'Everybody's gone ... Everybody's dead'

Australian bushfires kill 171, dozens missing
By Simone Giuliani, ReutersFebruary 9, 2009 12:01 PM


WHITTLESEA, Australia - Weary firefighters and rescuers pulled the remains of dozens of people from charred buildings on Monday as the toll from Australia's deadliest bushfires rose to 171, police said.

"Everybody's gone. Everybody's gone. Everybody. Their houses are gone. They're all dead in the houses there. Everybody's dead," cried survivor Christopher Harvey as he walked through the town of Kinglake, where most people were killed.

A Victoria state police spokesman told Reuters by telephone late on Monday the toll had risen to 171 from about 135 hours earlier. He said the toll would almost certainly rise further.

Police believe some of the fires, which razed rural towns near the country's second biggest city, Melbourne, were deliberately lit and declared one devastated town a crime scene.

"There are no words to describe it other than mass murder," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd earlier told local television. "These numbers (of dead) are numbing."

The bushfires are the country's worst natural disaster in more than a century, and will put pressure on Rudd to deliver a broad new climate policy.



One massive bushfire tore through several towns in the southern state of Victoria on Saturday night, destroying everything in its path. Many people died in cars trying to flee and others were killed huddled in their homes, yet some escaped by jumping into swimming pools or farm reservoirs.

The inferno was as tall as a four-storey building at one stage and was sparking spot fires 40 km (25 miles) ahead of itself as the strong winds blew hot embers in its path.

"It's going to look like Hiroshima, I tell you. It's going to look like a nuclear bomb. There are animals dead all over the road," said Harvey.

More than 750 houses were destroyed and some 78 people, with serious burns and injuries, are in hospital.

Many patients had burns to more than 30 per cent of their bodies and some injuries were worse than the Bali bombings in 2002, said one doctor at a hospital emergency department.

In Canberra, lawmakers fought back tears as they suspended parliament for the day after expressing condolences to the victims on behalf of the stunned nation.

"It is the beauty and the wonder of our country," National Party leader Warren Truss said. "It can also be harsh and cruel. How can these idyllic landscapes also become killing fields?"

Wildfires are a natural annual event in Australia, but this year a combination of scorching weather, drought and tinder-dry bush has created prime conditions.

The fires, and major floods in Queensland state in the north, will put pressure on Rudd, who is due to deliver a new climate policy in May. Green politicians are citing the extreme weather to back a tougher climate policy. 1/8ID:nSP292660 3/8

Adding to the nation's grief, authorities in northern Queensland searched unsuccessfully for a five-year-old boy who they believe was killed by a crocodile when he chased his pet dog into the flooded Daintree River.

Scientists say Australia, with its harsh environment, is set to be one of the nations most affected by climate change.

"Continued increases in greenhouse gases will lead to further warming and drier conditions in southern Australia, so the (fire) risks are likely to slightly worsen," said Kevin Hennessy at the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Centre (CSIRO).

The Victorian bushfire tragedy is the worst natural disaster in Australia in 110 years. In 1899, Cyclone Mahina struck Australia's northern Cape York, killing more than 400.

Thousands of firefighters continued to battle the main fires and scores of other blazes across Victoria on Monday, as well as fires in neighbouring New South Wales state.


While cooler, calmer conditions helped firefighters, 10 major fires remained out of control in Victoria. But the week-long heatwave that triggered the inferno was over.

The fires burnt out more than 330,000 ha (815,000 acres) of mostly bushland in Victoria, but a number of vineyards in the Yarra Valley were also destroyed. The Insurance Council of Australia said it was too early to estimate the bill.

The small town of Marysville was sealed off by police as forensic scientists searched through the rubble for evidence.

As dawn broke in the town of Whittlesea, near Kinglake, shocked residents wandered the streets, some crying, searching for loved ones still missing.

"The last anyone saw of them, the kids were running in the house, they were blocked in the house," cried Sam Gents, who had not heard from his wife Tina and three children, aged 6, 13 and 15, since the fire swept through Kinglake.



"If they let me up the mountain I know where to go (to try and find them)," Gents sobbed. Police sealed off Kinglake, where at least 35 died, because bodies were still being recovered.

Handwritten notes pinned to a board in the Whittlesea evacuation centre told the same sad story, with desperate pleas from people for missing family and friends to contact them.

