Comments on: Australia's Worst-Ever Wildfires Kill 130

Whole Towns Declared Crime Scenes As Arson Suspected, PM Calls It "Mass Murder"

[dbaecht]

I wouldn''t waste a coffin either, but a toilet sounds good. Do Dingos eat putrified flesh.

[rheola-2009]

Don''t you realise that by reacting to that creature, you are lowering yourself to his level, and feeding his sick ego.

[dbaecht]

Hey Aussies, do you you have a spare ant mound for baghdadhere9 , and the scumbag arsonist

[wobxw]

God watch over all who are effected by this awful tragedy.

[ausus-2009]

baghdadhere9,

The sooner you leave the gene pool, the better it will be for the rest of us.

[kweeny123]

thats ok I reported abuse :) he is gone now!

[ausus-2009]

Now that that nut has had his say, let''s get on to more serious matters.

I lived in a bushfire prone area and was shocked about the behavior of my neighbors. They had no evacuation plans, did not listen to the media and had no petrol-driven fire pump. On the day of the biggest threat, they were wandering about their yards in shorts and thongs. Many of the neighbors had wood stored next to houses, gutters full of leaves and plants growing too close to houses. It is important to know when to leave, but you should also know what else to do.

[rheola-2009]

Referance post from
baghdadhere9

Please all ignore him, this is a very sick person, who reguarly posts on these boards in a similar manner.

He thrives opn attention.

[rheola-2009]

Posted by erasmus606 at 08:27 PM : Feb 08, 2009

It does appear that arsonists have been going in behind the firefighters to relight them.

The following will give you some idea of the speed these fires can move

"A lot of people did panic and jumped in their cars at the last minute. It came on that fast. They had 15 minutes between when they saw it over in the far distance, 25 kilometres away, before it hit.

"So a lot of people, last minute, not realising that it was the last minute by the time they were on the road".

Where there are non tree area''s, the fire could have carried over the top, across tinder dry grass, at high speed, or by embers blown ahead.

The fires in California are very similar, however that area in Victoria is a temperate rain forest arera, but they have been getting less and less rain over the past few decades, plus over the same period increasing average temperatures.

I was born in Gippsland, know it very well, also spent many happy times wandering around the bush in the Kinglake and Marysville area, my parents lived at Kilmore nearby, so I know that area very well also, it was an area of magnificent natural beauty.

So as you will appreciate, this saddens me greatly, and of course that terrible loss of all of those people.

[ausus-2009]

erasmus606,

Burning embers can travel for several kilometres. I was in Tasmania in 1967 when burning embers the size of dinner plates landed in my yard.

In that fire, 100 died and 1000 homes were lost.

[erasmus606]

Hi Rheola

"No rain and apparently none expected for at least 7 days..."

With what has happened so far, that''s VERY scary.

Is it true what that other person said about people relighting the fires? There are truly some sick people in the world.


"Entire towns have been seared off the map by wildfires raging through southeastern Australia, burning people in their homes and cars..."

That person earlier, compared this to California fires. I could be wrong, but I don''t even think the California fires even come close to this. Their fires are devastating, but not like this. I don''t recall hearing about anyone dying in them. People have always had some warning and been able to get out of the way.

In that news program last night, I noticed that there are spots where there are no trees. How does the fire spread when there are big spaces with no trees? It looks like the ground is bare. Or is it dry grass and it''s spreading along the ground? I guess too with the wind, it can kind of make the flames jump a fair distance.

[surreal64]

fires suck. Hopefully these were not arson!

[rheola-2009]

Erasmus.

Hullo.

As you probably know, the toll is now 108, however as our prime minister has been warning us, it appears as though it may increase considerably.

Some of the fires are still burning out of control, others, though still burning are contained.

We are having a considerabley cooler day here, as is southern Victoria, however the north of Victoria where the Beechworth fire is causing big problems is still having warmer weather.

No rain and apparently none expected for at least 7 days, plenty in north Queensland, they would happily send it down, to alleviate their flooding problems.

[ausus-2009]

For those in the US interested in making a financial donation for Australian fire relief, here is a link:
http://www.redcross.org.au/default.asp

It allows for secure online donations.

[erasmus606]

Gosh now they know how Californians fell this is such a tragedy indeed.. Wonder how much aid the US will give them

Posted by cusefan21 at 02:30 PM : Feb 08, 2009


I do not think this person meant it the way it sounded. Sometimes things just don''t come out right.

[erasmus606]

"...and sub-human morons running around relighting previously controlled fires."

Posted by hkl47cats at 06:43 PM : Feb 08, 2009

Are you serious?

[ausus-2009]

Make that 1942 for the Battle of the Coral Sea. Sorry about the typo.

[ausus-2009]

hkl47cats,

Your chronology might be out a little. Singapore fell on 15 February 1942 and Darwin was bombed on 19 February 1942, while the US entered the Pacific war on 7 December 1941. Remember Pearl Harbor was not the only point of attack on that day. The Japanese also attacked then US possessions The Philippines and Guam on that day.

The Battle of the Coral Sea was 4-8 May 1948, but the US was well involved in the Pacific war by then.

[hkl47cats]

Ausus

US and Australian fire fighting cooperation has been exemplary and useful to both sides. But...

Pearl Harbor was not the start of the Pacific War and Aussies were fighting in Asia-Pacific well before then. For example, many were captured at the fall of Singapore. Yes many Aussies were in Europe, and Australia was forced to tell Churchill to jump in a lake when he demanded more.

But none of that has anything to do this disaster. As at 10:30 the official count is 108 dead, over 700 homes destroyed, two towns completely destroyed, all affected towns are "Police Crime Scenes" until they have been searched, dozens of fires still out of control, 5000 firefighters and equal numbers of support crews, at least 20 severe patients in the hospital burns unit, and sub-human morons running around relighting previously controlled fires.

[ausus-2009]

arohanui,

There is a lot of cooperation between US and Australian firefighters. Australians have gone to the US to offer their expertise (part of the problem is the large plantations of Australian eucalypts planted in California - these are like bombs in a fire).

In the 2003 fires in north-eastern Victoria which incidentally were larger than these (covering more than one million hectares)the US sent firefighting helicopters and firefighters.

Your remark about World War II shows a lack of knowledge of history. While Australia was involved in World War II before Pearl Harbor, it was in Europe. Once war broke out in the Pacific, Americans and Australians fought side by side. The Battle of the Coral Sea was vital to preventing an invasion of the Australian mainland by the Japanese.