25 years ago I watched my mother pack a cardboard box with a few of the things she could not bear to leave behind. Certificates, documents, some photos and a few mementoes of our childhoods and her married life. That box sat in the hall by the front door for the best part of a week while the bushfires culminating in Ash Wednesday burned. Ballarat was fortunate we weren't hit but everyone knew someone who was affected somehow. Yesterday's bushfires were even bigger, whole towns are gone.
I don't know if people in the Northern Hemisphere reading this can comprehend the heat and ferocity of the winds that drive a bushfire. Even miles away from the blaze the air is so dry the breath catches in your throat with every inhalation. The sky is grey and orange and hellish and thick with smoke. Up close doesn't even bear thinking about. An area the size of the UK's North is on fire.
I spoke with my cousin this morning. The fires came to within a kilometre of her house in the middle of Bendigo (a large country town about the size of Salisbury). Another cousin spent the day gathering in her stock while her husband and son are off on the C.F.A. trucks fighting the fires around the Kilmore/Tooborac areas. Another cousin is also out on the fire trucks, she turns out for the Tullarook C.F.A. Admittedly when she spoke with her sister tonight (Sunday p.m. Australian time) she was eating an ice-cream while stationed at the Allen's factory. It is good to know someone is doing the important job of making sure the jelly snakes, chicos and all the other lollies are safe ;-)
All joking aside this is an horrific situation and there are 1000s of men and women risking their lives to try and bring this situation under control. To try and fight the craziness of a firefront that is over 40 metres HIGH in some places and reaches across whole districts. Fire has no channel to follow, it goes where the wind blows and can turn in seconds to erase a town that only minutes before thought it was safe.
The Australian Red Cross has launched an appeal to aid those devastated by the fire. At the risk of stealing a catchphrase - every little bit will help so please log in to your paypal account and contribute just a few pounds, dollars, euros, cents, pence, groats, shekels or anything else you can lay your hands on.
(Australian Red Cross asks for a minimum donation of Aus$5.00. This is about £2.30, half the price of bottle of wine!)
Trash Can Do Anything! (The not-so-secret diary of life and stuff in a hilltop town.)
It is so hard to comprehend but such a horrific reality for so many.
ReplyDeleteLucy xxxx
it is absolutely horrific, I feel so sorry for anyone caught up in it. Weather seems to be one extreme to the other at the moment
ReplyDeleteApril xx
It's so bizarre that we are having this horrible extreme of cold at the moment, and those on the other side of the planet are battling the diametric opposite. I'm much more aware of it because of the blogs I read rather than the news I see.
ReplyDeleteI've been over to the Australian Red Cross site - it's not much, but hopefully it will help.
x
It's embarrassing that a few inches of snow can reduce our country to a state of chaos, with stories filling most of the news bulletins; yet in Australia all this is going on and we hear hardly anything about it.
ReplyDeleteMe again Trashy - I went to Australian Red Cross and to Paypal but I couldn't work out how to link the two!!! I'd love to donate something but don't want to put my bank details on the internet. Do you have any tips???
ReplyDeleteLocket xxx
I've just seen it on the news. It seems way too awful for us to even comprehend - I 'spoke' to Mumistitches today and she told me it was 46.7 degrees yesterday there.
ReplyDeleteI complain when it reaches 30.
Thoughts with everyone out there and all those with friends and relatives suffering.
x
Now I'm crying again reading your post...this has been so horrific it's beyond my ability to put into words...at last count there are 84 confirmed dead and over 750 houses destroyed! It's just horrendous ...you are fantastic to be encouraging people to help out...so thanks :)
ReplyDeleteIt just seems so unbelievable that while Victoria is being decimated by fire, northern Qld is suffing the worst floods in years...Ingham has been inundated for the second time in a week, with more rain expected. So many people here have lost everything...*I love a sunburnt country* has never seemed so apt.
