To all you Aussies:

[Indignant]

Such a high death toll.. what a shame. I wonder if those poor people were caught by surprise?

We have a "fire season" here - hot weather coupled with very strong winds. The pyros never fail to capitalize.

It's been raining heavily today. The smell of winter fills the air. Rain is so light, it could almost be snow.

[vashti]

It's been raining heavily today. The smell of winter fills the air. Rain is so light, it could almost be snow.

Really? We had a lot of hail today. There was so much on the ground, it almost looked like snow.

[vashti]

A few of them were. They say that once you see the smoke closing in it's already too late. Some people were caught in their cars as they tried to escape. Others stayed in their homes and were burnt as well. Looks like if you don't have a deep hole in the ground with an oxygen tank you are pretty much stuffed either way.

What a horrible feeling it must be.

Wouldn't an oxygen tank blow up, though?

My understanding is that oxygen is a heavy gas, and if you can just get down low enough, the fire will move over your head.

So scary...

[Lipp]

Well, as mentioned the winds fueled the fires well enough so that even people who got into their cars and on their way out were caught up with.

Others thought that they'd be safe by wading into dams, but there's this whole issue with radiant heat causing people to die before the fires even reach them, so in some cases the water began to boil. Which doesn't exactly bring any pleasant ideas to what happened to those people.

And in other cases those who found holes to crawl into the fires were still intense enough to use up all of the oxygen and people suffocated to death. In some cases it worked though, apparently some woman and her two kids jumped into a wombat hole and survived.

[misombra]

wow. that is really horrible.

have the winds died down?

[bluesummer]

I just saw some of the aftermath on the news last night. Horrifying how those people got caught in their CARS as they were trying to flee.

Death toll was at 173 yesterday.

[vashti]

At least 180 dead as of tonight...

On a brighter note, I saw a video clip of a fireman feeding water to a koala bear out of a water bottle.

[Lipp]

At least 180 dead as of tonight...

On a brighter note, I saw a video clip of a fireman feeding water to a koala bear out of a water bottle.

Haha, yeah, encountered one sitting in the middle of the road while on the way to a camping site some weeks ago, cute buggers. Avoid petting them though, claws and teeth. Had to spray him with a bit of water to get him out of the way.

[tooxshort]

My in-laws are residing in Melbourne at the moment ... they said it's pretty cold nowadays ...

It's a trip though ... How the heck do you catch the people that started those fires?

[Lipp]

Fortunately we've had about 2 days of 20/25ish degrees lately, so the fires oughta be all but over.

[vashti]

Shorty - I heard last night they had two people in for questioning. I don't know how they catch them, but they do. The trial just started for the Riverside guy that started fires that killed five firemen a few years back...

Lipp - I know there are koala bears in Asutralia (and kangaroos!), so I don't know why it surprised me that you actually run across them in the middle of the road! Next time, you should get a photo for our "I love my neighborhood" thread.

[misombra]

i saw those pictures too. poor little koalas.

[misombra]

wow. here where i live everybody knows to watch out for the fires. it seems weird that so many people lost their lives. it's a shame.

the fact that people got in their cars shows that they haven't ever had to deal with fires. a car is the worst place to be in a fire. it's like putting yourself in a bomb.

[Lipp]

wow. here where i live everybody knows to watch out for the fires. it seems weird that so many people lost their lives. it's a shame.

the fact that people got in their cars shows that they haven't ever had to deal with fires. a car is the worst place to be in a fire. it's like putting yourself in a bomb.

You do realize that they got caught while driving away from the fire, right? Not just hopping into a car and "hey, it's okay now, the car is safe, we'll just wait it out".

[misombra]

lol the way you said that reminded me of a scene in zoolander. you're not a male model are you?