10/2/2009 - * unbelievable devastation *
As much as my brain can't take any more sadness, I am almost morbidly drawn to coverage of the bushfires. And looking at this picture above reminds me of the Canberra fires a couple few years ago. We were over there with the Princess for the weekend, and managed to find ourselves after taking a wrong turn near Woden, just as one of the pine plantations went up into what seemed like 10 storey tall walls of flame, before turning the car round (like many others on the road at the time) and getting the hell out of there back to the relative safety of Belconnen. I had NEVER seen anything scarier in my whole life. And I can only imagine it was about 1/10000000nth of what the feeling of terror was compared to what those poor people felt before the bigger infernos hit their communities in Victoria.
If you go to this link on the ABC website, it has photos people have taken, with audio of stories of surviors. It gave me chills listening to it: http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/ugc-photos.htm
The toll is looking likely to exceed 200 deaths at this point.
And the stories coming out from surviors and witnesses - it is beyond shattering what they have seen - I can't bring myself to type some of the things I have read in the news reports.
If they find that it was some filthy stinking mongrel arse wipe f**king arsonist who lit those fires, I hope they punsih them to the full extent of the law.
And. then. some.
I hope these communites can rebuild, stronger and safer than before.
THere are many things that need to be answered after this unfathomable tragedy. Should all homes in bushland be built with compulsory underground shelters? With mandatory hose/sprinkler systems for on their roofs? And with a mandatory clear area away from timber? Why isn't there a return to widespread hazzard reduction backburning in cooler months (personally, bugger the endangered mountain gnat if this sort of controlled burn stops the inferno fires happening - controlled burns might actually give these animals a chance at escape unlike the torrent of fire that hit)? Shouldn't graziers be allowed to put stock into parks in a controlled manner to help keep the tinder down - like what they were allowed to do until recently? Is the government ultimately responsible with their lax preventative measures in place with regard to park managment? What about fire sirens similar to those towns in tornado areas have being installed in all highland/mountain towns? Having RFS/CFA volunteer squads better equipped and resourced? PAYING each and every volunteer member an annual retainer as a thank you for putting themselves in danger (they aren't professional emergency service offcers and don't get any equivalent training to deal with such horror - they are just regular people trying to help their community).
Would any of these measures have made a difference in these fires?
I hope the royal commission into this can offer up some strategies and solutions to help prevent this scale of destruction and loss of life happening again.
xo
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