It's now almost four days since the beginning of the conflagrations that have wreaked such havoc and despair in what we used to call the garden state. There are some communities still under direct threat from fire. Stories abound on television, radio and in newspapers, of bravery and desolation, fear and relief. Television footage of families torn apart on the one hand, and reunited on the other. One couple had been separately admitted to Hospital, and neither realised that the other was even alive, let alone just a few metres away in a hospital bed.
It seems somehow awful to be recounting the number of lives lost: the count is now at 181, with many more missing expected to be added to the list. 5000 homeless, hundreds injured and some of the hospitalised expected not to live, such is the severity of their burns.
Heartwarming is the response of the global community with more than 31 million dollars (AUD) already raised towards bushfire relief.
Sheer exhaustion lines the faces of firefighters who have refused to go home while a threat remains, and helplessness for the bereft. Fund raising will certainly help, but nothing can take away the pain of losing loved ones.
Even for us, who have long lived with the fear of fire in our rural community, the extent of this tragedy is hard to comprehend. The paradigms we had placed our trust in need to be reviewed for such extreme conditions: but the magnitude of the task of keeping people safe relies on them taking responsibility for themselves. It is just not possible to have an organised evacuation of half a million people or more, even when conditions are so extreme.
There will be recriminations, justifications and eventually we hope that a balance can be found. In the meantime, we can only take sensible precautions.
