Our hearts go out to all.
Can't really say G'day today.
It was an awfull day yesterday, it started with the threat of a 45 degree weather alert that soon reached above that by midday, we got to around 48 befor the change came in around 6-00 in the evening and the temperature fell to about 24 degrees. We had warnings the day befor of threatening bush fires within the state but didn't guess what was about to happen. At around 3-00 in the afternoon a fire developed in Kilmore, about 1 hours drive north of us, it quickly grew into one of the worst fires ever recorded and moved at breakneck speed towards us in the north of Melbourne. At approximately 5-30 we heard the sirens of firetrucks coming along the main road and watched as 11 trucks passed the main road, heading towards the ranges. At this time we still didn't realise how close this fire had come to us. Through the night it became aparent how things were up in the bush close to where we live, this morning we heard and saw on the T.V. the shocking scheens of the destructive power of an Australian bush fire. At the moment the death toll has reached 84 and will climb dramatically over the next few days as the fire crews and volunteers find those that are still to be found. We have lost over 700 houses in the fire and thousands of livestock and animals. Everyone here will have friends or relatives that willl have been affected by this fire. A close friend of Lindas lost their house and everything they own in Kinglake, a small community in the hills, luckily they were in the suburbs of Melbourne as the fire front went through the township. I still await news of 2 friends that live in different areas hit by the front and sit praying for good news of them and their families.
We have a regular fire brigade, as you do in the U.K. and a secondary fire authority, the CFA, Cuntry Fire Authority, which is made up of volunteers very well trained and a godsend to this country, when we have these sudden bushfires, yesterday there were over 30,000 volunteers who stood up to fight these fires on three fire fronts across the State of Victoria. the fire front which ripped a path through Kilmore and Kinglake,finally was contained close to lake Eilden, approximately 100Klm east of where it was started and travelled that distance in about three hours. Our native tree the Gumtree is full of natural eucalyptus oils and are known too explode in bushfires that fuels the fires dramaticaly and this is the reason why these fronts move so fast.
Linda,Robert and the boys.