February 2009 Archives

Melbournians were shocked yesterday with the realisation that despite 17 days passing since Black Saturday on 7^th February, the fires are still burning, and even a moderately hot day combined with ignition of dry fuel and wind puts homes and lives at risk once again. This time, the danger was much closer to the city; in urban fringe of Upwey and Belgrave.

The smoke was visible from our office, and nervous souls living in the general region of the fire left work early, unable to wait until normal departure time. A call from one, describing flames seen in the distance makes the threat seem even more real.

Fortunately, with temperatures only in the mid 30's, and a strong contingent of fire appliances and fire fighters, the area burnt was limited to round 300 hectares, with just one house lost. In the area of Daylesford, North West of Melbourne, another fire still burns, last I heard, still out of control.

Yesterday afternoon, residents to the East of the city voted with their feet, their fire plans consisting of one word (in the words of one caller to the ABC); GO. The mass exodus lead to more than one car accident and traffic jams on Burwood Highway inbound; and outbound on the Monash, Wellington Road, Ferntree Gully Road, as just as many people headed Eastwards towards their homes. Strange, as  there must have been a conjunction of all that traffic at some point.

Lucky that the temperature was something like 11-12 degrees cooler than Black Saturday, and the danger, while real, was not as great as that earlier, horrific day.

Now, we wait for Friday with some trepidation, as temperatures are predicted to be in the high 30's, with stronger winds.

A momentuous weekend...getting mistaken for a Kiwi, what did I do to deserve that?

• Kittens playing games (This is Millie, who is looking for a home, isn't she sweet?)
• A long conversation on Skype with Aussie Lass (but I was very envious of the platter of seafood she told us about)
• A colleague receiving 6 red roses for Valentine's day
• Prawns with homemade mayonnaise for lunch on Saturday.
• Friends and dinner on Saturday night
• C & Y on our couch on Sunday morning
• Being able to participate in a debate in French

The smell of smoke still pervades the suburbs of Melbourne on day 10 of the continuing battle against bushfires. Exhaustion is replaced by anger at the likelihood that more than one fire was lit deliberately. Even the news that two fires started from power lines doesn't make people feel any better.

Despite this, the task of blacking out  and making safe continues. Various support forces have come in to assist from NZ, USA and Singapore. The amount of money raised for the Red Cross Bushfire Fund continues to rise. And even though there are many like me and my family, who do not know anyone directly involved, we can still shed a tear at the stories which are told.

Each day there are more heart rending disclosures from those involved. A Royal Commission has been announced, to investigate every aspect of the disaster. Changes in Building regulations are mooted. We all think about the precautions that can be taken, what we would do if we were caught in such a situation.

It will be years before the equilibrium is restored. Months before the authorities are certain of the number who have been lost.

But hope rises from the ashes: new babies are born (two that I know of, to families caught up in the disaster) The first reasonable amount of rain will see regeneration of the bush commence to signal that life does indeed go on.

In an effort to lift this blog out of the melancholy caused by the recent events in Australia, here's a little poem I found to celebrate Valentine's Day

Roses Aren't

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I'm allergic
Atchoo, Atchoo

Patrick Winstanley on http://www.peculiar-poetry.com/types/holiday/valentines-poems.htm

Happy Valentine's day!

I'm not into giving of Valentine's day gifts, but this one is one worth doing. If you haven't yet made a donation to the Australian Red Cross appeal for the Victorian bush fire victims, perhaps you might like to do that, instead of buying roses, chocolates or something else for your Valentine.

The crisis is still not over, this morning there have been threat alerts broadcast for the town of Healesville, at the top end of the Yarra Valley. The difference between today and last Saturday/ Sunday is that today is much cooler, so that the intensity of attack will be less, but still frightening, as we now know how dangerous these fires can be.

The smell of smoke pervades the city, and the rising sun glowed orange in the sky as I drove to work this morning. Even Port Philip Bay in the early morning light had an apricot tinge to it, as the smoke haze filled orange sky was reflected in the water.

