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Post by olroy2044 on Feb 8, 2009 13:52:24 GMT -5
Please know that my thoughts and prayers are with you during these horrible fires! Roy
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Feb 8, 2009 14:58:16 GMT -5
I would like to add my wishes for your safety.
I have dear friends in Melbourne and am very concerned for them and you.
Please take every possible precaution.
Mickey
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Post by nikonbob on Feb 8, 2009 17:40:07 GMT -5
Hope it ends soon with no more deaths.
Bob
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Post by vintageslrs on Feb 8, 2009 18:01:29 GMT -5
Same here......prayers sent for your safety!
Bob
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PeterW
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Post by PeterW on Feb 8, 2009 18:55:55 GMT -5
Just watched horrifying videos of the fires in Victoria. My prayers go out to everyone in south-east Australia.
What makes it worse are reports that some of the fires were started by arsonists, including one that was restarted after it had been brought under control.
I hope they catch the ba*****rds and that they are convicted of the murder of those who who died. I know there is no capital punishment in Australia, but if some fires were started deliberately then those responsible should be charged with murder, arson, destroying public property, detroying private property and anything else the police can think of. All charges to be considered separately and the sentences added together - with no remission.
Has the Australian equivalent of our Home Secretary got the power, as ours has, to refuse remission or parole for anyone sentenced to life imprisonment ? The last time this power was used in the UK was in the case of serial child killer Myra Hindley sentenced to life imprisonment in 1966. She died in prison in 2002.
Sorry to carry on, but just the thought of arson in these tinder-dry conditions makes me really mad.
peterW
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Post by John Parry on Feb 8, 2009 20:25:06 GMT -5
A friend of mine has just returned from Australia. The small town where she worked (Healesville) has just gone up in smoke, and Marysville has only one building standing. The whole of the Yarra valley is under threat - a huge area.
The temperatures aren't helping (48 degrees - that's the temperature that hot water comes out of the average tap), and there would probably be spontaneous combustion at those temperatures anyway (the sun shining through a gum resin lens onto the bark of a tree would do it), but the thought of people setting fires in those circumstances is horrifying.
If the temperatures there are so high it must be bad all over Australia. Keep cool guys - wetted canvas awnings, get a draft moving, that kind of thing. Just hang in there.
Regards - John
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Post by herron on Feb 8, 2009 22:31:29 GMT -5
Prayers for your safety from here, too!  |
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Post by Just Plain Curt on Feb 9, 2009 0:02:16 GMT -5
Hope the fires are under control soon and everyone is ok. The flooding doesn't help either.
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Andrew
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Post by Andrew on Feb 9, 2009 1:41:00 GMT -5
it is truly devistating and horrible, many people are beyond words or in tears, i am at a loss of what to say...the heat wave we had of late has been searing, here in adelaide it has been near 46 in the shade in the city, further out of the city the temps increase incrementaly, so far over 40 people have perished just from the heat, mostly elderly, the city morgue is overloaded and a temp had been set up. hospitals were turnng people away as they could not cope with any more people.it was made worse because our power supply couldnt not keep up with people running their AC, so suburbs were cut..
.the eastern states get most of our weather though it is usually slightly milder...the day of the fires starting we had our fingers crossed here because of the extreme heat and high hot northerly winds is the perfect reciepe for fires and 'fire bugs' , we have horrific memories of ash wednesday when the adelaide hills caught fire as well as fires in Vic when something like 70+ people died here....we thought we were so lucky once the worst of the winds and weather passed us that no fire were started, only to hear a few hours later that Victoria is being set ablaze...
this fire going through towns in our neighbour state Victoria (also NSW) are beyond words...so many fires across so many fronts that have wiped towns away...i know many people in the outback towns of Vic, I can only imagne they are safe, i have many years among them, been out amongst and onlong side them with other fires in years gone by..but we usually dont lose people....it is truly beyond words...now the tol is around 130 people perished....its expected to rise...incredibly sad
these fires seem so horrible that they were planned to engulf towns and trap people in them and not bushland in national parks as is often the case with the fire bugs.....
i dont know what to say.......
they have arrested one 'person', a 31 year old in NSW ..and also a teenager..we do have laws i am sure that can keep people locked up forever, i seem to recall one or two child or serial murder's that will never be released, but i am not sure if its the same for these...they are very tough on them though...year before last i think it was someone was caught starting some fire here in the adelaide hills (luckily caused minimal damge) and they had ther book thrown at them, locked away for a very long time.
all my thoughts are with those in our neibouring states to
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Post by olroy2044 on Feb 9, 2009 2:31:55 GMT -5
Amen. Peter! Makes me want to don my old gear and come hunting!  Andrew, our summer of fire here in Calif. pales by comparison. The feeling of helplessness that my wife and I feel here, must be magnified a thousand times for you folks there. Be safe, my friend! Roy |
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Reiska
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Post by Reiska on Feb 9, 2009 2:58:54 GMT -5
Me too Roy. Those arsonists are murderers. Useless free bags.