I hope all your family are safe and send a big thanks to those of them in the CFA from me ♥
We are thankfully far away from the floods and the fires(north western nsw)- we have been watching with horror the scenes unfolding over the news. We have friends (they are safe!) that had been working in Marysville (and evacuated) - I can't believe it's just no longer there. Thanks for giving us some information as to where we are able to donate some money to help. I can't even begin to comprehend the task ahead of these people that have lost their homes... and those that are grieving the loss of loved ones. The CFA is so important! It's a tough job... and country people are just so willing to get in there and do what they can. I did have a little chuckle at the Allens Factory comment!! I hope that they are all safe... and that these fires can be under control soon. Am praying for the rain in NQ to head down south!
ReplyDeleteI was a bit shocked when one of the news reports had some comments by a "firefighter from Ballarat". I know people who go to Bellarat, it suddenly made a whole lot closer to home, not just pictures on television.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what else to say
Its just horrific isn't it??
ReplyDeleteyou stare at the tv but its so hard to comprehend.
Our sunburst country.so so true......
Thank you for the post on the fires here in Australia and for the plea for donations. All of us are stunned by the sheer ferocity of the Victorian fires and the absolute devastation they have caused. After our evacuation from a fire (Bridgetown WA) last month I can only reiterate how terrifyingly quickly these things grow and spread in the wind. We were very lucky and only lost our almost undeveloped back 'garden' and the back fence. The house was saved although sadly other properties close by were not. Of course we will be giving to the Appeal and it will be with a heartfelt 'that could have been us'. The volunteer fire services are truly an amazing bunch of people as are all the other volunteer groups who swing into action whenever there is an emergency.
ReplyDeleteI hope your family continues to stay safe Trashy as it will be a while yet before the fires are safely contained. Then comes the mammoth task of trying to rebuild the shattered communities.
Even in Ballarat today its horrible because once again we all finding out who has lost their houuses (2 VOLUNTEERS from my work from Bendigo). It touches everyone.
ReplyDeletehave been thinking about it and reading about it all day yesterday - such a terrible tragedy - will do whatever i can.
ReplyDeletexxx
I'm so glad to hear your family is safe Trashy. I feel enormous respect for those bravely fighting these terrible fires. It is the most dreadful situation and quite sickening to think some of them may have been started deliberately.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the Red Cross.
xxx
It's incomprehensible that some of these fires have been deliberately started. I too have put a link on my blog to the appeal. My husband is an Australian Citizen and a firefighter. I am pleased that your family are safe, you must be beside yourself with worry being so far away. x
ReplyDeleteI think this has shocked so many of us. Glad to hear your family are safe. I've put a link to your post as I figure the more poeple who can help, the better... just donated my bottle of wine!
ReplyDeleteYou're so right that it's hard to fathom bush fires when we're in the middle of a harsh winter. Glad to hear your family is safe.
ReplyDeleteIts just all so terribly sad. I cannot comprehend what those poor people must be going through.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad your cousins are OK. Many thanks for the links for donations. I've been thinking of all the families who have lost loved ones. What an appalling tragedy. The news reports are terrible and the thought of arson just abhorrent. I think we all hope the fires die down soon.
ReplyDeleteJust found you through Gina - will add your link to my blog. So, so sad for you all - we are shedding tears for you over here. Off to the Red Cross next.
ReplyDeleteLove Maggie
We have seen terrifying pictures in the press and on TV of the awful fires raging, but to have to experience it first hand is beyond my comprehension. To hear that some may have been deliberately started is appalling. I am new to this technology but will do my best to make a donation by one means or another. I am sure there are people right around the world who will want to do the same.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link to the Aussie Red Cross, it is difficult to imagine the heat but the terror of fire I can relate to I just off to do some donating.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for adding a link to the British Red Cross as well, so that visitors in the UK can donate. You can also find out more information about the appeal on our Austrain Bushfires appeal information page.
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