Rudd said it would take years to rebuild the devastated towns and has announced a A$10 million ($6.8 million) aid package. He has also called in the army to help erect emergency shelter.

The previous worst bushfire tragedy in Australia was in 1983, when 75 people were killed.

Consider me a novice on the subject of wild fires.

So does the fire actually move quick enough that they can't get wind of it moving towards them, and flee?

from what I've seen on other wildfires, people try desperately to save their houses and stay behind far too long before evacuating. Then when they're trying to leave, the fire is basically surrounding them.

Given the heatwave they've been having in Aus. and how strong the wind is there, I wouldn't be surprised that fire covered acres in mere moments.

Found a story on the very topic:

From Times Online
February 9, 2009

Black Saturday: why did so many die in Australian bushfires?


Survivors said the fires swept in so fast that there was no time to implement fire plans and they had to flee


Everyone recognised the nature of the threat in broad terms. For once the weather forecast was spot on and the Victorian Government and Country Fire Authority (CFA) left people in no doubt that the bushfires already under way could explode into the state's worst disaster in history.

John Brumby, the Premier, told Victorians what they needed to hear — they faced conditions more dangerous than the bushfires of Ash Wednesday in 1983 and Black Friday in 1939.

Russell Rees, the chief officer of the CFA, advised his troops on the evening of the disaster: "We're in unchartered territory."

"Our weather conditions are as bad as they can get — hot northerly winds, low humidity, and a south-westerly wind change with no rain,'' he said in a briefing on Friday.

"If I said [our weather conditions] were bloody horrible, I am underestimating it. I have never seen figures like this."

Yet no one, it seems, was prepared for the reality of the wildfires in Victoria.

One of the most bewildering aspects of Black Saturday was the disconnection between the general and, ultimately, prophetic warnings issued by authorities beforehand and the absence of specific information when the fires overwhelmed communities.

A common thread in some of the most devastated towns and hamlets was that not one had time to react between seeing fire on the horizon, or hearing that it was on the way, and their house exploding.

In some cases only minutes would separate the urgent official warnings, which would be passed on through the local ABC radio network, and flames sweeping through the main street.

In other areas there were no warnings and only a handful of firefighters to offer token resistance. Kinglake and St Andrew's had already been wiped out before they were mentioned in the radio updates of towns in danger.

Death came to those communities where fires started on the Saturday — and some of those blazes were lit deliberately. By contrast, the fire that had been raging since last week and was causing the most concern for the CFA before Black Saturday — in the Bunyip state forest east of Melbourne — has yet to officially claim a life.

The disaster raises again the sensitive question of when to abandon a town to Mother Nature. The old advice leaving it to individuals to decide whether to stay on their property or escape assumed that they had hours to decide.

Robert McClelland, the Federal Attorney-General, suggested that a national dialogue to determine if the bushfire safety message needed to change. One option was to implement a national telephone early warning system.

Jon Faine, an ABC radio compere, said there is no doubt people misunderstood how serious the situation was.

He read out the official advice from the CFA for people to implement their fire plans, as he had done in previous seasons. In the past this would be the cue for people to make the decision to stay or flee knowing that they had time to batten down or make a getaway.

"But never before did implement your fire plans mean their town was about to be obliterated in a couple of minutes," he said last night.

At the heart of the problems appeared to be an inability from the CFA, the Department of Sustainability and Environment or residents to change their thinking to match the nature of the weather, in which temperature records were broken across the state, including an all-time high of 46.4C (115.5F) in Melbourne.

Even three days after the inferno, and as the CFA battles new fires across the state, the website for Department of Sustainability and Environment contains a template message that seems naive given the chilling hindsight of Black Saturday.

"Residents are encouraged to be vigilant, listen for updates and be ready to activate their fire plans," it says. "Residents are reminded that they should make the decision to stay with the house or leave early, well before a fire could threaten their house."

No one who survived the Marysville, Buxton and Narbathong bushfires last weekend believe they had a chance of escaping any earlier than they did. Every survivor repeated the same thing to the newspaper The Australian — the fire was upon them in minutes, there was no time to implement fire plans. The only option was to flee.

A number of residents of Kinglake and Kinglake West who spoke to The Australian said that they were left unprepared. There were no warnings on radio or the CFA website and they did not hear any sirens before the blaze engulfed the towns, they said.

