defend or leave early' rule Victoria has along with everthing else so as if this was to happen again it would hopefully not be to this disasterous scale.

Some houses were actually saved though with the stay and defend although it did help one family in Kinglake who left their home to defend for itself as it was made from fire resistant materials and was pretty much the only house left standing in Kinglake. 

Another guy stayed and defended his house, saved it and thought all was good until later on smoke began billowing out of his roof, a burning ember had gotten in and smouldered awhile then started a fire once he thought all was safe and his house saved.  It was still mostly intact the firies pulled the roof off and put it out.

Maybe being a Victoria I can understand the stay and defend or leave early but in probably 90% of fires you could stay and defend, this was one time that it did not work, and there may be more times in the future that it will not work.

 

After all this the death toll has now reached 173 and they expect it to keep rising into the weekend as more bodies are found.  They do not expect towns yet to burn to add to the toll as everyone knows now that you can't stop it and you can't expect to save your house.

Thanks Caleesto, I appreciate your response and maybe I'm ignorant but , I still don't get it sorry.  Fire is incredibly dangerous, if my house caught on fire because I didn't put my ciggie out, I wouldn't stay in it and try and save it.  So in some cases people save their house from fire, but in some cases they don't and they die trying.

Surely to stay near something as dangerous and unpredictable is taking an unnecessary risk, trying to save bricks at the risk of your life makes no sense..........it's playing with fire isn't it, something we all told never to do.

 

Trust me, I would be the first to run if my house was on fire, I would not stay and defend but it is a free choice that Victorians are given.  With the Langwarrin fire about a month ago now we had the car packed with important stuff, let the cats out, had the dog on a lead and I was ready to take my horses to safety... stuff the house it could defend itself or burn, I am not one who would stay and defend, I would be as far away as possible from the fire.

Even the firefighters have said they have never faced a fire even remotely like this before.  We have firefighters coming from New Zealand and 30 on their way from America. 

The other major problem they had this time for those who 'stayed and defended' was the intensity of the fire melted  water pipes so all those ready with water and such to defend suddenly had no water as the piping was gone.

there is blame in part on a few different parties, in the past Victoria use to have controlled burning to burn off the undergrowth until the greenies got into it and got the controlled burnoffs stopped.  The government have also contributed by stopping cattle in national parks due to them destroying the place but the cattle did keep the undergrowth down as well.

then there is a lot of blame on those who started the fires and continues to relit them as the firefighters were battling to stop them.  How anyone purposely do that is something I will never understand especially when there are reports of deaths.