Victorian Bush Fires

[Codex]

Hello all,

Some of you may know me, some not. I have been an avid IL-2 fan since it was first released, so I know this small community has it's moments but deep down your all an understanding bunch. On Saturday 7th February 2009 the combination of a 10 year drought, a high temperature of 46.8C and a strong Northerly wind travelling at speeds in excess of 80 to 100km/h all contributed to the deadliest bush fires ever recorded in Victoria's history. To date, there have been 181 confirmed deaths with that figure expected to double as Police Forensic teams sift through the rubble of over 1800 destroyed homes. As you can imagine, with over a 1800 homes destroyed, close to 7000 people are now homeless, 3000 of which are living in tents around the many relief centres across the area.

To get a handle of what has happened go to the photo gallery links below.

The victims … (warning this may be distressing to some)

http://media.heraldsun.com.au/multimedia/mediaplayer/skins/timeline/index.html?id=1185

The event during and after:

http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5037339-5006020-1,00.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2009/02/06/2484555.htm


The reason for this post:

As I said earlier there are over 7000 people across country Victoria that need help, not to mention many times that figure in wild life / animals who have no food or water.

If there are any Aussie ex-pats living overseas or if any of you reading this wish to donate money, please visit the Red Cross website:

http://www.redcross.org.au/default.asp

If your in Australia, I ask you to dig deep for the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal and donate what you can by calling 1800 811 700.

100% of the donations raised will go to the survivors of the bush fires and not one cent will be used for administration costs. At this time donating money is better than hard goods as the relief centres are at capacity and can not take any more hard good donations.

I personally have made donations on behalf of my family and I would encourage anyone else to give what you can. It doesn't matter on the size of the donation, all that matters is helping out.

I have been volunteering the last 4 days at work, manning the phones in our call centre in Melbourne taking donations from people across Australia and the world. The experience has left no doubt in my mind the Aussie spirit of looking after your mates is alive and well. The most heartening calls I have taken are from all the lovely people of Northern Queensland in Australia who have given so much even though they them selves are going through the worst flooding in years.

Most of all, I personally would also like to thank volunteer fire fighters of the CFA who put their lives on the line to save others.
http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/

This will be an ongoing process of recovery and rebuilding for our state. To the IL-2 community, I know your a great bunch of people so if you can, please donate.

Note to the moderators: I will understand if you decide to pull this thread if it goes against your terms and conditions for posting threads.

[emigre]

Further to the above, the emergency services are looking for the donation of day to items like clothing, shoes, suits (for those that need to attend funerals), tents, mattresses and even the borrowing of things like caravans to assist with short term housing.

As Codex has stated, dig deep people. Look around your house for those unused kids toys, inflatable mattresses, tents and clothes and forward it all on.

[zapatista]

to keep it in perspective, it should be added that the australian federal government and the local victoria state government are dealing with this crisis very professionally, and so far at least it seems their response is quick and competent (compared to the new orleans disaster after the hurricane for ex, which was/is totally mismanaged)

the australian army has immediately provided tent accommodation for all those displaced and evacuated, medical services are mostly free in australia and injured are evacuated to world class burns units in the state trauma center by helicopter, there is red cross and other support services available on the ground, free food is cooked in 3 regular meals at the main evacuation points for all concerned, grief counseling and psychologists have been made available, medical doctors are available, pharmacists are available to provide free medical supplies for those on prescription medications etc...

the australian government is also intervening to have insurance companies deal promptly and fairly with claims, and have banks postpone payments for debts and mortgages etc..

as codex mentioned, there is also a massive response from the australian population with gifts of money for a relief appeal (most guaranteeing that 100% of every donated $ will reach those in need), farmers across the nation are donating hay and food for animals, and large donations of clothing and practical household "needs" are arriving as well (clothing, toothpaste, etc..). in the australian spirit of helping a mate in need, the response with donations from people accross australia has been phenomenal.

one of the 2 main area's where there was large loss of life (king lake), is an outer suburb of melbourne (one of the main australian cities), and the 2e main township destroyed was a little town near the victorian snowfields, located on a main highway. the fires that day were an extraordinary event, being even more ferocious then normal australian bush fires. strong 50 km/hr hot norderly winds straight from the central australian desert fueled the flames on the ground (that day the weather was 46 celcius, and it was a week after a heatwave of 5 consecutive days of mid 40's celcius temps, so everything was bone dry and extremely flammable).

once a fire like that starts it quickly feeds on the bone dry trees, grass and scrub, and can travel at high speeds up to 50 km/hr destroying everything in its path. with 50 meter tall flames shooting up into the sky, and a "flame thrower" like tongue of fire over the ground that can be 30 meter long traveling at the front of the fire. brave, but totally disproportional, volunteer firemen in small trucks are meanwhile running around to try and contain it. a few water bombing helicopters are used, which can save a few houses or help deal with small crissis points, but no big water bombing planes are used like in canada or the usa (not sure why, other then that australia has no big fresh water lakes for them to land in). the result is that the fire brigade can put out small fires, and can try and contain larger fires in time, or help protect a few houses, but big firefronts can devellop extremely quickly where 1000's of ha are suddenly alight, and firefronts can be several 100's km long sometimes, the main policy being to try and protect townships and property as the fire moves, but under bad conditions, and with arsonists at work, things can get out of hand quickly on a bad day.

as the fire moves forwards eucalyptuses trees secrete flammable oils that create fireballs and explodes trees when alight, and "ember storms" can create a rain of burning ember falling out of the sky ahead of the fire on the ground (burning embers can fall out of the sky several km ahead of the main fire, the burning embers being mostly made of light burning bark from gum trees carried in the wind, and this can "rain" from the sky up to 3 or 5 km ahead of the main fire front constantly starting new spot fires or setting houses alight if not rapidly extinguished.

the 2 main townships destroyed, where the highest loss of life was (probably 350+ dead), might have seemed fine one moments, and as the fire came closer to the area (but still a few km away), within 30 min the whole town could have been alight because the speed that the firefront traveled on the ground and the raining burning embers, hence the massive loss of life. many people living in that outer suburb of melbourne were also not properly prepared, being suburban'ites, and once things looked very bad they tried to get away in their cars, blinded by smoke and fire they ran of the road, had accidents, drove deeper into the fires, or found the roads they took were blocked by burning trees having fallen across them etc. the main advice in australia with fires is to either evacuate early, or if prepared and well equipped to stay and fight the fire and try and protect your property. most who died panicked at the last moment and tried to flee when it was to late, hence the large loos of life.

altho some of these area's in australia are always prone to fire, the changes in climate and weather patterns being experienced in the last 10 or 15 yrs have significantly increased the problem, and these fires have become extremely difficult to contain or keep out of built up area's. currently there is still 17 large fires "out of control" in victoria, some of those being in the outer melbourne area.