Victorian Bushfires ***may make upsetting reading***

dSTAR

Lets all put our positive thoughts and prayers that Minesajackdaniels and Whitewashman are safe.

dSTAR

Trying to stay cool in my sweatbox of a house (without air con) and my daughter came in and said she could smell smoke. I went outside and could hear fire engine sirens wailing in the distance and was met with a sky that is heavy with smoke. Must be bloody hell out there.


Updates and advice:

http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/incidents/incident_updates.htm#1476630943266

chris85

Looking at it on the news and looks very bad at the moment, the heat and wind today was just terrible.

Hope everyone in the region gets out safely.

dSTAR

The Age is reporting that 14 people in Victoria have died so far in the bushfires burning across the state. Police estimate that the figure could climb as high as 40.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/death-toll-may-reach-more-than-40-police-20090207-80ao.html

Mobooo

Guy that im living withs sister lost a stables all her land was burned and she just rescued her 3 horses on time had to ride one of them without a saddle(common in my native limerick but not here) with fire on the side of the road sounded pretty crazy it stopped just before reaching the house do.


In north fitzroy the sky was gray i was wondering what it was...yeah i know how stupid of me didnt consider it was smoke from bush fires

chris85

Mobooo wrote: »

Guy that im living withs sister lost a stables all her land was burned and she just rescued her 3 horses on time had to ride one of them without a saddle(common in my native limerick but not here) with fire on the side of the road sounded pretty crazy it stopped just before reaching the house do.


In north fitzroy the sky was gray i was wondering what it was...yeah i know how stupid of me didnt consider it was smoke from bush fires

yeah in Toorak and there was an eerie haze in the sky all day and thought might have been the fires.

14 people have lost there lives already, its terrible. Cant believe that there are also arsonists out there that have been involved in some of these fires. Its just so extreme the last few week. Was 47 degree today and not even sunny, just a warm breeze. within an hour though it dropped to mid 30s.

Mobooo

Compared to last week today was cold as funny as that sounds. Used to work in hawksburn village in a butchers peter bouchier if you know it

The Sweeper

I've been at our local hospital (where I work in admin) since 1pm admitting A&E cases. WWMan finished work at 5pm and drove to the nearest fire station, where he got on a fire truck, and then came home at 11pm, black and exhausted.

Our house is relatively safe, for a given value of 'safe'. Friends and colleagues have suffered varying losses, to the point of having only the clothes they're standing in left.

I had to run from the hospital to the nursing home with medication this evening. It was 50 degrees - day's heat plus refracted bush fire heat.

...it's been a really weird day.

Jumpy

I have defended my house against two bushfires when I was younger. They were less than 100 metres away each time and its a scary, scary experience.

The air is red, thats the only way I can put it. Standing on a two storey roof slapping landing embers with a wet blanket when about 15 firefighters are about 10 metres away at ground level holding the fire back. Man those are memories I can never forget.

dSTAR

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

I've been at our local hospital (where I work in admin) since 1pm admitting A&E cases. WWMan finished work at 5pm and drove to the nearest fire station, where he got on a fire truck, and then came home at 11pm, black and exhausted.

Our house is relatively safe, for a given value of 'safe'. Friends and colleagues have suffered varying losses, to the point of having only the clothes they're standing in left.

I had to run from the hospital to the nursing home with medication this evening. It was 50 degrees - day's heat plus refracted bush fire heat.

...it's been a really weird day.

Good to hear that you are both safe and well and haven't sustained any loss to property or animals either. It has been the most intense day with me keeping updated on all the firezones where friends and family live. Sorry to hear about your friends losing their homes. Its times like these that people dig in and help out their neighbors. Lets hope things get under control soon.

Zambia

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

I've been at our local hospital (where I work in admin) since 1pm admitting A&E cases. WWMan finished work at 5pm and drove to the nearest fire station, where he got on a fire truck, and then came home at 11pm, black and exhausted.

Our house is relatively safe, for a given value of 'safe'. Friends and colleagues have suffered varying losses, to the point of having only the clothes they're standing in left.

I had to run from the hospital to the nursing home with medication this evening. It was 50 degrees - day's heat plus refracted bush fire heat.

...it's been a really weird day.

