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Bodzilla
February 8th, 2009, 03:07 AM
You guys may or may not know but currently the state of victoria is burning to the ground, entire community's are being whipped out and the death toll has just passed 65, with over 700 house's burnt to the ground, and it's still burning.
The fires have continued to grow in size and spread through out victoria's country regions where it's destroyed anything in it's path.
the fire front for 1 of the many fires is now over 80 km's wide.
the entire state looks like it's been hit by bomb blasts with nothing left standing but the chimney's of peoples homes.

Theres countless stories of people loosing everything, people dieing and in a few case's the fire fighters have gone off to fight only to come home and find their family has perished in the blaze.
1 guy went to help a mate up the mountain, but the fire came through so fast that by the time he got back his wife and 2 kids where already dead.

The fires driven by the highest temperature on record and 100 km/h + winds have just destroyed everything you see, and is forming firestorms.
where people outside are being hailed with fire and cinders.

heres a news story

A police spokeswoman says the death toll from wildfires that have swept Victoria, Australia has risen to 65. Officials are certain the death toll will rise.

Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and scores of people injured. Thousands of firefighters are battling blazes in temperatures of more than 45degC.

Worst hit are the regions around Wandong, near Kilmore, 60km north of Melbourne.

There was simply no escape from Kinglake. Within minutes, literally the whole of town was aflame.

The town was incinerated, house after house razed to the groundh and in one car six people trying to flee were instead trapped and burned to death.

But the ferocious fires did not stop there. Driven by hot blustery winds, they spread quickly and they did not discriminate. At least 30 more lives, including childrens', were claimed in just a few hours.

With towns surrounded by four walls of flames, panicked residents fled by foot, but not everyone made it. Ground crews could not reach the town of Bunyip - aerial bombers were its only defence.

Eleven fires are now burning out of control across the state. They are fuelled by hot winds of more than 100kmh and temperatures higher than ever recorded in the state. Tens of thousands of hectares are already burnt out and hundreds of homes gone.

The rural town of Narre Warren resembles a warzone, more homes reduced to rubble, grown men reduced to tears.

Vincent Felix could only watch helplessly as his house went up in flames.

"It's, it's hard, it's hard. I just couldn't do anything," he says. "Let's get in the car and go."

Neighbours took up garden hoses and buckets of water but they simply could not compete.

"The community just came together, strangers, neighbours, family, you know it's just great to see," sys firefighter Phil Mandell. "It's just a shame that you know, we lost so much."

More than 3000 fire-fighters have spent the night battling to save lives and property, and now the government has promised the army will be sent in.

Premier John Brumby was overwhelmed by the situation.

"Just a devastating, devastating day."
And then the bombshell - some of the fires were deliberately lit, arsonists striking despite warnings of the hottest conditions in the nation's history.
Australia's worst wildfire tragedy was in 1983, when 75 people were killed in two states.
the only way i can respond to this reckless destruction is by quoting my father in previous years with devastating bushfires.
"These people need to be taken out the back and fucked with a forked stick."
what absolute fucking scum, to do such a cowardly stupid act that cost other people their lives.

http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5328167,00.jpg
http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5328125,00.jpg
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/02/07/world/asia/07australia.600.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45454000/jpg/_45454906_fireone466afp.jpg
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/12/15/fire_homegone_wideweb__470x311,0.jpg
tGHmTvPKVFI

take note these reports are a day old.
today was the worst day in history here. entire towns gone. reduced to nothing but smoldering tinder and the news crews on the ground showing it show it for what it is. no video's up on youtube yet.
the whole areas a warzone.

n00b1n8R
February 8th, 2009, 03:29 AM
Ash February anyone?

Bodzilla
February 8th, 2009, 03:30 AM
seems like it, and sadly your not going any better up the top n00b, with your region balls deep in flood waters......

n00b1n8R
February 8th, 2009, 03:35 AM
That was last year.
And people are still getting they're houses fixed up.

"Mackay was flooded this time last year but if you were to ask any of the locals, you wouldn't know it BLA BLA BLA" bullshit.

Bodzilla
February 8th, 2009, 03:37 AM
is it a bit north of you, i aint sure exactly where you are on the map but isn't Igham getting rapped by floods?

SnaFuBAR
February 8th, 2009, 03:56 AM
Reminds me of the Cali wildfires we have here all the time... we had terrible ones this year, and people died. Always some asshole decides to add to the problem. We had like 8 fires burning at once.

Best wishes, and best of luck out there, mate. Hope the death toll doesn't climb higher.

ultama121
February 8th, 2009, 04:04 AM
Pretty crazy... these wildfires.

