Australian bushfires wipe out entire towns

SL65

SL65

Ambitious but rubbish!
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Messages
9,325
Location
Sydney, Australia
Car(s)
1998 Subaru Legacy 2.5L
I really really hope all our Victorian members are okay and hope all their families and friends are too. The affected areas aren't all that far away from Melbourne and plenty of people live/travel out there, so all VIC members, pls check in with us!

For those of you overseas - the Australian state of Victoria (where Melbourne is located) has just experienced (and is still experiencing) the worst natural disaster on record. The death toll continues to rise....

Read the headlines on either of the following websites for up to date news/photos/video:
www.ninemsn.com.au
www.news.com.au
 
This is a horrible thing that's going on. I hope not many more lives are lost. Everytime I go to Wikipedia now the toll has gone up by a few.

I have one question: Did the people who perish refuse to evacuate or was there not enough time once the warning came?
 
Shawn said:
This is a horrible thing that's going on. I hope not many more lives are lost. Everytime I go to Wikipedia now the toll has gone up by a few.

I have one question: Did the people who perish refuse to evacuate or was there not enough time once the warning came?
Click to expand...

Some people refused to leave and died while some people tried to leave but it was too late. :(
 
Shawn said:
This is a horrible thing that's going on. I hope not many more lives are lost. Everytime I go to Wikipedia now the toll has gone up by a few.

I have one question: Did the people who perish refuse to evacuate or was there not enough time once the warning came?
Click to expand...
Its hard to make a general statement for that. In many cases, the fires came too quickly and people were killed inside their homes. There are stories of people being killed in there car trying to escape to the fires. Many of these areas are quite rural and there aren't many roads in and out of the towns and the fires have traveled so fast and eventually met the road.
 
My relatives aren't gonna be able to go home for a long time by the sounds of things. But, I don't think they even want to contemplate going anywhere near their area after what's happened. At least their kids are happy = more holidays for them. Their school is gone anyway. They're making the most of it down in Melbourne from what I've heard, going to the movies and mucking around with some of their cousins after school. Got to admire that, somehow.
 
On behalf of New Zealand members and me and my family, I would like to offer our deepest sympathy's to all the families that have lost people to the bush fires. Having seen some of the destruction that is going on over there on the news at home, I have a real respect for all the firefighters over there that have to try and save people, thier homes, their pets, and lively hoods.

It is hard stuff to watch knowing that you can't do anything to help, but not as hard as living through it. Kiwi fire fighters have helped over there in the past, so I'm sure if Australia calls for help, New Zealand will be here to answer your call.

I only hope these fires haven't been caused by some dick lighting stuff.

EDIT (New Zealand fire fighters are on stand-by for Victoria)
 
Last edited:
I hope everybody there is ok, I have friends in Bendigo we can't get in contact with so I'm a bit worried, but they aren't on any victim list so that's promising. Does anybody know if Strathfieldsaye is near any of the bushfires? (google told me nada). I'm really hoping I'm way off and they are far away.

Hospitals are actually running out of morphine, they are caring for so many injured people.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25027108-421,00.html <-- here is some info on how to donate money to help
 
I'd like to take this moment to thank our British and New Zealand members for their governments offers of assistence, Victoria and Australia are thankful of any help that has been offered.






They were talking on the news, 5000 people homeless (don't know how many homes were lost 800 at last count) and the toll is expected to go above 200 now.
 
Last edited:
Shawn said:
I have one question: Did the people who perish refuse to evacuate or was there not enough time once the warning came?
Click to expand...

It's not really as simple as that. For a start the fires were utterly ferocious in their speed & intensity - so there wasn't much time for a lot of people to make the decision to stay or go. The force of the fires was probably impossible to comprehend for those in their path. Understandably a lot of people chose to stay for as long as they could and do what they could to help themselves & their community. They were placed in a horrible situation, and unfortunately some left the decision too late, and either perished in their cars trying to escape, or lost their lives in their homes. There's likely to be numerous cases of people doing everything right and still losing their lives.

It would be such an awful, heart-wrenching, frightening position to be put in - you'd be frozen with fear. I don't believe there'd be many people who point-blank refused to evacuate - I think they were just caught out by the sheer unimaginable speed & ferocity of what engulfed them. I can completely understand those who stayed behind, I don't believe there would be many cases of recklessness.

And let's not forget, there's people still in the path of the fires. It's truly horrific.
 
Last edited:
<3 For all of our Vic members!

Normally our local/state gov't sends some of our firefighters to help out in situations like this, I hope we have. Like I said in random thoughts I was close enough to see some wildfires and I wish them on nobody. RIP.
 
fbc, Hidden_Hunter! good to know your Ok! :)

I'd like to take this moment to thank our British and New Zealand members for their governments offers of assistence, Victoria and Australia are thankful of any help that has been offered.
Click to expand...

Thanks not required till the fires are out. Just heard on the news 100 Kiwi firefighters are awaiting call out. Also heard that some of the fires have been deliberately lit.
 
Last edited:
brydiem said:
I hope everybody there is ok, I have friends in Bendigo we can't get in contact with so I'm a bit worried, but they aren't on any victim list so that's promising. Does anybody know if Strathfieldsaye is near any of the bushfires? (google told me nada). I'm really hoping I'm way off and they are far away.
Click to expand...

The fire in Bendigo was in the North West of the city, according to Google Maps Strathfieldsaye is a few kms out of Bendigo to the South East, so I believe it wouldn't have been under threat.
 
The whole disaster makes headlines here, too (as do the floods in Queensland, where I have close friends). I feel for the ones who lost their property or more and I am just glad that I live in a part of the Earth, where natural disasters happen extremely rarely or not at all. Really, really glad.
 
It's also hugely depressing to know that some of these towns have been completely wiped out, towns like marysville were some of the earliest towns in Victoria :(

from the news

victoria-bushfires-claim-93-lives
 
Last edited:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25027055-421,00.html

Spoilered as it could be very distressing for some.
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".
Click to expand...


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."
Click to expand...

QFT.
 
stevanford1 said:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25027055-421,00.html

Spoilered as it could be very distressing for some.
Click to expand...

Jesus, there's no words, no words at all to describe that.

UNPRECEDENTED weather conditions made it impossible for authorities to predict the extent of Victoria's horrific bushfires, experts say.

The fire danger indices, based on a range of variables and used by authorities and climatologists to determine the intensity of a blaze, reached uncharted levels on Saturday.

A rating of 100 indicates that a fire would be uncontrollable, according to David Jones from the Bureau of Meteorology.

On Saturday, it reached 400.
Click to expand...

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25027847-2,00.html

Nothing had a chance - not those in it's path, nor the firefighters (many of whom are volunteers) trying to fight it.
 
They were saying on the news that it was covering 1km every 6 minutes...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top