Bushfire update

[Chopper]

If anyone's interested, here's the latest. We had a national day of mourning last Sunday. Don't ask me how that works, I'm not used to being told when to mourn. More importantly the fires are still burning, so we are far from all clear. Heading up to near 40 degrees again today and strong winds the CFA are crapping themselves.

The toll so far, 210 dead, over 2000 homes destroyed and probably more to come. 6 serious fiires continue to burn, the bulk still burning from the initial fires.

A cool change is supposed to arrive this arvo, and I for one can't wait. We haven't had any rain since last year.

[Ross SC]

it's f*cking insane how long this has been going on, so flat & huge over there, in england the whole country would be gone by now!
how close are you mate, i was talking to a guy over here who was soon leaving to go back to australia coz half his family were having to move......

[Chopper]

I'd estimate half a million hectares has burnt so far at least, not sure how big England is by comparison. I'm about 45 minutes drive from the nearest big fires, closest have been about 5/10km's away from home. Today the whole city has been covered in smoke, its been going on, on and off, for the last 2 weeks.

Its not unusual for fires to burn for weeks mind you. When they get this big they will really only stop when they run out of fuel. Or if we are lucky, we get good rain.

I'm off to Bendigo next weekend, be interesting to see how much of that burnt. I'll take Stormie and Muton I think.

[AnnieM]

Half a million hectares is about the size of Norfolk. Quite astonishing to think of an area the size of a UK county completely devastated by fire

[Chopper]

Half a million hectares is about the size of Norfolk. Quite astonishing to think of an area the size of a UK county completely devastated by fire

The UK is roughly the same size as new Zealand, so its not that tricky for me to fathom . We go camping every year and it takes us 6 hours to get there (without stopping) and we are still in Victoria. Vic is the smallest state too. I still marvel at the size of this place.

You wouldn't believe how flat central NSW and west is. As a kid that grew up hiking/hunting in the mountains of NZ (yes, it is like Lord of the Rings) it is hard to grasp. Mount Kosciuszko is Aussies biggest mountain, at 2,228 metres. While Mount Cook in NZ is 3,754 metres. Even Melbourne has very few hills. Actually its mostly the hills that burnt.

[Chopper]

Well there's this wet sh*t coming out of the sky. Not sure what it is. Oh, hang on, its stopped. Ah well. Lots of wind today, low 30's and extreme fire danger. Every one in Victoria received text messages from Vic police in regards to fire dangers this morning. People in places under threat were given instructions to be ready to bail at a moments notice.

Fortunately there were no major fires. The rain hasn't settled so the humidity is building and there still hasn't been enough to start to put out the fires still burning. Its trying, but no dice...