@Snaf
Our school was actually shut down for a few days due to those. And I go to a private school. :v:

Bodzilla
February 8th, 2009, 06:49 AM
Update: Death toll has risen to 84.

there was a news anchor for channel 9 who only twenty years ago stood in the very same spot and reported on the ash wednesday fires, at that stage the worst in the history of australia.
Him and his wife where killed in todays fire.

rossmum
February 8th, 2009, 07:44 AM
I love the horse-shit application of sentences

Deliberately lit, becomes uncontrollable and causes damage or injury to property or persons: $100,000 fine and up to 14 years

Deliberately lit with the intent to cause damage or injury is something like 25 years

Of course, our 'justice' system gets off on slapping people on the wrist and passing down pathetic sentences, so every fucking summer, the same idiots go out lighting up bushland and this is the result. The vast majority of bushfires are deliberately lit and unlike most accidental fires they take days or even weeks to bring under control. You guys in the US get some pretty savage fires yourselves but you wouldn't believe ours unless you witnessed one firsthand - the overwhelming majority of Australian bushland consists of eucalypts, meaning that the trees will readily combust (and violently at that), the idea being that before us whiteys rocked up and spoiled the party, the local Aborigines would use controlled fires to regenerate the bush (many native plants actually need to be exposed to ridiculous temperatures for their seed pods to open). While this had no problems for them, us with our fancy houses and static settlements are in deep shit whenever the bushland which borders virtually every settlement decides it wants to catch fire.

Not only do the fires threaten cities and rural areas too (we had a fire down the other end of the street here at my parents' farm, a transformer fell off the pole, luckily 6 trucks, 2 energy guys, 2 helicopters and a bulldozer had it out inside half an hour), but they cut off the major cities from each other as major freeways like the F3 (Sydney-Gosford-Newcastle) and all the rail lines run through heavily-forested, hilly areas where fires can be almost impossible to control, cutting off tens of thousands of people.

(If anyone here has Dahaloman from GBX on Xfire/Steam, see if he's OK, I have no access to either right now and I'm a bit worried as he's Victorian)

thehoodedsmack
February 8th, 2009, 07:54 AM
That's terrible to hear. I haven't seen a lick of news on it here in Canada, though.

rossmum
February 8th, 2009, 08:09 AM
It's still absolute chaos here so you guys will probably hear about it in a few days after they actually work out what's been burned and where, as you can imagine identifying bodies is absolute hell after a bushfire's been through as they're more or less cremated on the spot.

Apparently the weather's broke down there, so with any luck they'll be able to start the clean-up in earnest before the week is out. We literally just got the cool change we'd been hping for - the whole time I've been down here it's been over 40 degrees in an area which seldom exceeds 30, even in the middle of summer. Not really ideal conditions for someone who learned to walk in three feet of snow.

armoman92
February 8th, 2009, 04:33 PM
It's not too bad, the ocean will contain the fires so only Australia will burn. We in USA have nothing to worry about except PETA getting all pissed off about kangaroos and dingos becoming extinct.

I'm kidding

TeeKup
February 8th, 2009, 04:42 PM
Wow the last thing you guys need is what little habitable areas you have burned to the ground. Best of luck guys.

n00b1n8R
February 8th, 2009, 04:49 PM
Little habitable area?

Australia?

What choo talken bout yankee?

TeeKup
February 8th, 2009, 04:52 PM
Well majority wise. >_>;;

I'VE NEVER LEFT SOUTH CAROLINA. I'M GEOGRAPHICALLY IGNORANT. I'M SO ASHAMED. :phonegonk:

Huero
February 8th, 2009, 05:03 PM
Little habitable area?

Australia?

What choo talken bout yankee?

generic "australia is a desert" attitude etc.

Heathen
February 8th, 2009, 05:03 PM
Well majority wise. >_>;;

I'VE NEVER LEFT SOUTH CAROLINA. I'M GEOGRAPHICALLY IGNORANT. I'M SO ASHAMED. :phonegonk:
How can you say that after following armoman's comment?
XD

Srsly tho sucks for aussies.

Limited
February 8th, 2009, 10:12 PM
Crazy, just hope no morel lives are lost. Its been on news here saying how uncontrollable its getting, its scary.

English Mobster
February 8th, 2009, 11:56 PM
It took me a while to realize that when Ross said the temperature was 40 degrees, he meant Celsius, not Fahrenheit.

Took me even longer to realize it's Summer in Australia right now. I'm ignorant.