It is horrible to see such an unemphaticy.
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Andrew
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Post by Andrew on Feb 9, 2009 4:06:20 GMT -5
your thoughts are very much appreciated, not that i feel entiltled to accept them, but if it is allowed, i do on behalf of the people i know and appreciate them, i have been in contact with quite a few now and so far most people are ok, though some with close calls and stories...
i do feel totaly useless amongst all this...i am not registered now and even if i was the incredible speed in which it happened i would not have been there in time to help...although there are many registered firefighters from here now over there helping as you would expect. the last big one we had dragged on for days and weeks and many firefighters form the US and Canada came to assist such is the spirit among people, the same happened in reverse as i recall when fires where ablaze over there...
initially i thought you were refering to helping with the fire Ron but i think maybe you meant with you police experiance to hunt down the ...people...if thats what you call them..your welcome to them! i would like them dropped on an island that is always on fire.
i truly wish we had a bunch of those huge fire fighting planes you have over there, i seem to remember some pictures that were posted some months back of some of them. I dont know just how much they would of helped but surely some. i have always thought this and ironicaly a year or two back our SA govenment observed trials from the Canadians showing their aircraft but in the end it was deemed it was more than we could afford to have them, so we got 2-3 light fire aircraft instead!!!. i really feel our federal govenment should buy a bunch of the big ones and place them with the air force to maintain, fly and coordinate with fire services when these things happen...all too often i am sorry to say.
such is the way of things the fires are starting to come under control in some areas (srill raging in others) and questions are being asked, people are upset, people are asking why we spend so much money on everseas aid when our own people arn't protected properly...its deadfull, so many more people to be found, but already people are starting to get very upset
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Andrew
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Post by Andrew on Feb 10, 2009 19:01:20 GMT -5
Naturally the situation surrounding the fires here are continuing, politicians aren’t arguing with each other in parliament, they are sombre, and doing what they can to work through plans to help people and rebuild, the cost is said to be in the billions (though the fires are still raging in some areas) reports of the Aussie spirit are prevailing and of the whole country is sending help and support. The army has tent camps set up and people are grateful for the assistance, though they haven’t asked for it, kids are playing in the camps with each other and with donated toys or fireman’s hats etc, its amazing how kids are.
On our news they say it has made the news in overseas countries. Offers of assistance have come from around the world, the few I have heard of, from, Japan, France, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, the US and the UK has sent several million $, even the Queen is said to have made a donation. The banks here have contributed some money and have frozen mortgages of those affected for the time being. Fires aren’t unique to Australia of course, Spain as I remember had a serious one quite some years back, and Canada and many other places, California I think seems to be much like Aust in term of fires and they lost 20+ people several years ago as I remember. Ash Wednesday was horrifying holocaust here back some years now and I remember people saying that black Friday, that was before my time, the ashes were landing in New Zealand. I guess it must be hard for others to imagine just how hot it gets on some days in summer here and how the bush on days like that when coupled with hot dry gusty winds from the north, on days like that you cant look at the trees and think of them as trees, you can only see them as something like petrol ready to set alight. Unfortunately the toll has reached 181 this morning and they expect it to continue to rise
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Post by olroy2044 on Feb 10, 2009 22:16:18 GMT -5
Andrew: I've been watching with horrifed fascination the devastation occuring in Oz. How I wish there was something I could do to help! Keep the faith! Roy
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Andrew
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Post by Andrew on Feb 10, 2009 23:10:44 GMT -5
Roy, i am not sure what it is about fire...i mean there are all sort of terrible tragedy’s that occur around the world (that’s what I try to keep telling myself so as not to focus too much on this), that loose many lives. And in the north, 60% of Queensland is in flood, , even though we have fires regularly, I think fires like this must be incompressible for us to grasp, many people and fireman have reported that the flames or smoke in some cases looked to be 10 or 15 klm away in the distance and people were taking action to protect their homes or leave when a few seconds later the trees in their front yards were exploding into flames. Something that you might expect in a horror movie
i've seen them jump large areas before, but not jump or travel that far so quick, i had them jump near and far behind us and we were surrounded...one time we had to abandon our truck (because we got it bogged! the bosses wernt happy about that-brand new truck we just got, we were better of with the old one lol) ......it will be finished soon i hope...mopping up fires probably for a couple weeks
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