The Aussie Fires.....

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Have finally heard back from a good friend of mine from the Victoria area

...... all of that is hapening only 20mins away from us. we can see all the fires in the nearby hills from our front door. Unfortunately we know a few people directly affected by the fires and have lost everything, but we haven't heard of anyone we know being killed yet. However that could easily change as many people were trapped in cars trying to flee, and the authorities say it could be months before everyone is accounted for or even found.
Try to imagine an entire forest that went for many many kilometers and the whole thing burnt in an afternoon. it has major highways that ran thruogh it and would take a good couple of days to drive around it. Towns that were in it simply didnt have a chance. they are estimating 600 homes gone but that doesnt include all the shops factories and other buildings that all have disappeared. Many communities of a 1000+ people are just simply not there anymore. Many of these places we visit regulary with the rallies.
The day itself was unbearable with a temperature of 46c. We had 3 days of that the week before , however this day had very strong winds blowing straight from the deserts in central Aus. this pushed the fire along so fast some people gave up trying to drive from it and survived by hiding in drainage pipes under the road.
There are still many un controlled fire still burning around the state and many have claimed lives .
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sounds truely awful :(
 
It's terrible, but I am still trying to understand how people can be getting burned in the cars trying to escape etc? Is the fire literally chasing them as they drive? I just can't imagine anything that you couldn't get away from if you had a car, except the tsunami a couple of years ago, and Katrina, but that was due to volume of traffic == gridlock
 
jaffamuffin said:
It's terrible, but I am still trying to understand how people can be getting burned in the cars trying to escape etc? Is the fire literally chasing them as they drive? I just can't imagine anything that you couldn't get away from if you had a car, except the tsunami a couple of years ago, and Katrina, but that was due to volume of traffic == gridlock
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fire_8_1291977i.jpg
 
Apparently the fire gets so hot it moves the air around it like a tornado, and the air around is is so hot that you don't need to touch the fire to get burn, its how the cars get torched. IT wasn't actually burned by the fire, just the super heated air itself melted everything.

if anyone want, you can listen to an Australian radio station online

http://www.96fm.com.au/
 
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When I was in Melbourne, the wind from the interior was so hot and dry, it burnt the inside of your ears.

It is difficult to imagine the thought process going through the minds of those trying to escape. What is happening now is horrendous.
 
truly awefull for people to loose their life like this. Its horrific just how quickly this spread and how many peoples descrition is exactly what i would imagine of a "giant fireball".
 
Horrible stuff.

Reading an articlein the guardian at school. And the pictures were horrific. Saddening too.

Alloys from cars had been melted to just heaps of grey on the floor.

People crying amongs there bellongins.

Shocking, I cant condole enough to what they are feeling.
 
Yeah as above it is terrible, the problem is the air gets superheated so its like a massive oven and the heat is indirect, this causes things to spontaneously combust and of course is not good for people. There were reports people could not escape from their homes because the doors etc were too hot and they could not physically get out, just unimaginable tbh
 
It's simply uncomprehendable for people in colder countries :( Sounds absolutely terrible :(

It makes me so angry to hear that arsonists are suspected to have been involved. How can anyone do something like that?
 
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