Anyway, really sorry to hear about that, dude.

n00b1n8R
February 9th, 2009, 12:28 AM
Australian deadliest bushfire death toll at 128


www.chinaview.cn (http://www.chinaview.cn/index.htm) http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif 2009-02-09 12:00:40 http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/xiao.jpg (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/09/content_10787319.htm#)http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/da.jpg (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/09/content_10787319.htm#)http://imgs.xinhuanet.com/icon/2006english/2007korea/space.gif Print (javascript:doPrint();)
CANBERRA, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Australian police said on Monday the death toll from Victoria's bushfires is now 128 and could top 200 as authorities sift through the piles of ash that were once entire communities.
More than 70 of those people died in the fires in Kinglake, 80 km north of Melbourne, which has burnt through 220,000 hectares of the central highlands.
All fire-devastated areas will be treated as crime scenes to determine if arson was involved, Victorian Police Commissioner Christine Nixon said, according to a report by Australian Associated Press.
The fires are Australia's worst natural disaster by far: worse than Ash Wednesday bushfire which killed 71 in 1983.
There are so many bodies. Many don't even look like bodies and will require the attentions of specialized police Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) teams.
More than 750 houses have been destroyed and 330,000 hectares have been burnt.
There are 31 fires still raging throughout Victoria after record heat and wild winds set the state ablaze on Saturday.


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/09/content_10787319.htm



DA ROOF

Bodzilla
February 9th, 2009, 12:56 AM
not cool n00b, there's over a 100 people burnt alive because of these fuckhead arsonists.

I cant think of a worse way to die then to be burned alive.

n00b1n8R
February 9th, 2009, 01:14 AM
Tied up in the Amazon, covered in honey and ontop of a killer ants nest. :gonk:

Con
February 9th, 2009, 01:19 AM
I haven't heard of this either. It looks so insignificant from space doesn't it? Too bad the same couldn't be said from the ground, that looks horrible from the other photos.

Bodzilla
February 9th, 2009, 01:31 AM
http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200902/r337797_1533161.jpg
fucking hell....
thats molten metal pools from the alloy wheels on cars.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/09/2486545.htm?section=australia

A more detailed update of the last 24 hours. 131 people now.

rossmum
February 9th, 2009, 04:18 PM
Just to give you guys a better picture of why so many people are dying, these things move at over 60mph, easily. It's like a tsunami, except burning. If you're not 100% prepared before it gets too close, you're in trouble.

Bodzilla
February 9th, 2009, 08:16 PM
heard the death toll has reached 171 and it's still rising......

fucking hell.
Now new south whales is catching it as well.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20090210/00221917f7600afb0a5a10.jpg
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-02/10/content_7459592.htm

being burned alive by the bushfires is not the only way to die, often when the fires are that large and coming through that quick they draw all the oxygen out of the air and people asphyxiate. Alot of people die before the flames even reach them.

paladin
February 9th, 2009, 09:26 PM
I saw this on the new today and was thinking mb id see you on tv.

DarkHalo003
February 9th, 2009, 09:40 PM
Yeah, this sucks. I hope Australia can keep the remaining threats under control before the wind whips back up. It would be extremely bad if this migrated to Sydney.

FluffyDuckyâ„¢
February 10th, 2009, 01:13 AM
Mmmm, it's not far from where I live either. It has reached 180 and still climbing, they are now predicting over 300 people to be dead.

They have now taken focus off fighting the fires to focus on getting people out of areas protecting houses and then they are going to try and control the fires with heavy machinery as back burning is not really do much because of the winds down here at the moment the fire can just jump 1 km (it has happened before).

Also very worrying is that if they cannot control them they will eventually come down to my area, only 15 - 20 minutes away a place called narre waren was in flames, not as survere as the other rural areas but yeah... it has been dangerously close to suburbuben areas. I live across the road from a protected park, it's looking very dry and if it comes down here, I'm screwed... but for now (touch wood) I doubt it will come down this way.

But I tell you, those basterds that lit it, and even re lit fires that were put out, I hope they get fucking burnt alive. Those people responsible will be tried for mass murder. My heart is with all the thousands of people who have lost everything, lost loved ones, lost their identities... and to all those who died. This is Victoria's worst case natural disaster, that was started mainly by human interferance, fucking disgusting.

Bodzilla
February 10th, 2009, 01:30 AM
CfsnIwgRPZI
thats one of the best on the ground vids you'll see.

it shows ya what it looks like now.

rossmum
February 10th, 2009, 07:11 AM
There was a video played on 9 earlier recorded literally just after the fire went through by someone who was holed up in his neighbours' place, it was the only structure left standing in the street

TeeKup
February 10th, 2009, 11:47 AM
Something needs to be done. This is so far out of hand its ridiculous.

Isn't there anyway for them to smother the fires?

Bodzilla
February 10th, 2009, 03:00 PM
you think they havnt tried teekup?

they're calling fire fighters from my area to fight down there to help.
i'm only just outside of queensland.......

JunkfoodMan
February 10th, 2009, 03:31 PM
fuck me, this is terrible.
i had a house fire when i was 11, and i know how terrible it can be to lose a home and everything you own.

Bodzilla
February 10th, 2009, 08:39 PM
they're getting very very good responses.

People donated that much blood to help the burn victims that they actually exceeded the amount of blood they can physically process...
woah.

as well as the website for donating was actually down because it was receiving 3x the amount of traffic then what it got during the 2004 tsunami.
i think 25 million has so far been raised.

Crazy stuff. Good on ya aussies!