Bushfires in Victoria kill 76, death toll will rise [update: 181 dead]

Dang I feel for you guys down under.

The Sylmar fire in southern California literally passed over my home last fall. The red sky, embers, smoke, and 80mph winds were hellish.

You guys need to run away from these things when they approach. A fire with full momentum is nearly impossible to stop and I hope that these deaths weren't from people that tried to defend their homes, as noble as it is.

Death Toll Climbs to 65 and rising

700+ Homes now destroyed, 2 whole towns wiped off the map.

www.smh.com.au...

Hell has unleashed its fury on Victoria, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said today.

Sixty-five people are confirmed dead in savage bushfires which have ripped across Victoria, with police expecting the toll to rise.

"Hell and all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours," Mr Rudd told reporters in the fire-ravaged Yarra Valley.

"Many good people now lie dead. Many others lie injured.

"This is an appalling tragedy for Victoria but because of that it's an appalling tragedy for the nation.

"Australia the country stands behind Victoria at this awful time.

"Our first response as human beings is one of the deepest empathy for people whose lives have now been devastated.

"This loss of life, the numbers of injured, the horrific injuries, our thoughts and our prayers go out to each and every one of them as they now try and deal with this tragedy and recover from the damage which has occurred."

Twenty-five victims were killed in the Kinglake area north of Melbourne, one in the central regional city of Bendigo and another in the nearby town of Long Gully. Nine deaths were confirmed on Sunday afternoon in Gippsland.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and at least 200,000 hectares of land has been burnt out in more than 400 fires in every part of the state over the weekend.

Mr Rudd paid tribute to firefighters who have averted even further devastation and said the army would be deployed to help.

"Also as human beings we salute the extraordinary courage of all the emergency services workers," he said.

"Police, the Country Fire Authority, those who work in our hospitals, those in the SES (State Emergency Service).

"At times like this, the nation stands behind states like Victoria when the Australian Defence Force is needed.

"All the resources as required by the Victorian authorities from the Australian Defence Force will be provided, wherever that is, whichever community it is, whatever the defence force can do, we will do.

"Some of these communities don't have anything left.

"This is very large scale stuff."

Mr Rudd announced a joint federal-state $10 million relief fund, and appealed to Australians to give generously.

"My appeal to all Australians is to dig deep as people's lives have been shattered," he said.

"The national government will be with the Victorian government, through the awful and ugly days that lie ahead and in the longer path of recovery."

There is also video above this article.

That's more deaths in Victoria this season than there was on Ash Wednesday.

This time around, I've barely had smoke in the sky near me - unlike Ash Wednesday when the whole sky was brown from dust and smoke.

Here's what makes me wonder: We have access to six dedicated firebombing helicopter, Elvis and his friends, the S-64 Helitanker this season to cover Vic, NSW and SA.

Here's a tip for Krudd. Let's buy ONE less F-35 Lightning at a cost of USD$83M. How many S-64 helicopters will that buy? I can't find a price online for what the helicopter costs.

Instead of buying ONE warplane to bomb the crap out of humans, why can't we buy some firechoppers to bomb the crap out of the fires instead?

Similarly, let's not buy a few army tanks so we can buy more firetrucks and ambulances... wouldn't that be most welcome!

Every year, Australia is at a FAR GREATER risk from bush fires than it ever will be from being invaded by a foreign force. Swords to plowshares. Look after ourselves first.

Warpig leaders are nuts. Their priorities are screwed.

reply to post by tezzajw


I just saw Krudd on TV a few minutes ago, he looks positively shocked and tired to tell you the truth.

But I fully agree with everything you said tezza, this might just be the wake-up call Ruddy-boy needs.

reply to post by tezzajw


the problem isn't lack of helicopters, it's lack of water. it's virtually impossible for them to find water;
they can't use too much water from the reservoirs due to the drought and the fact that their at an all time low.
They're not going to use pool water because its too time consuming.
the can't use sea water because of all the salt.

so much for "The Lucky Country."

reply to post by Kryties


I couldn't give a stuff how Krudd looked. I hope he was tired.

Think of the hypocrisy of what he is saying - calling in the army to fight fires. I thought that the friggin army was trained to kill people.

Krudd, you useless leader, if you want to fight fires, THEN SPEND THE MONEY TO TRAIN FIREFIGHTERS! Cut back on the number of paid soldiers, paid fighter pilots and military hardware and train more people for essential services instead, giving them the best of current resources and hardware to do their jobs. Fighter pilots can fly firebombing helicopters instead, right?

It doesn't take a genius to run a country and we're seeing that we don't have a genius in charge.

Sending soldiers to fight a fire, what a dick head! Send firefighters to fight the fires instead. The worst part is that it happens every season and nothing is done to improve the resources...

[/rant]

reply to post by tezzajw


LOL what does he expect them to do? Shoot the bloody fire with bullets?

And his promise of immediate Centrelink payments to those affected: $1000 per adult and $400 per kid, that had BETTER not be it. That's the bare MINIMUM he should be doing.

reply to post by iced_blue


I was seeing reports on tv of people running out of water whilst trying to protect their homes and resorted to shovels and stomping it out with their feet.

Originally posted by iced_blue
the problem isn't lack of helicopters, it's lack of water. it's virtually impossible for them to find water;

That's a resource management issue. If the many governments that we have in our country were serious about bushfires, they would dedicate water reserves during the off-season to be available for the firechoppers, when needed.

For six months of the year we're not under bushfire threat. That's when the work can be carried out to make sure that everything will be ready to go for when Summer kicks in.

It can be done, but it's not, as it's not profitable. There's too much money spent on jet fighters, submarines, tanks and other wartoys, instead. Sure, like they'll save us...