Glad to hear this

Sammag

Mobooo wrote: »

In north fitzroy the sky was gray i was wondering what it was...yeah i know how stupid of me didnt consider it was smoke from bush fires

Ditto! I'm in Elsternwick and was standing in the back garden yesterday commenting on "Doesn't the sky look bizarre! It's sort of a light purple/grey colour and it's making the clouds really stand out.."

It never dawned on me it was from the bushfires *slaps forehead*

Mobooo

Typical irish cant put 2 and 2 together when it it comes to something that doesnt happen back home haha

That rain we are having today wasnt recieved up there so dont look on the rain as yet as a positive thing

Death toll is 34 now i think

Sammag

Mobooo wrote: »

Typical irish cant put 2 and 2 together when it it comes to something that doesnt happen back home haha

That rain we are having today wasnt recieved up there so dont look on the rain as yet as a positive thing

Death toll is 34 now i think

It's not just the Irish - my husband is an Aussie and he was the one who called me out in a puzzled state to: "come look at the weird colour of the sky". :rolleyes:

Was reading a lot of the reports on The Age - really, really upsetting

dSTAR

The death toll and utter devastation from the bushfires has surpassed that of the 1993 Ash Wednesday blazes. MAJD (or Watna) feel free to adjust the title of this thread to reflect the extent of the damage and loss of life suffered by those from your own town of Kilmore and surrounding areas that were hit hardest by the full force of the deadly flames. Again our thoughts go out to all those affected.

The Sweeper

Death toll will probably exceed 100. Went to bed at 1.30am, up at 5.30am, worked at hospital again today. Am very, very tired. We're back on stage 4 water restrictions because the kilmore water processing plant was badly damaged - plus our water is contaminated so we can't drink the tap water.

Heat has dropped, and the worst of the blaze has moved on from us, so now it's damage control, the CFA are damping out small spot fires and generally we're still on high alert, but not expecting this particular fire to come back around to us.

Whether or not some cunt starts another one next week now to burn down the other side of the town - that's another thing.

dSTAR

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

...Went to bed at 1.30am, up at 5.30am, worked at hospital again today. Am very, very tired.

I'd say you are exhausted. I would be finding it very hard to sleep and de-stress. This evening as I was watching the news my little girl started crying and asked me if her mom's house had burnt down and if she was dead. The enormity of the whole situation really sunk in and it revisited many grim memories of the Stardust disaster back in 1981 in Dublin (that my father covered) and how much of an impact the images and stories made on me as a kid.

Crumble Froo

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

I've been at our local hospital (where I work in admin) since 1pm admitting A&E cases. WWMan finished work at 5pm and drove to the nearest fire station, where he got on a fire truck, and then came home at 11pm, black and exhausted.

Our house is relatively safe, for a given value of 'safe'. Friends and colleagues have suffered varying losses, to the point of having only the clothes they're standing in left.

I had to run from the hospital to the nursing home with medication this evening. It was 50 degrees - day's heat plus refracted bush fire heat.

...it's been a really weird day.

oh **** man!

i guess ill forgive ya for the slackness on the pic posting... hope all works out, and anyone you know who's lost ****, gains something in the process... not sure what to say, that well sucks :?

WhiteWashMan

i stood on the back of a tanker and rumbled down wandong main street. the melbourne fire brigade were fighting to contain a fire approaching a servo from one direction while 'Elvis' the water carrying helicopter was trying to dampen it from the north end. the smoke was bad enough that i had my goggles on and my nose mask on, and my eyes were still streaming. across the road by the train tracks, a strike team was trying to do asset protection, keeping homes, cars, people safe, but were just pushed back by the sheer intensity of the fire.
there were explosions as gas canisters went up from further back off the main drag. a woman rode her horse right out of the main street towards the freeway, trotting it slowly out of the town. most of the main drag was empty though, and it was like it had been hit by a bomb. apart from the explosions, and the sound of the copper, there was little sound other than the sound of fire burning at high intenisty.

up the road at the shopping centre car park, there was a small staging area where tankers refilled, and the men and women working them took 5 minutes for a smoke and take on water. small groups of firefighters laughed amongst themselves, smoked their cigarettes, and then we mounted up, and in a couple of strike teams we headed up towards broadford, leaving the MFB to finish off kepping Wandong standing.

we drove up the hume freeway. the hills to each side were absolutely black. we turned of at the broadford wandong interchage. lack of visability slowed our convoy as we grouped with another strike team to try and stop the fire from jumping across the road.

