Death Toll In Australian Wildfires Climbs To 200

[george]

Not Thailand related, but World News:

Death Toll in Australian Wildfires Climbs to 131

SYDNEY, Australia: — Fanned by the hottest temperatures on record, a series of wildfires tore through southern Australia over the weekend, killing at least 131 people in the deadliest natural disaster on record, police said Monday.

Forensic investigators descended on the fire zone Monday to begin identifying bodies found in the rubble. Police warned the death toll could rise.

Officials suspect that some of Saturday’s fires were set deliberately. Huge tracts of land were declared crime scenes and police announced a special task force to hunt suspected arsonists, who could face murder charges.

A man and a boy were charged with lighting fires on the outskirts of Sydney in two unrelated cases on Monday.

Again and again, survivors of the that ripped across the southern state of Victoria on Saturday told the same story — the fires came without warning and too fast for anyone to act.

Thomas Libreri, a home builder in the alpine village of Kinglake, one of several towns nearly destroyed in the weekend blazes, said the first sign of trouble was when he heard the roar of flames coming over a ridge toward his house.

“I heard the noise, and then I had about 20 seconds to react — that’s how fast it came,” Mr. Libreri told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday.

In minutes, the fires had razed most of the homes on his block, leaving one man with severe burns. Mr. Libreri said he and a neighbor grabbed the injured man and threw him into a swimming pool, where they waited six hours for rescue teams to arrive.

Some panicked residents try to flee the inferno in their cars, but crashed into trees, embankments and other vehicles amid the thick smoke. Police said a number of people died trying to outrun the blaze, including six people found burned to death in a single car.

Photographs from the fire zone showed the smoldering remains of several burned out cars scattered along the region’s highways, some with the doors flung open as if their terrified passengers had tried to make a last bolt for safety on foot.

At least 750 homes were destroyed, displacing more than 1,000 people, many of whom have been left with nothing.

Sonja Parkinson and her 2-year-old son were among those who escaped with only the clothes they were wearing. When their home began to disintegrate in the flames, they made a run for a nearby creek, where they huddled under sodden blankets as the fire blazed around them.

“They say a bushfire sounds like a freight train coming,” Ms. Parkinson told The Australian newspaper. “But it sounded like a freight train as big as the entire space you could see, the entire horizon. It was that much noise and force.”

At least three dozen fires hit Victoria on Saturday, but most of the damage was wrought by a 60-mile-long blaze that razed Kinglake and destroyed several other small villages northeast of Melbourne.

Police tape was strewn around the wreckage of several houses in the tiny town of Strathewen, where up to 30 of the town’s 200 people were thought to have died in the blaze, according to a reporter from The Age newspaper who toured the site with a fire official.

The Victoria state police commissioner, Christine Nixon, said the process of removing and identifying the dead could take days, as police were treating each death as a potential homicide.

“This will take some time,” Ms. Nixon told reporters. “It is a complex matter and we must be accurate.”

Australians are no strangers to wildfires. Every summer, thousands of fires burn across this hot, dry continent, and there are not enough firefighters to protect every home. Many rural Australians know that it is only a matter of time before they, or someone they know, will face a stark choice — evacuate or stay to fight the fires.

Fire authorities across Australia advise residents who choose to defend their homes to stay indoors while the worst of the blaze passes. Citing statistics from past fires, the agencies say that most people can survive a wildfire if they avoid direct contact with the searing temperatures and scalding gas that come with an advancing fire.

However, many of the residents caught up in the Victoria blazes had no time for an orderly escape, and some were killed when the houses they were sheltering in collapsed around them.

The state premier, John Brumby, announced that the government would set up a commission to examine the emergency response to Saturday’s fires, and review the longstanding policy of advising residents to “stay and defend or leave early.”

“People will want to review that, examine that. It may be right, it may not be,” Mr. Brumby told a local radio station on Monday. “There is no question that there were people who did everything right, put in place their fire plan and it wouldn’t matter, their house was just incinerated.”