Well things are bad enough to have made the main story on the front pages of both the CNN and BBC websites:

edition.cnn.com...

news.bbc.co.uk...

The devastation is unbelievable. My heart goes out to the victims and their families. Thank you to the many local heroes and firefighters that risked their lives to save others. This is sure to saturate the Australian media for weeks to come.

[edit on 8/2/09 by Evasius]

Originally posted by tezzajw

That's a resource management issue. If the many governments that we have in our country were serious about bushfires, they would dedicate water reserves during the off-season to be available for the firechoppers, when needed.

For six months of the year we're not under bushfire threat. That's when the work can be carried out to make sure that everything will be ready to go for when Summer kicks in.

It can be done, but it's not, as it's not profitable. There's too much money spent on jet fighters, submarines, tanks and other wartoys, instead. Sure, like they'll save us...

If something had of been done 20 or so years ago then we may not even need water restrictions.
but as for creating a reservoir used for firefighting only in only 10 - 11 months is impossible, even if it didn't need any paper work. Once again there's nowhere to get water from unless we split the water accumulated from rainfall, but then our drinking water would go down.
we can't win, something needed to be done 20 years ago.



New Update : 76 Dead, +640 homes destroyed

Edit: updated death toll


[edit on 8-2-2009 by iced_blue]

Originally posted by iced_blue
but as for creating a reservoir used for firefighting only in only 10 - 11 months is impossible,

Why would a reservoir need to only be exclusively used for firefighting?

Ignoring the water shortage over the previous number of years is now hurting the state. There's no instant fix solution, as the problem has been left for too long.

Work needs to start - now - to improve the water situation and fire resources. There will be more bushfires, guaranteed. Preparation is the key.

There's rumours that Brian Naylor (ex-Ch 9 newsreader) might be a fire victim. It was breaking news a few minutes ago on Ch 10 TV.

[edit on 8-2-2009 by tezzajw]

South Australian Premier describes arsonists as terrorists...

"These people are terrorists within our nation, they are the enemy within and we have to be increasingly vigilant about them when you consider that 20 per cent of the fires in South Australia so far this summer have been deliberately lit," Mr Rann said.


This is BS. The crime is ARSON, not TERRORISM. It's more conditioning for people to be scared of the bogeyman 'terrorist'. The war on terra does not need to be expanded to include people who light bushfires.


None of us can stand what the arsonists have done, but let's not mislabel their actions for something that they are not. Similarly, I can't see how arsonists can be charged with murder. Sure, possibly manslaughter with jail, but murder? Don't they have to prove a deliberate attempt to take a life?

The reason that the death toll is that high is that the fires were moving at an incredible speed. Even seasoned firefighters who have done this for 20 or 30 years have said that they've never seen anything like it.

One crew of firefighters that was lucky to be alive, said they were fighting a fire front on the ground and the the fire was overtaking them on the tree tops. It wasnt even just burning at ground level but racing through the countryside on the tree tops throwing burning embers everywhere.

Many people had left it too late to leave/escape or were caught out.

Was a story on the news about a 5 or 6 car pile up of people trying to escape. Front car hit a tree, couldnt see from the smoke and the others just rammed all into it. The front was right next to them and they all perished.

truly shocking.

Melbourne get hot weather every now and then but this was an extreme that is truly worrisome.

December started off summer with many thinking it would be one of the coolest, but february has been an absolute scorcher.

Our water levels are dire, the country side is as dry as a nuns "edit"

I agree with Tezza.....we truly need more resources for situatioons such as this. each year we get bushfires but they seem to be getting worse.

Also governments sucking upto the greens has contributed somewhat with the banning of cattle being allowed in the High Country, allowing the bush to overgrow with fuel.

we should have a major fleet of these fire bombing helicopters....if need be, services and operated by the air force for situation such as these, deployable anywhere in the country.

and in regards to the army being called in, no they are not going to fire bullets at the fire, they are being called in for some of their resources mainly being the erection of tent cities for housing the homeless to portable hospitals to treat the injured and wounded closer to these areas, aswell as heavy machinery to make firebreaks.

Dont forget, this was just 1 day of extreme weather, tempriture and heat.

Melbourne had 5 days the previous week of 40+ degrees, but we didnt have the wind associated with it. if we did, it would have been worse and would have been double the size it is now.

in regards to the ash wednesday fires, the reason the whole city wasnt covered in smoke on saturday is because the ash wednesday bushfires were largely in the Macedon ranges, North west of melbourne and going south to some areas of Wombat State Forest down to Geelong areas.

the weather comes from the west which is why it was blown all over the city.

its sad that politicians need the shock of mass civilian death to make them wake up to needs of the state.

The death toll is in the 70's now

Here's some photos taken from here











It doesn't look like it's gonna let it any time soon.

My mate in the SES just called me, 84 confirmed dead now.

They are expecting up to twice that.

I feel pretty damn useless right now.
these pics are almost surreal.

reply to post by tezzajw


Brain Naylor was just confirmed dead on channel 10.

Death toll is now at 84 (not including Marysville)

+700 homes destroyed

this is officially the worst fire recorded in Australia's

R.I.P to all those who have lost their lives

reply to post by SvenTheBerserK


You have no understanding of my comment to make that kind of reply, you think i'm not worried about my parents and girlfriend.

I was making a relevent point, what are you doing looking for props.



[edit on 8-2-2009 by TheKingsVillian]

Originally posted by TheKingsVillian
reply to post by SvenTheBerserK

 

You have no understanding of my comment to make that kind of reply, you think i'm not worried about my parents and girlfriend.

I was making a relevent point, what are you doing looking for props.

[edit on 8-2-2009 by TheKingsVillian]

You mentioned nothing of your family before.
But i apologize for misunderstanding your post.
What area are your family in and are they ok?