Bushfires: A Tragedy

"Australia's Darkest Day"

"The worst natural disaster in Australian history"

"The greatest loss of Australian life during peacetime"

These are a few of the many jaw dropping headlines floating around Melbourne as the bushfires continue to rage through Victoria and New South Wales. It all began on Saturday, when the scorching temperatures combined with tremendous winds created a perfect haven for this hellish destruction.

While the causes of many of the fires are still undetermined, arson has been suspected for at least some of them and is only now being confirmed in a few cases. Anyone convicted of these crimes is to be considered a mass murderer as there have been 181 confirmed deaths up to this point. They expect this number to "rise steeply" as more towns are uncovered. The coroner is expecting 300 bodies.

Arson has been ruled out for the largest fire so far in Kingslake, and for many smaller fires around Victoria. Kingslake and Marysville are reportedly completely destroyed. Kane and I went to Marysville for our birthday last year. So it goes.

It seems that most people have died either while trying to escape (crashing their car in the smoke, smoke inhalation while trying to escape, car being overtaken by flames while driving) or as the fire approached their town too quickly to escape. One man's account described a huge crash sound that was the fire coming over the nearby hill, and only seconds after that he was being burnt by the flames. He somehow managed to escape. Obviously many others did not.

One woman said she heard someone describe the sound of the fire as being like a locomotive. She corrected this by saying it was like a locomotive the size of the horizon; a great roaring that consumes the universe. She huddled in the river under a wet blanket with her daughter. I cannot imagine the fear, intensity, or heat.

Many of those who have escaped with their lives have lost loved ones, pets, homes; entire lives. News hour on tv this week has been grim.

The outpouring of support from the community has been tremendous. Large companies are donating millions, and the Red Cross is collecting from civilians. Over $46 million has been raised so far, which is incredible. I encourage anyone who can to make a donation to help the people affected. Over 750 homes have been completely destroyed.

As mentioned previously, Kane and I are near the fires, but far from any real danger. They are still burning today, but many of them are now under control. The majority of the casualties happened in the first blast on Saturday when the weather was so heinous and entire towns were overtaken. The weather is cool now, even a bit of a sprinkle today, which hopefully is helping the firefighters. All those affected are in our hearts and thoughts for the weeks to come.