Victorian bushfires and heatwave thread

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Axver

Vocal parasite
Joined
Jun 2, 2003
Messages
152,977
Location
1853
We've been discussing this in the Superthread but I think it deserves a thread of its own here. Yesterday was the hottest day in Victoria since records began 150 years ago. It struck 46.4 in central Melbourne; 46.9 at Essendon Airport near me; 47.9 to Melbourne's west at Avalon Airport (for those of you still using Fahrenheit, we're talking around 116-118). As if the extreme heat wasn't enough, the relative humidity was a paltry 6% and we were experiencing wind gusts of above 80km/h. My house stayed surprisingly cool throughout it, I barely even needed a fan on, but I walked out the door at the height of it and it was like stepping into a blast furnace.

So ... inevitably, there were fires. The place is dry enough as it is. Melbourne recorded a single millimetre of rain for the entirety of January. Victoria was like a tinderbox. And it fucking went up.

At the moment, 65 people are dead. That's probably going to climb. To put things in context, the highest death toll from an Australian bushfire was Ash Wednesday, 1983, with 75 dead, 47 of them in Victoria. The highest death toll in Victoria from a bushfire was Black Friday in 1939, when 71 died. This ... could be worse.

Kinglake is gone. Marysville is gone. Narbethong is gone. All of them are to the north of Melbourne. They were just completely razed by an inferno with flames over forty metres high. Fires burned across the state - east of Melbourne through Gippsland, to the west around Bendigo and Horsham, elsewhere too. The Hume and Princes Highways were closed in multiple places; the Gippsland, Seymour, Warrnambool, and Belgrave railways were cut, as was the main line to Sydney ... only the Gippsland and Belgrave lines have reopened yet.

It's just indescribable. I don't even know what to say, really. I'm rattled by it all, even though I'm safe in Melbourne's inner suburbs.

There are still some fires burning out of control too, but the worst of the heatwave is over. It was only about 20 today. It was actually raining in Marysville.

Links to coverage:
The Age - Business, World & Breaking News | Melbourne, Australia
Bushfire Emergency - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
 
When I lived in Melbourne around 2000, I was friends with a couple of people (both of whom I've lost touch with), of whom one's mother lived in Marysville and the other's father lived in Bendigo. I wish I still had these people's contact numbers.... :(

They just showed the scene in Kinglake on the news. I remember getting coffee and cake in the bakery there one Sunday drive in the country....
 
Some bastards are tying to re-light them too...fuck whits

I just drove back home on the Hume Freeway and about a 10-20km stretch was just horrifying.

Places like Whittlesea, Panton Hill..I drove through yesterday morning :sad:
 
Glad to see you online Daniel - I'd read that thousands of homes in Shepparton, Swan Hill, Bendigo, and the area in between were without power and may not have it restored for days.

Hope the arsonist cunts get everything they deserve.
 
Glad to see you online Daniel - I'd read that thousands of homes in Shepparton, Swan Hill, Bendigo, and the area in between were without power and may not have it restored for days.

Hope the arsonist cunts get everything they deserve.

Yeah I heard that, Fuck this is such a terrible weekend. I only just got home about 30 minutes ago, but Mum said they had no power a bit earlyer on this arvo. Mum also went out and McDonalds and those places ect were all without power. We can't complain though, so far we've avoided any fires whatsoever. (I think there was a little on in Shepp, and one out Katandra.)

The fires did get to the Street of My girlfriends grandparents, but as of now, they are fine.

The Arsonist cunts deserve to be shot, but they will only get a small jail sentence or something.....
 
It's been indescribable. The 6pm news last night made things seem not so bad, relatively speaking, but of course, that was just when the cool change was hitting with its changing winds and the shit really hit the fan just as they went to air. Watching the death toll gradually climb today has just felt so fucking awkward - not to mention the sensation of helplessness when you read what those in the area have gone through.
 
The fires are a statistically inevitability, of course they may become more frequent with climate change, it may well have been a lot worse (in terms of lives lost, families and communities broken down, and property loss); I'd hate to imagine what it would be like with these conditions 20 years ago.
 
The Age is now reporting 76 dead. That's more than Ash Wednesday.

This is the deadliest bushfire in Australian history.

Fucking hell. I've no idea what else to say. Just ... fuck.
 
It's horrific.

I live in a small town near Wangaratta two hours north of Melbourne and the whole town is clouded in smoke and my house stinks of it- not too sure where the nearest fire is though. The cool change reall hasn't hit us here yet though- was still about 36 today
 
I'm glad everyone here is okay... it's just horrific. And there's so little we can do... all I can think to do now is to donate blood, clothes, etc... but nothing and no-one can help those who have lost loved ones... it's just horrendous.

I shuddered today when I heard of the reports of people walking through paddocks, having to euthanise their burnt horses and live-stock. I just can't imagine having to do that...
 
:( I didn't realize wildfires could move that fast...the fires are expected to all be under control soon, then?

Hope everyone here and their families stay safe.
 
It's extraordinary, a natural disaster of such a devastating scale happening in our own backyard.

The human death toll is horrific enough (and it seemes to just keep on escalating without fail by the hour and out of seemingly nowhere), I shudder to imagine the number of animals that have also been incinerated by the flames.

A lot of the firefighters are volunteers, full credit to them for risking their lives and putting themselves on the frontline to stop these waves of flames. I sincerely hope none of these good people have perished....
 
:( I didn't realize wildfires could move that fast...the fires are expected to all be under control soon, then?

Hope everyone here and their families stay safe.

Sparks in the treetops on dry gums make the perfect natural accelerant. All it takes is a light breeze, and the fire can move at an unbelievable rate across roads, dams, empty paddocks, everything. It's also how it can jump houses. Bush fires spread in the air as much as on the ground.

I think there is rain predicted, or already falling, in some parts, which will hopefully be enough to help get them under control. There are reports of arsonists relighting some of these fires that are/were contained.
 
Horrifying fires. My thoughts are with all affected.
 
The death toll has now reached 96. Undoubtedly more bodies to be found; they're saying it could take a couple of weeks to have a final death toll. And there are also 11 people critically injured in hospital. Substantial tracts of land have been burnt - 120,000 hectares in the Kinglake/Marysville fire complex alone.

The description of yesterday as the worst day in Victoria's history may just be accurate. Worst day since Black Friday at any rate.
 
I can't really imagine what 47.9C must feel like, and thankfully I won't. The "infernos" have been making the first slot on the BBC news here.

Must be soul-destroying for those people who can see the fires coming towards their homes, and being unable to prevent losing everything.
 
I hope they catch the bastards who did this and burn them alive

Thoughts and prayers to all who have been affected - it just beggars belief what these townships have had to go through and will have to endure in the coming months . . . I can't imagine the fear, the absolute blind terror that would have gripped their hearts as they tried to flee . . . :sad: absolutely heartbreaking
 
Just awful for everyone involved. I remember how frightened I was when we were evacuated in the 1983 fires. A friends husband and his fire crew have the terrible job of systematically going through burnt out cars, houses searching for the unlucky ones. :sad:
 
I'm sorry for all those effected by the fires. That is just awful, 100 people dead and possibly more?

My thoughts and prayers are with you guys.
 
Back
Top Bottom