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9th February 2009
One-hundred-and three people have been confirmed dead in the ferocious bushfires that ripped through Victoria at the weekend.
The staggering death toll makes these blazes — some of which are still burning — the greatest natural disaster in Australia's history and authorities warn the number of fatalities is likely to rise even further.
"It's now at 108 and still likely to climb unfortunately," Country Fire Authority state duty officer Mark Glover told ABC Television.
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.
The latest death toll surpasses the toll 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.
At least 750 homes were destroyed in the fires and more than 330,000ha burnt out, and authorities say some fires could take weeks to contain.
Have you been affected by these devastating fires?
Ingenious place to take cover
As a "fireball" engulfed a home in Kinglake, three residents took refuge in a wombat hole.
"By the time I got my neighbours and got back to my house, we were under full fire attack," she told TODAY.
"I looked out the front or out the backyard and noticed that most of this had burnt by then and thought, 'We just need to run and we need to run now'."
With a neighbouring mother and son and also her dog, she moved downhill to a nearby creek but found it provided little cover.
It was then that a split-second decision to huddle in the wombat hole saved their lives.
"We just made a canopy of wet sheets and curtains that we had with us and just hid [in the burrow]," she said.
Mother too late to save children
Among the other tragic stories to emerge from Kinglake were of a young boy and a girl burnt alive inside their home.
"The kids perished, their mother got out but she couldn't get the kids out," Kinglake resident Mary-Anne Mercuri said.
Ms Mercuri also spoke of sisters in their 20s whose bodies were found in the front of their rented house.
"Two young girls around the corner from me were found in the front of their house. There's no way they could have got out. They would have tried to escape but there was nowhere to go."
The mother-of-three said that when the fire arrived it felt like exploding red burning bullets were being shot horizontally at them.
"These big burning chunks started falling from the sky, there was a lot of power behind them. I guess they were exploding parts of trees," Ms Mercuri said. "We are lucky to be alive."
Kinglake resident Chris Harvey said his daughters Victoria and Ali, both in their 20s, told of a local man, Ross, who lost both his daughters and possibly a brother.
"He apparently went to put his kids in the car, put them in, turned around to go grab something from the house, then his car was on fire with his kids in it, and they burnt," Victoria said.
Fires still burning
Thirty-one 31 fires are still raging throughout the state with five — at Beechworth, Churchill, Murrindindi, the Kinglake complex and Bunyip — causing the most concern, a CFA spokesman said.
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 under way," 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.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine 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. |
Victoria (Australia) is burning -
8th February 2009