Today has been declared a national day of mourning.

As each day passes, we hear of more connections with the lost. While I personally don't know anyone directly affected, there are many people who do. The scale of this tragedy is such that not a day has gone past where I have not heard, read or seen something that has affected me emotionally. Even the good news.

nb The animals from the Healesville Sanctuary have already been evacuated, a few days ago

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.

A new day arrived, and yet the human toll in bushfires continues to climb, at last count 130, and now expected to top 200, or perhaps more. Stories of miraculous survival, and terror and relentless flames and white blow-torched landscapes on our television screens bring the horror home to all of us

The atmosphere in the office has been somewhat subdued, as one colleague is not at work today as her parent's home is in the threatened area in the North East of the State, and other people are not at work either. Another colleague's wife had a work colleague receive a phone call from her boyfriend, telling her that he loved her, he told her this was the last thing he would be able to do (he did not survive)

We all wonder about friends, colleagues and friends of friends and colleagues who live in the fire areas and the seriousness of the situation makes us think about how precious life is. We can replace things, but we can't replace people.

There are lots of places that you can get updates about what has happened in Victoria over the last forty eight hours. The Age. ABC news

So far, it has been announced that 76 people have died and as many as 1000 homes lost. It is expected that as the days progress, more people will be found to have perished,  in isolated areas where it has not yet been safe to travel, as fires still rage, and tree lined roads are dangerous to pass. The fire fight goes on with hundreds of thousands of hectares burnt. Exhausted people collapsed at the refuge areas, and the evidence of very hot flames clearly visible in the photos on the web sites above.

Time will tell whether there is anything that could be done, but it seems quite clear that last minute dashes to safety with a fire of cataclysmic proportions bearing down on towns deep in the bush is the wrong decision to take.

The nation has rallied, with strike teams coming from South Australia and New South Wales. The defence forces will provide practical aid to get through the weeks ahead.

Possessions can be replaced, but loved ones cannot... and tears will continue to fall

This morning I awoke, as has become the usual thing, with Mischa the kitten deciding it's time to play...I lay awake, then remembered that as we had gone to bed last night we had briefly switched our local ABC station on and heard that the dreadful news: 14 dead in the bushfires, the toll was expected to rise to 40.

We've gone to bed before with similar news, in 1983- Ash Wednesday, and 1977 for the Streatham bushfires, but it still feels terrible.

This morning, the heartbreaking news that 25 are now confirmed dead, with perhaps a toll of more than 40 expected, more than 100 homes destroyed, and fires in Gippsland and North of Melbourne still raging out of control.

I shed a tear for lost lives, hopes and dreams. And pray for the firefighters who must be exhausted, and all who are suffering today. Too many towns to mention them all: but fires around Horsham, Coleraine, Camperdown, Bendigo, Beechworth, Wandong, Kilmore, Yarra Glen, Drouin, Longwarry, Labertouche and many more

Those earlier bushfires touched us much more personally, as G had gone on a fire tanker to both blazes. The night of Ash Wednesday was a long one, as I listened to radio reports and our CFA listening set, progressively relaying the grim news of destruction and injury. This time we are more remote but I feel it just as much.

I had an appointment at the hairdresser's at 9 this morning, and with a temperature forecast of 44, revised upwards from 43 degrees overnight, it seemed like a good plan to spend the rest of the day at home. Particularly after a night out last night at the cricket, when the Aussies lost their fifth one day match in a row, to the Black Caps.

Today's temperature and forecast high winds before a strong south westerly change later in the day, with extremely low humidity lead to bush and grass fires across Victoria in the hottest day on record. Melbourne reached 46.4, and 47 degrees was a common high across the state. When you get a combination of hot weather and strong winds like this, fighting fires becomes extremely dangerous: lessons learnt in past battles have lead to the safety of fire fighters as the first priority, with protection of homes as a secondary aim, and other assets coming a distant third. On a normal hot day, tankers can drive along the flank of a fire, dousing the flames, and while extremely uncomfortable, can be fought directly. Just to go outside for a few minutes during this afternoon was horrendous, I can only imagine how dreadful it was to be involved in this battle.

