Fires in Oz.

[tracker0945]

Got some fires happening at the moment in Australia.
Some very bad ones not a long distance from where Blanikdog lives.
76 confirmed dead to date.
Edit: death toll just climbed to 84
Hope you are doing alright old mate.


Cheers.

[theholymackerel]

Damn, fire is one of the few things that can scare the Hell outta me. I grew up in a place where the mountains would burn from horizon to horizon every few years.

My prayers go out to anyone effected by the fires.

[punkin]

Fire were thirty kilometres from his house last night. Haven't heard from him yet this morning.

[junkyard dawg]

yeah, good luck Blanik and everyone....

That is a bad fire.

[mikeac]

Floods in North Queensland too... Not the best of times...

[blanikdog]

What a dreadful couple of days, A bit of respite today but strong winds are still a problem with flying embers. Temperature expected to rise toward the week end. Our roof gutters are flooded and there were thunder storms last night following the fires so that topped them up a bit. I have blisters on both hands from clearing dry leaves and stuff from around the house. We are both rooted!!! No, not that type of rooted.

Last I heard before trying to sleep last night was over 700 houses gone, eighty plus deaths, christ knows how many burn injuries and expected to exceed 100 deaths. A horrible way to die. Victoria is a war zone at he monent.

We're safe at the moment but this is just the beginning of the fire season. An old friend of mine is 'missing' but she may be in India as she is on leave this school term. Nobody really knows and her ex won't tell me. BASTARD!!!

gotta have some food. Funny thing is we seem to have neglected eating. Just what a fat old bastard like me needs.

blanik

[Husker]

Good luck blanik. I pray you pull through this without harm.

H.

[junkyard dawg]

good luck with the diet, but take care of yourself.

Its good to hear ya check in.

[bourbonbob]

Over 100 recorded deaths and I heard the prime minister say this morning to brace ourselves for many more, 750 + homes have been destroyed and hundreds takan to hospital with burns, some so severe they are not expexted to live. Lets pray for some heavy downpours to extinguish the fires.

[Hack]

Take care of yourselves out there. I hope for the best for you.

[HookLine]

Wish they could have some of my rain.

[bourbonbob]

Last official count is 130 deaths and over 5000 left homeless. There are 31 fires still out of control. Fire fighters from other states are making their way to help out. Most of the fires were deliberately lit, I hope the culprits are made examples of if caught. A 31 year old man was arrested for starting a fire north of Sydney, he is due to face court tomorrow.

[SuperDavid]

Good luck to you blanikdog!!!!!


I think this proposed $900 that we are meant to receive from the govt should be halved or cancelled and be used to help these homeless and injured Victorians get back on their feet!

[HookLine]

Latest on the fires.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/grim-new ... ml?page=-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[goose eye]

sorry to hear of yalls troubles. yall in my prayers.

[blanikdog]

The current death toll is 170+ and increases hourly as more are found. A special squad of ID cops and Army blokes are doing the gruesome job. A report on the ABC disaster station has suggested that it could reach 300. People returning are also being killed as burnt trees fall either on them or across the road. It's a bloody dangerous place to be. Last I heard 750+ houses are gone.

I was worried about a friend but today I found that she is OK. She stayed and fought the bugger and is the only house left. Admitedly the house was well planned to resist fires.

The moon last night was blood red from the bloody smoke. My eyes and throat are really sore and there is smoke visible on every horizon. It sucks, but at least we haven't had any fires....yet. There's still a lot of summer to go and it's tinder dry except where we keep the water up to keep around the house wet. We've cleaned all the leaf litter around the house and are topping up the roof gutters with water twice a day. Later today we are going to buy a couple of petrol driven water pumps for fire fighting, but that means we have to leave the house with the dogs. We don't like leaving though.

The horror stories that fire fighters and mopping up blokes are very depressing, in fact the whole of Victoria is either shocked or depressed. Lots of money coming in from interstate and from other countries. The Queen even sent a message of condolence which made us all feel happier.

Would you believe that not only many of the fires were deliberately but just yesterday three fires were reported in South East New South Wales and two were deliberately lit. You just have to wonder.

Time to check the roof gutters. I haven't done any work on my favourite hobby because of the heat and now the fire
storms. I needn't add that we are a little stressed.

blanik

[HookLine]

I was worried about a friend but today I found that she is OK. She stayed and fought the bugger and is the only house left. Admitedly the house was well planned to resist fires.

There it is. Gotta plan and prepare long before it comes through. In my area we get cyclones for half the year and then bush fires for the other half. No good waiting till the last minute to get ready for them. Too late then.

Would you believe that not only many of the fires were deliberately but just yesterday three fires were reported in South East New South Wales and two were deliberately lit. You just have to wonder.