the side of the road was littered with the still smoking carcasses of kangaroos. all caught in the flames. a lone skippy bounced by, looking slightly bewildered. it was really surreal watching him lope slowly by. we headed ontowards broadford, more asset protection and spot fire patrol. the wind kept changing and we could see the head of the fire heading north. the fire was crowing in the trees, and the speed was incredible. embers were drifting down and it wasnt long before we fighting our own fire. at one point, i couldnt see my hand a foot from my face. all i had was gray acrid smoke in my eyes, in my mouth and nose, a large red glowing light and an intense heat that i thought was sucking the air out of my lungs, and all i could do was point my hose at the base of any fire that threatened to shift across the road as we moved slowly along. every burst would spray up dirst and dust and ash and now steam as well. branches were dropping in the forest around us, and we had to move, we had to leave, and it was another road lost and closed to fire. we found a hydrant down a lane. i have no idea why there was a fire hydrant in the middle of nowhere, but i now know what a man in a desert must feel like when he sees a mirage of water. we refilled. and we went back. and we kept going back. and we went back some more until we were told to move on to broadford and eventually recalled to kilmore.
i was on a truck for about 4 hours.

some of those firefighters were on there for 12 hours and more. we did as much as we could.

Crumble Froo

holy **** man. that **** is just so unreal. reading that, i almost felt like i was there... except it's just so far away from all reality i know. spounds completely surreal and id ont know what else to say, but to send my best hopes/thoughts, and to really sincerely hope you and all close to you come out safe and sound

take care.

Mahatma coat

Death Toll stands at 84 now, Jesus, watchin the news here now, in a strange and ironict twist our property up in FNQ has been flooded and inaccessible for the last 2 weeks.

Good luck WWM Stay safe.

this is gonna be somthing that we wont see the repurcusions of fully for about 4 months.

mike65

The news from Oz prompted me to look in here, I had no idea WWM was down under. Fair dues to him, MinsaJD and everyone else tackling this disaster, makes the wet snow here look like what it is - a non event.

Villain

Sounds horrific I have relatives in Melbourne only 20km from the affected area

dSTAR

WhiteWashMan wrote: »

we did as much as we could.

I take my hat off to you my man. You are a hero and I mean that sincerely.

When you read most of the crapola on boards and then read the above it makes you put life into perspective.

seachto7

Australia. One of the few countries in the world where nature and its ways can make humans as insignificant as a fly on the wall.....

One Cold Hand

Man this is so surreal. I was away camping in for the weekend down the coast. Got back to Melbourne Sunday evening, having heard nothing of what was happening. I flicked on the news: '65 dead in fires' (obviously it's over 100 now). I was just sitting there speechless.

When I got into the office this morning everyone was a bit shook up. One girl isn't in as her family home was lost and she has to help her parents. Another guy thought that his parents would lose their house, but the fire changed direction at the last minute. Half of that town was wiped out and lots of his friends lost houses. Lots of other people in the office had various aunt and cousins who lost houses. Luckily I still haven't heard of anyone who lost someone to the fire.

missannik

WhiteWashMan wrote: »

we did as much as we could.

Thank you.

This has just been absolutely terrible, we all knew that it was almost a given that it would happen but I guess you never really do expect things to be so bad. My heart goes out to all affected.

If people are wanting to help out then please donate to the Bushfire Appeal. http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_emergencyservices_victorian-bushfires-appeal-2009.htm
And please go out and donate blood. http://www.donateblood.com.au/

The Sweeper

Back into hospital this morning. Trying to run a business-as-usual surgical listing. First patient turned up. Second patient turned up. Third patient didn't. Called up her record to phone and ask was she coming in - her address is in Kingslake, an entire town that no longer exists. Didn't bother trying to call her. Just called theatre and told them she wouldn't be coming in.

If you've never seen a bushfire, you honestly cannot comprehend what it's like. WWMan does an excellent description up there - anyone who thinks you could outrun it, or out-drive it, you're kidding yourselves.

Kingslake went up in minutes. The fire was 25kms away, and 15 minutes later it was in the town. It covered the last 10kms in about 6 minutes. By that time it was just a firestorm.

The fire that started in Saunders Road, in Kilmore, is about 5kms away from us - we're due west of it. It started as a grass fire in an open paddock, some time just before noon, but it was about 40 degrees and the wind was gusting south at up to 90kms. It started to burn its way out of farmland and into bushland. The number of fire brigade vehicles in attendance started to rise - one, two, five vehicles, full strike teams, 16, 17 vehicles... The fire burned southwards through bushland along the railway, embers falling kilometres ahead of the fire front from the wind.

