So far it has claimed over 130 poor souls, my thoughts go out to anyone affected by this nightmare.

glad I went to SA to ride this weekend,The weather has been hot(40c+) and some people think its clever to start fires(hanging to good for them!)

Not the ones in Vic, but my mum is a voluntary firefighter in NSW, so she’s been in the Budawang mountains south of sydney for a while now. Not a lot of people live there, but it is my favourite place in Aus. Hope it’s still there when I go next year.

Proud of ya Mum 🙂

I hear the fires are big but the sparks haven’t reached Scotland yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Firebreak between Australia and South Africa is holding up.

Thoughts to those concerned though 🙁

My Grandma lives in Yackandandah, they’re under threat from a pretty big blaze… fingers crossed they’ll be fine (fortunately they’re not surrounded by bush, not like the poor souls in Kingslake and the other areas devastated yesterday… bl00dy disaster 🙁 )

Horrendous scenes – those burnt out cars on the highways…

A fire came within 10 miles of a friend’s house in the countryside near Melbourne. Luckily wind was blowing in a different direction, but not sure what I would have done in that situation. Stay put or possibly drive into deeper trouble. The incredible thing is that eucalypts have evolved to encourage fire with the oil in their leaves and peeling bark. Spoke to a ranger last year who said that big fires produce 100,000mw of heat per metre: hot!

The whole thing is awful. What adds to the tragedy is so many small and red roads which would make it doubly difficult to escape. I used to live in Gippsland and no-one I know there seems to have been affected.

I don’t as yet know anybody that has been personally affected, and I hope it stays that way. A friend of the missus and myself from when we lived in Melbourne, is a volunteer firefighter (and a pilot), so he’s probably been involved with trying to stop the spread. I know some of the areas badly affected well, Kingslake area and down towards Melbourne through the Dandenongs as that’s where I started mountainbiking. I was told Lysterfield park had burned, that makes me sad, though thats nothing at all really of course, just good memories. I can’t imagine what it would have been like for people involved.

Mailed a colleague I used to work with to see if she was OK. Fortunately she’s a couple of 00kms away (just down the road) and has been collecting toys and clothes for a well known removals company to take to the area foc.

can’t imagine the heat seeing pics of alloy wheels melted into a solder type goo on the ground

Yeah its all pretty bad i must say but as one of the volunteer firefighters said yesterday – you have to feel lucky when you only lose your house and posessions and not your life.

Its been incredibly hot, even here in NZ we’ve been under the same High and its been v hot (36 outside Wgtn is the hottest i have seen in 10 years) and there has been some smoke clouds as well.

Tragic and i suspect a lot more deaths to come.

My sister is in Australia at the moment, I know she was in Melbourne at the weekend although she said she was heading towards Byron Bay this week. She hasn’t answered her phone yet though…

She said the other week that it was unbelievably hot out there. I was in London where it was 0 deg and 8″ of snow, she was in 40 deg heat at some town near Melbourne.

Melbourne, apparently, has been 46C during the day and 33C at night. An inventor of an ice-pack bed would probably do quite well.

In Melbourne this week, Saturday was tough with record temps but there was a dark cloud over the city all day from the fires. They are currently reviewing the policy of Evac early or stay and fight as many people died in their homes. Unfortunatley some people ran too late and dies on the roads. Apparently the car is the last place you want to be caught.

They believe at least 3 of the fires were arson and seem to be perusing as murder/mass murder.

Some stats they are teaching in schools this week
9/10 fires are started deliberately
8/10 are started by volunteer firefighters – One was arrested for the fires last week.
Not sure how accurate these are but makes scary reading

Notice the mature trees are relatively unscathed and its the undergrowth and the houses that are burnt.
I wonder if recent droughts has meant controlled burning has been put off . Urban areas will have expanded too.

Its still tragic though.

The fires are within 20 miles of my Brother and his family. Visibility is down to 200yds. The air is full of smoke. We’re all rather worried to say the least.

Mikewsmith,

If the schools are teaching that “8/10 (of fires) are started by volunteer firefighters”, i’d be more concerned about the local curriculum than anything else.

The big trees survive, the surrounding ground is cleared of competition, the big tree’s seeds germinate. Nature is scarily clever sometimes. And seemingly helped by some truly sick individuals.
Saw a story in The Age about a winery in the Yarra Valley that was surrounded by fire so everyone hid in the cellar. Good thinking.

I have some friends in the area, they’ve been lucky so far.
Death toll currently 181. Australia’s worst natural/unnatural disaster.

Yeah pretty shocking stuff.

Was working in Gippsland a couple of years ago at one of the major power stations. Loved the place and thought how nice it would be to move over there. I’ve been travelling too and from a client meeting today south of Perth and spent 5 hours in a car. Talk radio is talking about almost nothing else obviously. The thing that frightens me is the speed the fires travelled in the tinder dry grass. People had no warning before it was on top of them.

I’m on the West coast living beside a national forrest. Every summer we watch the water bombers come over our house from the nearby lake where they fill up. Every winter we improve the place from a fire defence perspective. Water tank, fire pump, fire main, controlled burns, keeping the vegatation back. I had visions of staying and defending. Not sure now. Our bags are pre packed and the insurance up to date. It’ll be 40 deg odd over the next few days and it sickens me that there are some sick ba5terds or braindead kids just waiting for a hot day to start another fire that could kill my family.

RichPenny – God bless your Mum