"No one knew they were going to be facing a fire," said Barry Cahill, who managed to save his home. "We didn't get a report that we were going to get embers let alone a firestorm."

Another resident said that one of their biggest concerns was the lack of firefighters. "We didn't hear a siren or see a fire truck," he said.

Local members of the CFA also told how one tanker had been to fight another fire off the hill and they did not have time to get back to Kinglake before fire closed off the town.

Kelly Johnston, a CFA volunteer, was one of only three left to protect the Kinglake CFA station, where hundreds of people sought refuge. She was joined only by the secretary of the brigade and the handyman.

"The worst thing was there was no trucks up here," she said, wiping back tears. "And everyone was in here with their animals. We even had a woman with her eight-week-old premature baby in her car."

Another aspect of the problems could be seen in Melbourne when the temperature crossed 43C for three days in a row. The public transport system collapsed, power was cut off to hundreds of thousands of homes and the talkback lines shrieked to the fury of voters ready to turf out the state Labor regime.

Mr Brumby did not want a repeat of it and his message to people to stay in doors was heeded. "It's just as bad a day as you can imagine and on top of that the state is just tinder-dry," he said. "People need to exercise real common sense tomorrow. If you don't need to go out, don't go out, it's a seriously bad day.

"If you don't need to travel, don't travel. Don't go on the roads. If you don't need to use the public transport system, don't use it. If you can stay at home, stay at home."

Sadly the events of Black Saturday contained a more telling lesson. While city folk did what was asked of them it is a pity that the residents of the towns in the arc of destruction to the west, north and east of Melbourne were not advised to leave their homes before the fires got out of control.

awful

Some people sleep. Sometimes things happen when they sleep. Or maybe some people don't have teh tubes or watch tv regularly. Or maybe their exit was blocked by fire. 16–20 km/h is pretty fast.

Powered by 100km/h winds that change direction all of a sudden without losing speed, yeah, not so much.

Only way to evacuate on Saturday would've been upon being told that it's gonna be a horrible day from the state authorities. Waiting until the people actually saw the fires would've been too late.

The above article asks the exact question I was thinking.

Why do so many die in their homes in a fire? I don't get it at all.

The answer is in the posts previous

I didn't see the answer. Is it because people stay in their homes trying to save them?

I don't get how you would die unless you stayed in your house. How long does it take someone to run from their bedroom to the front door? Maybe 20 seconds if you live in a huge house and take your sweet ass time.

Maybe if the people have no yards, driveways, etc, and brush/trees completely surround the house, I could understand not being able to escape after you get out of your house.

maybe this picture will show how people die if not in their house.

people try to leave too late, its impossible to see in the smoke in a bushfire, alot of people are either trapped in their cars when they break down or have accidents because of poor visibility

I don't think you realise the speed at which a fire can move in strong winds in a very dry environment with the type of vegetation there is in Oz (a vegetation that is meant to have bushfires regularly).

The fire can literally outrun a car, or jump ahead miles and close the escape route (it might be close to Melbourne but it's rural and there isn't 20 different routes out). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 879141.stm

Plus fleeing where?

Ok, I think I can understand better.

It seems like the smartest thing to do would be find an area that is farthest away from any flammable material, like say a driveway or road, and lay on the ground under the smoke, covering your face with clothes/blankets so you can breathe. I'm not sure how hot the air would get on the ground if you were 15-20 feet away from anything burning, with high winds.

too hot especially considering the air is 43C (110F?) to start with

the fire is fucking massive and quick and kills everything in its path....

It was bigger, hotter and quicker than anyone thought possible. If you were in its path you died unless some miracle occured. People died in their house on the street in the paddocks in their cars everywhere.

If you saw it on the horizon 15 minutes later you could be dead.

This story was the lead on the national news here tonight.
One poor fellow lost his two kids. Hundreds with severe 3rd degree burns all over. They showed a night shot of an area on fire. Hell on earth if I ever saw it.

Victoria's fire danger level four times above uncontrollable - experts

Some of them never had a hope
Some of them did everything right, but they still died. Just some horrific stories coming out of it.

But something to bring a smile


Some more photos http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2009/ ... 484555.htm

Hmmm, I have some family near Melbourne. I wonder where exactly they live.

the fact that the NE part of Aus. is flooded is just a cruel joke.

Best picture ever.

it really is


this situation is very sad, my heart goes out to all involved