Wildfires have been burning across Victoria for weeks, but record temperatures of up to 117 degrees combined with the most severe drought in the country’s history to create the worst fire conditions ever seen in Australia, Brumby said.

Scientists have been warning for years that climate change will bring higher temperatures and lower rainfall to Australia, increasing the likelihood of deadly wildfires. Some questioned whether Saturday’s fire was a sign of things to come.

“It’s a sobering reminder of the need for this nation and the whole world to act and put at a priority our need to tackle climate change,” said Bob Brown, the leader of Australia’s minor Greens Party.

-- AP 2009-02-09

[neverdie]

RIP!

[Crossy]

RIP!

Agreed

[Tywais]

Fires may be worst peacetime disaster

UPDATED: Rick Wallace | 6:40pm THE bush fires in Victoria, which have now claimed 131 lives, are likely to become the worst peacetime disaster in Australia's history.

The Australian News

********************************************

Fires continue to burn as death toll climbs

"The death toll from Victoria's weekend bushfires has risen to 131 and an urgent threat message has been issued for more communities this afternoon.

A wind change this afternoon is causing the huge fire in the Latrobe Valley to flare up along its northern edge and authorities have issued an urgent threat message to residents in the area, telling them it is too late to try and leave. "

ABC News

********************************************

"A tragedy beyond belief, beyond precedent and really beyond words.

She warned the country to prepare for more tragedy.

"It will get worse and Australians need to prepare themselves," Ms Gillard told the nation's parliament.

She also said that the tragedy will be remembered as one of the darkest days in Australia's peacetime history."

Sydney Morning Herald

********************************************

" 131 dead in worst bushfire disaster

AUTHORITIES warned the death toll from Australia's worst bushfires could hit 230, in what Kevin Rudd said could be "mass murder". "

News.com.au

[sbk]

This is a terrible tragedy sure to have an effect on not just the Australian public but Thai Visa members as well. My hopes and prayers go to anyone who may have had family in this area and to those who may have already lost loved ones.

[jamesjdaly]

Some panicked residents try to flee the inferno in their cars, but crashed into trees, embankments and other vehicles amid the thick smoke. Police said a number of people died trying to outrun the blaze, including six people found burned to death in a single car.

Surely a scene from hel_l. My deepest sympathies.

[photojourn]

Streaming ABC radio at Streaming ABC Vic. radio

Streaming ABC TV: ABC News

Follow live twistter feeds: #bushfires

Prayers for all those involved

[Mobi]

Thank you, George, for having the common sense and integrity to post this tragic news story, when two previous attempts to do so were summarily removed.

RIP to to all the folks who were caught up in this inferno.

[whimsy]

A google map tracking where the fires are and their current status is here. http://google-au.blogspot.com/2009/02/mapp...rian-fires.html

We've today pulled together a Flash Map, containing the latest up-to-date information about fire locations and their status from the Country Fire Authority (CFA). The Flash Map is updated in real-time from the CFA website via an RSS feed. We hope that it's of some use to people who may be affected, to emergency services personnel, and that it takes some load off other websites which are being inundated. The map certainly makes the scale of this disaster immediately apparent

[Tywais]

Also a map of affected areas, town by town statistics > World News Australia

[bridge]

George,

Although this is not Thai news related, I too sincerely thank you for posting on this truly devastating occurrence. It will certainly be remembered as one of Australia's darkest days. My deepest sympathies to those who have lost family and friends.

bridge

[Xangsamhua]

Very, very sad. The 1983 Ash Wednesday fires were terrible enough, but these are at least three times as bad in terms of loss of life. RIP those who have died and prayers for all those who have lost loved ones and homes.

[fred2007]

Thank you, George, for having the common sense and integrity to post this tragic news story, when two previous attempts to do so were summarily removed.

RIP to to all the folks who were caught up in this inferno.

Yes I agree I tried many times to post news but you know the rules on this forum and I guess

it should be changed why can't we have an international section so every body can post important

news from ther home land

[LeungKen]

Thanks George.