Apparently something like half of bush fires in Oz are deliberately lit. Wouldn't give two bob for an arsonist's chances if they got caught red handed in Victoria right now.

[Adverse Effects]

last news report i heard was over 140 people dead and getting close to 750 homes destroyed and looks as if over 20% of them not insured

[VicBill]

One of the fires was heading straight for us until the wind changed direction, probably missed us by 20 km. The speed it was moving, that would have been only an hour. We were lucky.

[goose eye]

yup some folks need killin. hope yall catch em

so im tole

[blanikdog]

Up to 2400hrs last night there situation is, 180+ deaths (c50 unidentifiable), 4000 homeless (dunno how many houses but must be around 800), 300,000 hectares burnt.

It's disturbing to see people living as refugees - which they are - in army tents. We see refugee camps on tv all the time (I've lived in Tibetan Rrefugee camps in India) but when they are families from so close to home I tend to feel guilty cos we have been lucky ....this time. Time to go, the wind is picking up.

blanik

[Shine-on]

My heart and prayers goes out to all of you there. There is enough violence in the world, without the added affect of ass holes out there starting fires just for thier own kicks. My words cannot express my feelings going out to those of you, but I hope all is well with all of you and and your families.

Shine-on

[Adverse Effects]

i heard a report on the radio today that said over $120 Mill AU has been collected in fund raisers so far

no the math

$120,000,000 / 800 homes destroyed = that is like $150,000 each house burned down

so why are there still so many people in army tents with that sort of money coming in?

dont get me wrong i am not saying they dont deserve or need the help

i am saying why the fuck arnt they being taken care of better

[goinbroke2]

We have a tv in the canteen at work. Was watching some news at dinnertime and I commented "what a bunch of bastards, I hope they kill the arsonist's"
A couple guys said "why"? You've never burnt anything? I couldn't believe it, I grew up on 168 acre farm and respect my shit as well as others. Perhaps it is growing up poor you get to appreciate stuff. Obviously these clowns had everything handed to them.

They were serious, "yeah when I was young we'd burn down abandon homes/barns and steal cars and burn them"

Some people are REALLY fucked up!

[Ugly]

I realized a long time ago, some people are born idiots. Just pray they die before they breed.

[HookLine]

Yeah, but in the mean time they still get to vote and drive on the road and walk the streets freely and own guns and drink heavily, etc.

[tracker0945]

Total deaths now over 200.
What a waste.


Cheers.

[blanikdog]

... i am saying why the fuck arnt they being taken care of better

It's called beurocracy - or however it's bloody spelt. We are quite heavily involved in the collection and distribution of donated stuff and there is a bloody lot of it. I've heard that there's a warehouse the size of the MCG full of stuff. Also a lot of the houses were built with asbestos cement sheet and the building site needs to be decontaminated before it can be built on. Caravans are now being made available so this will ease the problem. People have been donating food and clothing but what the people mainly need now are personal items, tooth paste, panties, tampons and stuff we never think about.

Centrelink really stuffed up by asking for ID when the poor buggers had no ID cos the fire storm burnt the bloody lot, so they were refused money. The PM stepped in and that seems to be solved. This is a huge disaster and no bugger really seems to understand the logistics required. We will get there and when the next one hits - and it will - we'll have more experience and hopefully be better prepared.

blanik

[goinbroke2]

Heard a quick blurb about floods up north, but anything new on the fires? How about the arsonist? Since there was a couple of plane crashes here, the story-whores in the media have moved on. No follow up, just try to follow the crowd on whatever they think is "popular" for news for that day.

Man I hate the left wing, bleeding heart, liberal biased, media!

Any info would be appreciated, prayers for those who lost so much.

[blanikdog]

The fires in Victoria are sort of under control, but still burning. Last I heard was that another town was in danger, but I haven't turned the news on today. Death toll so far is 209. Gonna get hot later this week but nor 50c, only about 38c. The news here has also lost it's sensational effect and now politicians seem to be in the headlines, hence my not listening to the news. We bought a petrol driven fire fighting pump and hoses this week and hope to sell the unit unused eventually. Cost a grand but we feel 'safer'.

blanik

EDIT: Just heard the 1300 news and there is an extreme fire warning alert and people are evacuating. When will this ever end???? The government has just promised to clear all destroyed home sites for rebuilding at no cost to the people whose house's were destroyed. A friend of ours is a skydiving photgrapher and has lost thirty years of work, never to be replaced.

The stupid thing is that we used to think that mid 30's was hot and just checked the thermometer and it's 35 already and we thought it was coolish. I spose it is after 50c for days on end.