Then it entered a pine forest plantation at the end of the railway line and it was game over. The forest exploded. When the number of vehicles fighting the fire hit 50, I went into the hospital and started to process A&E admissions. I think it was around 5pm when the fire fighters coming into A&E told us houses were burning in Wandong.

The fire swept through Wandong and kept going south/south east, where it built momentum and fury and rolled through those towns like Kingslake and Marysville as though they'd never existed.

After around 6pm, the horror stories started to come in. You have to understand - this isn't just 'some fire, things burn'. This is a rural community over great distances, with livestock, properties, hundreds of acres. One of our patients was inconsolable - she'd lost everything, but when she arrived at her property, both her house and her stables were on fire. Her horses were running around, screaming and on fire in the paddock and all she could do was sob that she couldn't get into her house to get her gun and shoot them, sobbing over and over that she should have shot them, she should have shot them.

The radiant heat from the fire front will kill livestock in fields that don't even have much to burn as it sweeps over them. The heat in the air literally causes them to spontaneously ignite and burn to death.

The same thing happens to people, stuck in their cars or running on foot. The radiant heat alone is enough to set the car alight and burn it out.

In a fire like this, you don't have to be touching something that's on fire to catch fire.

The fire was so aggressive, there are some livestock lying dead in fields that look untouched by fire. It seems the oxygen was sucked out of the air around them and they suffocated.

Then there's the recovery effort - again, each property can be up to a few hundred acres. We've had people who tried to save their houses, only to discover they've lost the fight, and now it's too late to run away. One guy soaked his huge drizabone wax coat with water, and jumped into a ditch and pulled it over himself while the fire swept over him. He stayed in the ditch all night, dehydrated and suffering from smoke inhalation, too terrified to move. Another chap burned his feet running away from his burning house, and jumped into his dam (a 'dam' is a word for a man-made bore lake on a propety). He spent the night in the dam with two burned feet, unable to walk to safety, waiting for the emergency services to find him.

The emergency services guys have similar stories - one of our local CFA fighters was operating a bulldozer, building a fire break wall (it's not just water squirting in a fire like this, it's back burning, building embankments etc.). The fire changed and he realised he couldn't get away, so he followed his training. He pulled his fire blanket around himself, drenched himself with his fire extinguisher and hid under the blade of the bulldozer. The fire burned the dozer out, and all he suffered was smoke inhalation and heat stress.

Today, the shock is starting to kick in. People are exhausted, shaky, they haven't slept and now the adrenaline is running low and they're falling over like bowling pins. The emergency services, hospital workers, the Red Cross. Every day you live this, your stomach feels sick and queasy, your heart rates goes up and down as each new situation presents and each new piece of information comes to you. Around 48 hours is all you can take of that before the reserve tank hits empty and you start looking wild-eyed and making bad decisions.

You have to eat. You have to rest. You have to sleep. You can't do any one of those three things.

Now the focus is on assessing which fires are accidents and which are not.

I don't envy the arsonists, if they're caught.

dSTAR

MAJD - both yourself and WWM have an amazing ability to convey the human scale of events on the ground. I am stunned, saddened and angry reading your words.

Coileach dearg

This is gut-wrenching reading. Hats off to MAJD and WWM for your efforts.

I watched one of those disaster documentries on the discovery channel a few weeks ago and the played out a scenario of what would happen if this happened in Victoria. The outcome was that nothing, absolutely nothing can be done to stop such a fire spreading especially with the winds and heat. It is a carbon copy of what has been happening in Victoria over the weekend.

It makes you take a step back and look at life in a different perspective.

Sammag

After reading the above posts the tears are streaming down my face. They keep falling over and over when I read a new report on the internet or on TV. I cannot comprehend the sheer terror, pain and suffering all these people have gone/are going through - the ones lucky enough to survive and now have to face all they have lost. My heart and support goes out to all of them. It truly is a horrendous tragedy and one which unless directly involved, one find difficult to imagine the actual ferocity of the fires when finding yourself in the middle of one.

Your post above MAJD's - esp. the bit about the horses has me in bits. I have donated to both the Red Cross and to Wildlife Victoria but I wish I could do more to help, in particular the defenseless latter, which have been so badly effected and injured.