Hell rolls through Victoria (bush fire r)
LokoOne
1,823 Posts
"AUSTRALIA has witnessed its greatest natural disaster. Worse than Black Friday. Worse than Ash Wednesday. Only in wartime has the toll of dead and wounded been greater.Last night the official death toll was 84, 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 Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said: "Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours, and many good people now lie dead; many others lie injured."I fear in the days ahead that the news is going to be bad and, I believe, the nation needs to prepare itself as full facts become known," he said.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.The fires raged on last night. People in Yackandandah were bracing to resist a fire moving towards them at 9pm. Altogether 83 fires were still burning last night.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"This is just the start of it, they are going back and finding more bodies. This is f*cking tragic... The North floods while the South burns.
Comments
http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_emergencyservices_victorian-bushfires-appeal-2009.htm
the death toll is now well over 100 and expected to get quite a bit higher, my thoughts go to the familys that have lost not only everything they had owned but complete family lines being wiped out
Stay strong Melbourne and Aussie.
You seriously got to be really fucked up in the head to grow up in Australia and be reckless and careless enough to light a bushfire...
Is so heart wrenching!!
It got to 47/116.6 degrees but the wind was crazy- it literally felt like a fan forced oven!! They said they were fire balls ripping through the houses and cars!! Our hospitals and burn units are filling up and they said alot of the people admitted are not expected to survive!!
Those sick ef-in arsonists need some ef-ing harsh shit dealt!!
last year two of our massive arsonists were part of the cfa (country fire authority)!! is totally fucked!!!
noice work dl
probably wouldn't have donated through red cross if i hadn't have seen this!! so thanks!!
Stay safe.
Ironically this is a town called Ingham in the far north of Queensland atm
Now I'm just waiting to see what happens in NSW. Worst I had to worry about was traffic lights blacked out in Newtown/Erskenville on the weekend because of people pumping their aircon.
The pics of the charred cars on the roads trying to flee are heartbreaking!!
Apparently there was a whole car load of people trying to escape where everyone but one was killed when the car was engulfed by flames. I couldn't even fathom being the survivor in that situation!! :-(
they also say at least 750homes have been destroyed so far!!
Its going to be a dark and depressing week...
majority were started by arsonists!!
Rudd just dubbed it mass murder!! they're starting a task force to find the ef-er's!! The most disgraceful thing is that after someone started some and the firefighters got them under control, someone started them up again!! The sick bastards should get the highest punishment possible- f*@k 25years!!!!!!
http://media.smh.com.au/?rid=45927&category=National%20News
This is absolutely unbelievable, Thinking about you Australia.
This is so so bad.
Horrific. I just watched some of the videos of survivors and this is just so awful.
arson, fucked up shit...
R.I.P. to everyone, really sad news for small towns like that who have such a great little community life.... I will be making a donation tomorrow....
peace.
The whole pyromaniac aspect has me at loss for words. What is wrong with people?
BBC news said last night that these people are known as 'firebugs'.
Don't know how true this is, but seriously, Aussie needs to dead this word; it's way too friendly, knockabout and cartoonish.
How about making a point in future of calling them what they are?
Mass murderers.
I work for the Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment , and a lot of my colleagues are on call fighting the fires or supporting the response at the moment, so a lot of this hits close to home.
People all over the state are affected one way or another. For example, my housemate's brother and his wife were trapped at a winery for two days. With the help of 120 wedding guests (what a terrible day to get married?!?) they were able to defend the property from the fires on saturday night. Thank christ!
So many livelyhoods, so much history and so much natural beauty has been lost.
This is hugely depressing stuff for me, and I can't even comprehend the pain that those who experienced the fires in person must be feeling.
(off-topic, but I feel the same way about 'road-rage'; somebody tries to run somebody off the road - that's attempted murder, somebody gets out of their car and hits somebody else over poor driving - that's assault. The phrase "Road-Rage" is an excuse for inexcusable lack of self-control. End of).
On-topic: yeah, arson in Oz needs a stiffer penalty when the dangers are so high.
i just cant believe there were over 400 fires (20 odd still burning)!! they still suspect that there were a NUMBER of arsonists!!
I just cant get the idea of raining fire out of my head!!
it was so unbelievably hot as it was without the fire on saturday, i just can't imagine!!
They said at kinglake (worst hit so far) that the residents were originally safe from harm but the winds were so full on that day that within 5miniutes they changed direction and engulfed the whole town!! In the past in had been considered safe to stay and defend ones property- but not in our weather conditions!!
It's pretty amazing to see how everyone is banding together tho!! A lot of money has already been donated, with hopefully a lot more to come!!
Damn dude, just damn. It is really hard to come up with words to describe this: the images are so sickening.
It must be hard to keep focused on your work and detach your emotions, but know that you are making a difference and contributing to people that need a lot of help right now.
Pretty crazy, we also had 2 fires deliberately lit closer to Melbourne yesterday and a CFA (firefighter) member of 10years who had been fighting the fires since sat was found dead in his burnt down house in the burbs that was also supposed to be deliberately started!!
WTF!!
I'm not for vigilante justice though. I can't imagine the anger and backlash when this guy gets named.
Jesus, that was hard to listen to. Brought tears to my eyes. Just put money through to red cross for their campaign.