Bushfires

The CFA has does a wonderful job with these fires as they do every summer in Australia. here is the description from there website. CFA

"CFA is one of the world's largest volunteer-based emergency management organisations. The team comprises more than 59,000 volunteers, supported by over 400 career fire fighters and officers and more than 700 career support and administrative staff.

Situated in Victoria, CFA covers an area of more than 150,182 square kilometres of land covering 2.5 million people. This area includes more than 980,000 homes, and covers all of rural and regional Victoria, including provincial cities and towns (except State forests and National Parks).

The area also includes more than one million residents in outer Melbourne suburbs such as Frankston and Dandenong, and key growth suburbs such as Cranbourne, Melton and Werribee.

CFA divides the land covered into nine CFA Areas and 20 Regions. Across these Areas there are more than 1200 CFA brigades across the state and they carry out a wide range of duties.

CFA brigades respond to a range of different incidents and CFA broader activities include community education and fire investigation.

The ties between CFA and state government, local government, industry and brigades are essential to the successful operation of CFA. As a community service organisation, CFA brigades are strongly supported by their local communities in responding to meet Victoria's fire safety and emergency management needs."

It seems everyone know someone effected by the terrible events of February 7th. Sometimes it can be so overwhelming that you don't know what to do to help.
At my children's athletics club, two families have lost everything. Another family have lost everything around their house which is still standing but has smoke damage. As a club we have tried to help the families by taking up collections of money each week at our athletics competitions.
Handing over cash straight to the families effective make such a difference. One little girl came back to athletics two weeks after the fires. She had no uniform and no running shoes. We quickly arrange these things for her so when she arrived that morning at the track she just needed to change into her new uniform and shoes and was off with her friends running around the track with a smile on her face.
Another family whose son attends athletics, was so upset that all his trophies and medals have been lost in the fire that took his house. The committee has arrange replacements for him. It is the little things that mean so much to kids and we can all work together to help them put their life back together.

I am particularly sad about Marysville being devastated. We would go to Marysville every year on our way up to Lake Mountain to visit the snow area.
Marysville is a beautiful town and is now no more. My Mum's cousin established "Uncle Fred and Auntie Val's lolly shop" in the main street of Maryville's. They are Fred and Val, and retired a few years ago. I hope the new owner of the shop will rebuild. My kids loved that shop and could never choose want they wanted from the huge range of sweets. It is now gone.
This video for an ABC news helicopter shows the destruction of Marysville. Click Here

The Kinglake national park is a beautiful park only 65 km north of Melbourne, this 22,360 hectare park lies on the slopes of the Great Dividing Range. This park is now closed after the fires. So much of it is gone and many native wildlife is lost. There was an estimate of one million native wildlife lost in the fires. Nearly half million hectares have been burnt so that is only 2 animal per hectare so that estimate may be well under.

The towns of Kinglake and Kinglake West suffered terrible losses in the fires with the most houses and people lost.
The people of the area are still suffering with lack of food and services. They need our support.
Please donate to The Red Cross Bushfire Appeal

Before the 7th February 2009 the Ash Wednesday fires consisted of some of the most devastating bushfires Australia has ever experienced, sweeping through parts of Victoria and SouthAustralia. Ash Wednesday is named and the start of Lent, forty days before Easter. This information come from the CFA website.

Weather conditions leading up to the Ash Wednesday fires
Between April 1982 and January 1983, Victoria experienced severe drought conditions
and little rainfall, resulting in its driest period on record. A combination of dry
grasslands and forests, very hot temperatures, low humidity and high wind gusts
presented Victoria with a high bushfire risk. The temperature was 43 degrees Celsius
on Ash Wednesday.

Where did the Ash Wednesday bushfires start?
Around 180 bushfires broke out on 16 February 1983, known as Ash Wednesday. The
largest bushfires started in Victoria at Cudgee and Branxholme (near Warrnambool),
around Mount Macedon, in the Dandenong Ranges - Cockatoo, Upper Beaconsfield
and Belgrave Heights, Monivae, Branxholme, Warburton and in the Otways. Fires also
broke out in South Australia, where 159,000 hectares of land in the Adelaide Hills and
in farming country in the south east of the state were burnt in the fires.

How did the Ash Wednesday bushfires start?
The bushfires started in a number of ways: through the clashing of electric power lines,
tree branches connecting with power lines, fires being deliberately lit, and through
unknown causes.

How much damage was caused in the fires?
The Victorian fires burnt an area twice the size of metropolitan Melbourne, around
200,000 hectares. A great number of people lost their homes, possessions, stores,
equipment, machinery and stock in the fires.

How many lives were lost in the fires?
The Ash Wednesday fires claimed 75 lives in total, 47 in Victoria and 28 in South
Australia. The largest number of lives lost was in the Upper Beaconsfield fire with 20
deaths. Hundreds of others were burnt or otherwise injured. Twelve volunteer
firefighters in Victoria were killed in the fire at Beaconsfield.

How many homes were lost in the fires?
In Victoria, more that 2,000 houses were destroyed and several hundred more were
lost in South Australia.

How long did it take to control the fires?
Most of the major Ash Wednesday fires were controlled on the day, some in two to
eight hours, others in a couple of days. Accessibility to the fires played a large part in
how quickly fires were brought under control. For example, fires in mountainous areas
were often more difficult to put out due to difficulties in moving the fire vehicles in close
enough to the fires. In some areas, there was no road access into the fires.