Monday, February 9, 2009

Wildfires in Australia - February 9


http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid823425597/bclid877032950/bctid10453413001


UPDATE:The death toll from Victoria’s devastating bush fires now stands officially at 130, estimated as high as 200 possibly dead with refugees flooding Red Cross centers.Oneof the “darkest days in Victoria’s history” and described the deadly inferno as “hell on earth” - John Brumby, Victorian Premier“Firstyou’re fighting for your home, then you’re fighting for your life”Australian Bushfires The Facts:Currentsizeup: 865,000 acres.(350,000 hectares)• New South Wales - 50 fires burning•Victoria - 26 fires, including one with a 60-mile firefront.• 700 homes have so far been confirmed lost, with 550 in the area of Kinglake and Kinglake west, about 30 miles north-east of Melbourne, where many of the deaths occurred.• Record-breakingtemperatures nearing 115 degrees(46C) today.• Another fire is threatening Beechworth in Victoria’s north east.• Otherfire-affected areas include the regional city of Bendigo, in central Victoria, and the town of Marysville in the Yarra Valley, which has been destroyed with only one building left standing. In Victoria, 14,000 homes are also without power.• AustralianArmy would be “providing logistics and support”. Resources:The Australian Army has been called in to assist the thousands of weary firefighters who have been battling the blazes over the past 24 hours, and the government has announced a $10 million (£4.5 million) emergency relief fund to help the thousands of Victorians now left homeless. The fires are now officially the worst in Australia’s history, surpassing the death toll of the Ash Wednesday fires which claimed 76 lives when they tore through Victoria and South Australia in February, 1983.Asthe Prime Minister announced the emergency bushfire relief fund and the support of the Army, other Australian states banded together with Victoria, with the Premiers of South Australia and New South Wales offering to send firefighters and equipment across the border.
Arson:Several of the fires are believed to have been deliberately lit, and arsonists are hampering firefighting efforts with some blamed for relighting fires that had already been extinguished. “There are no words to describe it other than mass murder,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told local television.Thedeath toll – which has been climbing by the hour –(Source - California Fire News)

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