Today's extreme conditions have been so dangerous, that authorities can't even tell us how many houses have been lost. Noone knows at this stage whether lives have been lost, as may isolated properties are still unable to be checked. What we do know, is that more than eleven homes have been lost, a farmer has been hospitalised with 50% burns to his body and fires still rage in Gippsland and to the North of Melbourne.

Behind the scenes, thousands of volunteers give up hours of their time, to man fire stations, tankers and radios. Each time the fire network radio crackles, breaths are held, wondering: Is this the big one that we've all been waiting for.

In a strange kind of fatalism, those of us who have lived in regional Victoria understand the truth, that the thin veneer of civilisation and control over our Australian environment can be broken by a tiny spark. For years, we lived in the false, naive belief that our modern equipment and techniques could protect our homes and our lives from the ravages of bushfire, provided we were well prepared.

We now know that there are days when we are completely helpless, and that life is far more precious than possessions. Planning will, and must be done; for the thought of having done nothing cannot be countenanced. The ABC News website has more details.

The office has been buzzing with anticipation at the prospect of our trip to the MCG to see Australia vs New Zealand in a one day cricket match this afternoon and evening.

To my chagrin, I couldn't find anything in the wardrobe which had the Aussie colours, and the Kiwis in the office are bound to have patriotic dress theme, and I really don't want to feel out of it. When I  think about it, I don't even have an Aussie scarf (not that I would want to wear it when it's a predicted temperature of 30 deg) but I do have a NZ silver fern scarf, which was a give away at Auckland airport when I bought some duty free alcohol there last year. At least I didn't buy it deliberately...!

Let's hope for fair umpiring decisions, a close match and an Aussie victory to get the season back on track. (And quickness of wit and tongue to offer some clever repartee, on my part, should the need arise...)

It was a busy weekend, after last week's hot weather. It is strange how temperatures in the 30's which we would normally be complaining about now seem quite mild. A busy Saturday: I managed to get some major re-organisation of my wardrobe done in the morning, mainly throwing out some stuff, and reorganising like into like which should make the work day morning easier to manage.

Any plans for Saturday afternoon were thrown into disarray by a severe headache, presumably brought on by "challenge" of sodium metabisulphite, shortly before. Alas, this means I will have to continue to be careful to avoid preserved meats, wine and anything in the 220-228 food additive range. Luckily, some paracetamol and rest made a Vietnamese BBQ (no additives) a very pleasant diversion in the evening, followed by a long Skype session with Aussie Lass who has been suffering with pharyngitis, followed by a severe ear infection, complicated by an allergy to penicillin.

Sunday lunch: prawns, salad and home made mayonnaise, goes to show that you can still have a really nice meal, even with food restrictions.

Sunday afternoon: a lovely snooze, before heading off to the Melbourne Zoo Twilight Concert, for the 21st birthday party of the lovely S.

The final activity of the weekend, keeping up with cricket and tennis matches being concurrently played: the final of the Australian Open Tennis and the first One day cricket match between Australia and NZ, both of which were pretty exciting matches kept me out of bed much longer than I had intended. (Flicking between the channels, until I could stay awake no longer)

Earlier in the evening, with Australia all out for 181, and in contemplating the prospect of an easy NZ victory in 30 or 40 overs, I contemplated finding some excuse for not going to work this morning: just to avoid the hard time I might have got. Thankfully, the game turned into a thriller, not a walkover, and I can hold my head up high this morning, despite the Aussies losing.

A thrilling five set tennis match with Nadal coming out the victor over Federer just made us appreciate the skill of these fine tennis players, who were definitely not just going through the motions.