There are many of us with Oz/Thai connections and these are exceptional times and circumstances in Victoria and other affected areas.

Predictions of the final death toll reaching in excess of 200 are being mentioned by both senior firefighters and police alike.

Hospitals in Melbourne are full with major burns victims and the identification of the charred remains of those still being discovered are almost identical to the "Bali Bombing"

To all those affected, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

[donna]

This is truly a tragic time for all Australians. To see towns that I have been to reduced to ash, it shows just how furious mother nature can be.

My nephew has been a volunteer firefighter for a number of years, and a part of his 'real' job is to fight fires and make firebreaks. For the past 3 days and nights he has been up at Kinglake. I called him this morning and he was just getting home after battling all night. He told me that this is the worst thing that he has ever seen. His first job yesterday was to search for a busload of people (minibus i presume). Not sure if he found them or not.

The firefighters are going into houses to put out smoldering fires, and doing a little 'tidy up' at the same time. He told me that on many occasions that as the 'fireys' are leaving, the police are entering and collecting pieces of bone fragments to be DNA tested. It has been impossible for them to find evidence of anyone inside the houses.

The stories of heroism will surely come out soon, but in my eyes, my nephew is my hero.

To all those members who have suffered loss, I give you my deepest sympathy.

[Scott]

Yes, a big thank you. I am not Australian, but this event transcends borders. Lots of Australians here and lots of Thais there. Few of us here don't have friends, aquaintances or co-workers that are Ozzies. My thoughts are with you.

[khundon]

My wife and I send our deepest sympathies, to those who have lost family and friends.

[GungaDin]

Thanks George, for using common sense about this disaster, something the mods failed to do on at least 3 occasions.

R I P

Even hardened cops were crying at the scenes of death and destruction.

Tragic bushfire toll now 166

February 10, 2009 12:00am

UPDATE 1.35am: WHOLE towns have been declared crime scenes as the toll from Victoria's worst natural disaster leapt to 166.

But Premier John Brumby says the bushfire emergency will get worse before it gets any better.

"We've still got fires that are not contained," he said.

"There is a huge effort to get them under control.

"Tragically, we will have more deaths later this week."

There are fears the tragedy will have claimed more than 200 lives by the time police complete their searches of towns wiped out by the blazes.

The bushfire death toll has now reached 166 dead, a police spokeswoman confirmed about 1am this morning as police try to account for the people who perished in the fires.

Authorities say they are shocked by the sudden leap in numbers as more discoveries come to light, with early indications that the numbers leapt amid the discovery of clusters of bodies.

A motorbike lays on the Heidelberg-Kinglake Rd in the Arthur's Creek/ St Andrews Area. It is believed that the rider of the bike was found deceased near the crash scene. Picture: Darren Tindale

Photo Gallery

Edited February 9, 2009 by GungaDin

[Mosha]

BBC News has just said 170+ now dead. The Aussie pm commenting it's mass murder.

[MiG16]

Toll rises as villages reveal their dead

TOWNS have been declared crime scenes, and the death toll in Victoria's bushfires could top 200 as the grisly search for bodies continues in communities that were wiped out.

At 7.15am this morning the death toll had reached 173 [] but that figure was certain to climb as identification experts were called in to take over the grim task of recovering bodies from volunteer firefighters.

More than 750 homes have been destroyed, 330,000 hectares have been burnt out and more than 52 fires were listed as still burning throughout the state yesterday.

from the Sydney Morning Herald

[MiG16]

Grief on our minds, strength in our hearts

Our national character will emerge stronger from this disaster, writes Tony Stephens.

AUSTRALIANS have watched in disbelieving horror as nature stripped away the nation's clothing of civilisation, leaving great swathes of this wide brown land a blackened ground zero.

This was Australia's greatest natural disaster, and the date on which the fires raged into an inferno - February 7, 2009 - will be marked on the nation's calendar of grief, perhaps like April 25. [ANZAC day]

We watched as the toll mounted through yesterday - 130 dead, 750 homes lost by last night - but there are days in a life when you see clearly only with the heart. Australian hearts have been stung.

