Bushfires kill 40+ in Victoria Australia

THE death toll from the Victorian bushfires may rise to as many as 40 as police investigate vehicles abandoned in the inferno.

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Grim search for bodies
Up to 40 people are feared dead as bushfires rage across Victoria. 02/09 Sky News
Views today: 819Sorry, this video is no longer available.There are also a number of burning homes the police have so far been unable to reach in which they fear the residents may have perished.

Already 26 people have been confirmed dead in the fires that swept through Victoria yesterday, fanned by high winds and exacerbated by record temperatures. Some of the fires were deliberately lit, police say.

Victoria Police Deputy Chief Commissioner Kieran Walshe told ABC Radio many more people may have died after they became trapped in their burning homes or cars.

“We are only getting into these fire zones now. It has taken some time before the fire zones are safe so that we we can get police and emergency services personnel into these areas now behind the fires and start to look at abandoned vehicles, look at destroyed properties, at buildings and undertake the searches to see what we can find there,” Mr Walshe said.

“We expect the number will climb considerably as the day passes on. The community needs to be prepared for worse news to come at this point in time.

“We have real concerns about some of the areas we haven't been able to get into yet. We know there are a lot of properties in those areas and we can expect that we are going to find some deceased people there.”

Meanwhile, at least 18 people have been admitted to Melbourne's Alfred Hospital with burns and three are in a critical condition.

Seven of the injured have burns to more than 30 per cent of their bodies.

Jim Scott, a resident of Kinglake for 22 years, said the loss of life was devastating.

"This horrific wind came through and just took the roof off our house, our shed,'' he told the Nine Network.

"I've never seen anything like it, it was horrific.

"This is devastating, the loss of life.''

Sue Aldred, another resident of the Kinglake area, said she lost a couple of sheds on the family property, but saved their house.

"All of a sudden we were in a raging inferno, there was coloured smoke and the noise was indescribable,'' she told the Nine Network.

"It was terrifying.

"I did fear for my life at one point, there was a horrible moment of indecision where I just thought ... I'm going to stay here and beat this flame back, and where do I hide? ... which building do I hide in?

"It was horrible.''

Raylene Kincaide, a resident of Narbethong, northeast of Melbourne, said her home had been destroyed and there was little left of the town.

"Everyone we know has lost everything they had - it's not nice,'' she told ABC Radio.

"I've been in Ash Wednesday but this is probably worse.''

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FuManChu said:

This wasnt far from where i am...I could smell it when i stepped outside.
There were blackouts and everything.

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Sunday, February 08, 2009 » 07:12pm

Live News: Watch it now


The death toll from Victoria's fires has climbed to 65 and police warn it will climb further.

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The death toll from the Victorian bushfires has risen to 65, and eight people are in a critical condition in hospital with burns injuries.

Five people died at Flowerdale, two people at Hazeldene and three at Taggerty, while two more people were confirmed dead at Kinglake and a further person died at St Andrews.

A person from Yea died in hospital.

The figure surpasses the 47 Victorians that died in the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires.

At least 100 homes were destroyed as nine major blazes burnt out of control across the state.

More than 3,000 firefighters and many more residents worked to contain fires in all corners of the state, including major fronts at Horsham, Coleraine, Weerite, Kilmore East, Bunyip, Churchill, Dargo, Murrindindi and Redesdale.

Most of the bodies were discovered in towns northeast of Melbourne - six at Kinglake, six at Kinglake West, four at Wandong and St Andrews, three at Humevale, and one each in Arthurs Creek and Bendigo.

At least six bodies were found in the one car at Kinglake, with reports that others may have been trying to escape the fire in cars.

Children are believed to be among the dead. But police have so far been unable to confirm the gender or ages of the victims.

Police spokesman Senior Constable Wayne Wilson said the clarification on a final death toll would take time.

Across Australia emergency services workers were out in full force as fires on Saturday also threatened homes in NSW and South Australia, while flash floods wreaked havoc in north Queensland.

In NSW a 31-year-old man was being questioned over a fire police believe was deliberately lit near Peats Ridge, on the Central Coast, which burnt through 120 hectares of land through the Brisbane Water National Park.

About 250 firefighters battled the blaze with five aircraft and more than 20 fire tankers.

At 9pm (AEDT) on Saturday, a Rural Fire Service spokesman told AAP the threat to nearby properties had eased.

'Fire fighters will remain on the ground all night to try to establish some containment lines that will hold in anticipation of (Sunday's) weather,' he said.

Fire fighters would remain in the area until cooler weather came through, which was expected on Monday.

South of Sydney, several fires burning in the Bega Valley on Saturday night threatened people in the villages of Towamba, Burragate and Wyndham, and villagers were warned by the RFS to prepare for severe fire weather on Sunday.

