Pete, glad to see you're OK. I just read that 84 are dead, including former News reader Brian Naylor, a face we all grew up with, seeing him on the TV night after night. The state, no, the nation is in shock.
flowerdale is leveled guys just got a call from a friend who has land right behind the pub, the pubs gone its all flat, lets hope bert made it out
Bloody hell , what a tragedy. Hope the black spur does,nt go up again. Mate of mine has a holiday house in Narbethong. Nothing there but bush and more bush. Impossible to fight a fire there.
gaz i hate to bring bad news but narbethong was on the call out list a bit last night and they way the wind is, its only a matter of time. the loss of property is one thing but losing friends is worse! some sad news has come through this evening thats for sure
One of our club members folks lost everything yesterday in Kinglake. All GONE. They survived but are now homeless. As of now 85 have died, with the expectation that more will not survive. A real tragedy. Our thoughts go out to all and their families in this difficult time. Rat
Marysville is gone. Don't know for sure about Narbethong edit: Just saw on the late news, Narbethong is gone too Very sad news. I hadn't heard. I certainly grew up with Brian Naylor's face and voice...Hmmm..."May your news be good news and goodnight" RIP
This one may be premature, Tina's car was not at the house when it was checked today and there's no 100% conformation that any bodies were found in the ruins. Sam is OK but we all hope and pray Tina and the girls got out and are safe somewhere.
Very sad news. I hadn't heard. I certainly grew up with Brian Naylor's face and voice...Hmmm... "May your news be good news and goodnight" I just read/heard abour Brian Naylor and his wife perishing. Ever since I was a little boy I can remember him saying that and the end of every news episode. It is tragedy for all who have lost loved ones - somehow this has touched even more of us. RIP Brian, Godspeed. Hope others find out that their friends and family are OK. Rat
The an alternative was not available. The area was a canyon. Fire travels up hill 5 times faster than flat land. That and 75 mile winds throwing flaming avacado's....the pool had plenty of fire break. They did run the risk of being over come by the smoke.
Our local blokes pulled off the miracle of the day yesterday. We still have dark memories from '98 when we lost 45 homes and three lives in our community when the Dandenong Ranges National Park was set alight by an arsonist. Today in a20+degree temperature and with gale force winds at over 100km/h the fire started on the Burwood highway (cigarrett but out car window is the most likely cause) jumped the railway line and ran up into the quarry headed for the forest. If it got in there it would have been all over red rover. They battled all afternoon and kept it contained to the edge of the forest until the wind change and then bough it under control. Bloody top job. To put it into perspective for you Americans, the biggest of the fires covered an area about the size of Maine in just one day and has wiped whole towns off the map in minutes. It is still burning out of control and the death toll is rising. And there's a half dozen more burning in other parts of the state.
CRAP! Air drops on that would be useless. Sounds like you need 20 D9 graders cutting a fire break from hell.
Yup, about all they can do is try and protect people's property and even that is proving useless. Whole towns have been turned to ash in minutes. They've got the army working on it, but the breaks would need to be as wide as the grand canyon and even then in the wind yesterday even that would not have worked. To make matters worse, we're about five years into the worst drought on record and there's buggerall water anywhere. We've had the big 'water crane' choppers flying over here to suck up water from Cardinia Reservoir, which is probably fifty miles even more, from the fire front.
The choppers have been struggling. The army have deployed big dozers today in my part of the state to try to contain the northern part of the Kilmore / Kinglake fire. This fire ran extremely hard yesterday on a northerly, turned and did massive damage with a south westerly wind change and it is now blowing a gale from the south. It's almost midnight and the wind seems to be getting stronger.
It's getting better and better all the time up here Strong winds and I just started seeing lightning...no rain. I want to go to bed but almost don't dare.
thanks for the news carps. wally sold me my first car he and richard have been family friends for a long long time.
Tragic, just tragic. To Pete and everyone else putting their lives on the line to fight this, please stay safe and God bless you.
dam sorry to hear about this..I wonder what area Doc Watson is from and if hes ok? any one know? You all stay safe and watch each others backs hope this all dies down quickly for you
I'm trying to put this in perspective. I am hearing 850 square miles so far, which makes it comparable in area to the 2003 or 2007 wildfires (around 1100 and 800 square miles respectively) which devastated so much of Southern California. The death toll is horrendous. My heart goes out to all the victims of this tragedy.
Just heard the news about whats happening back home in Oz. I just dont have the words. My heart and prayers to all. oz40 (Tom)
just read the news online and they have upped the numbers death toll is 108 so far. the square miles is around 1500 hugh area and mostly inaccessible bush land. there are still 31 fires burning according to THE AGE newpaper online, and some that still pose a real threat. no only is it the lives and homes, but our wildlife may never recover from this. If we don't get some decent rain after all this settles down there will be no regrowth, we could see large areas of native bushland lost for many years. devistating.
It's especially difficult knowing that every car you hear drive up the street might just be some mongrel with a box of matches and a sick desire to see the national park and whatever else is in the way go up in flames. A truck driving up the street gets your attention even more.
No he is in Bald hills,it's a suburb on the northern edge of Brisbane,Suburbia and the only weather problems are humidity and 30C . Nothing compared to anyone else. The monsoon is 1000KMs from us. It's impossible for us City Dwellers to comprehend bush fires unless you have lived out west ( Ex Condobolin) .
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