This is a nation built on grief, as well as achievement, from dispossession of the Aboriginal people to the transportation of convicts, to world war and the Great Depression and Bali bombs and floods and fires. All these trials and tribulations ask questions of the people's character. History shows that first we fight to survive, then we grieve for those who didn't, seeking meaning from the melancholy, then we try to do something about it.

full article continues here at the Sydney Morning Herald

a truly brave nation

have always admired the strength of character Aussies show. I think Australia has the largest number of volunteers in the world.... firefighters, beach rescue, etc etc

at the moment there is an appeal out for cash, as well as other things. We are setting up a collection point at our work here and having it sent over to Vicotria in the next couple of days. This was organised today, and the response is already enormous.

[njpski]

Fascinating to see what coverage there is of this tragedy in the two main Thai english papers.

Bangkok Post has lead stories, followups and pictures.

Nation - nothing that I can readily find.

Australia is good source of tourists and also many Thais have relatives in Australia via marriage.

My fiancee has been aware of the floods in Queensland and the devastating fires in Victoria via television in Thailand so there is media coverage but the Nation ... what can i say?!?

[jayjayjayjay]

Toll rises as villages reveal their dead

TOWNS have been declared crime scenes, and the death toll in Victoria's bushfires could top 200 as the grisly search for bodies continues in communities that were wiped out.

At 7.15am this morning the death toll had reached 173 [ ] but that figure was certain to climb as identification experts were called in to take over the grim task of recovering bodies from volunteer firefighters.

More than 750 homes have been destroyed, 330,000 hectares have been burnt out and more than 52 fires were listed as still burning throughout the state yesterday.

from the Sydney Morning Herald

RIP to family and friends, I'ld like to remember 5 close friends lost in Ash Wednesday 16th Feb 1983, RIP to the Battersby family..JJJJ

[warfie]

My condolences to those who lost loved-ones.

This is terrible, tragic news. My heart goes out to all those affected.

Just rang the ex... my kids are ok...

[MiG16]

good to hear that warfie

jayjayjay... sorry about the loss of your friends. it may have been many years since, but I know how you still will always miss them.

[GungaDin]

The Nation news site was updated at 10:31.

They are still staring at their belly buttons.

[Mobi]

The Nation news site was updated at 10:31.

They are still staring at their belly buttons.

There are over 20,000 Thai born people living in Australia, to say nothing of Thai students, 2nd generation Thais, Australian husbands, wives, children and others with relatives and close friends back in Thailand.

That should merit a line or two

[WaiWai]

Galleries:

http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,22010,503...5006020,00.html

http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,503...5007150,00.html

[samuibeachcomber]

perishing in a fire must be absolutely horrific and terrible for those who have lost friends and family members.

But i would like to say that the majority of bushfires are started by people with no brains,and i for one would like any that are caught through forensic evidence and found guilty to be given very harsh sentences,because at the end of the day they have been responsible for committing murder or at the very least,manslaughter.and i dont want to hear that they had a deprived childhood,or are proved to be 2 bricks short of a wall and hence not responsible for their actions.

[WaiWai]

Most of the info below applies to people in Australia. The bolded, blue items should allow people to help from Thailand/other countries.

Article from: The Australian

THERE are several ways you can help the victims of Victoria's worst ever bushfires.

This morning Victoria Police and the Red Cross have requested people wanting to donate should not use any numbers listed for emergency use only.

To donate to the Red Cross State Government Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund:

Visit www.redcross.org.au

Phone 1800 811 700

Go to any NAB, ANZ, Westpac or Commonwealth Bank branch

Go to any Bunnings store

Make a direct deposit to the Victorian Bushfire Relief Fund

BSB 082-001, Account number 860-046-797

Another appeal set up is the Myer Bushfire Appeal. All proceeds will go to the Salvation Army. Donate at any Victorian Myer store.

Leave your message of support to the fire crews here http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...5018722,00.html

Message board: Make contact with loved ones here http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...5018722,00.html