At Wollemi National Park, in the Singleton area, north of Sydney, the RFS anticipated fires would burn through 2,000 hectares of countryside by Sunday morning.

In South Australia a fire that burnt through 108 hectares at Gawler River, north of Adelaide, was a major concern throughout Saturday.

A spokeswoman from South Australia's Country Fire Service said about 155 fire fighters, assisted by four fixed-wing waterbombing aircraft and helicopters, helped contain the fire.

She said crews would keep mopping up the fire overnight.

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Skeptic said:

I can't believe it could have been started vy a fucking cigarette butt.

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The death toll from the Victorian bushfires has reached 108 and authorities warn the number of fatalities is likely to rise even further.

The toll from Australia's deadliest natural disaster had reached 108 as at 6am (AEDT) on Monday, authorities said.

At least 750 homes have been destroyed and more than 330,000ha burnt out, while authorities said some fires could take weeks to contain.

Country Fire Authority (CFA) state duty officer Mark Glover said the toll could still climb further.

'It's now at 108 and still likely to climb unfortunately,' Mr Glover told ABC Television.

The death toll surpasses that from the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires, in which 75 people died in Victoria and South Australia, and the Black Friday bushfires of 1939, which killed 71.

According to police figures, another 11 people were found dead at Kinglake West, north of Melbourne, taking that community's toll to 20 while another four bodies were found at Marysville taking that town's toll to eight.

Only one building was left standing at Marysville after the inferno swept through on Saturday.

A CFA spokesman said 31 fires are still raging throughout the state with five - at Beechworth, Churchill, Murrindindi, the Kinglake complex and Bunyip - causing the most concern.

DSE spokesman Geoff Russell said conditions had improved from the weekend with a cooler change coming through with moist air.

A southerly wind is pushing fires in a north to northeasterly direction.

'Our biggest concern at the moment is around Beechworth,' Mr Russell said.

The fire has skirted Beechworth, in the state's northeast, and is heading towards Yackandandah.

'There are seven or eight small settlements in the path of this fire and those residents have been urged to get their fire plans underway,' Mr Russell said.

The Beechworth blaze has burnt 30,000ha and continues to threaten the communities of Stanley, Bruarong, Dederang, Gundowring, Gundowring Upper, Kancoona, Kancoona South, Coral Bank, Glenn Creek and Running Creek.

All fire-devastated areas will be treated as crime scenes to determine if arson was involved, Victorian Police Commissioner Christine Nixon said on Monday.

Ms Nixon said forensic investigators had begun work in the Churchill region, where police suspect arson was involved.

'At this stage we have a team at the fire at Churchill in the Gippsland Valley, which is certainly one that we believe was deliberately lit,' Ms Nixon told the Seven Network.

'Our fire experts and our own investigators have suggested that the way that it happened, how fast that it happened, that there is good evidence to believe that it was lit.'

Forensic investigators have also begun work in the Kinglake area.

'They're where the most deaths are, but wherever a death has occurred we investigate that as a crime,' Ms Nixon told ABC Radio.

The Queen has expressed shock at the devastating bushfires that have torn through southern Australia.

'I was shocked and saddened to learn of the terrible toll being exacted by the fires this weekend,' the Queen said in a statement.

'I send my heartfelt condolences to the families of all those who have died and my deep sympathy to the many that have lost their homes in this disaster.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier called his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd to say the UK was ready to help after the bushfire disaster.

Most of the deaths have occurred in the largest blaze, in the Kinglake region, that has cut a vast swath across the central highlands from Wandong, south to Kinglake and nearby Saint Andrews, and northeast towards the upper Goulburn Valley.

One fire official said the blaze now had a perimeter extending 'hundreds of kilometres' and may take weeks to contain.

The Kinglake fire, which sprawls across 220,000ha - about two-thirds of the area destroyed by fires across Victoria - has all but consumed towns including Kinglake and Marysville.

Former Nine Network Melbourne newsreader Brian Naylor, 78, and his wife Moiree were among the people who died at tiny Kinglake West as the flames swept in on Saturday.

Ninety-two firefighters from Tasmania will arrive to help the firefighting effort on Monday morning, in addition to the 150 NSW firefighters currently helping fight the Beechworth fires.

Nearly 40 schools in West Gippsland, central and South Gippsland are closed due to fire.

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FuManChu said:

If it gets any closer to home, i might go volunteer.
I got nothing else to do this week.




Yeah...and it was a total fire ban, all last week.

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tim290280 said:

Just got news over the internal mail that the WA govt is going to send a whole heap of financial aid plus some Police and Fire Fighters.

I reckon they should just let it burn. Teach those Victorians a lesson!!!

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Samoan-Z said:

Damn man, that is sad.

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