Our Aussie Friends

[JVDifferent]

Egads that wasn't meant to be funny- more like a sentiment

It is easy to forget the wildlife toll when so many people have also died.

[Don Alexander]

It said in the paper this morning that the death toll is probably at least 230...

That the flames were so extreme and hot they could kill from over a 100 meters way...

And that they were almost reaching Melbourne...

[JVDifferent]

Holy crapshit 230?!

It was around 120 this morning when I checked...

[Scaramouche]

Ok, so we had our hottest day EVER (on record, at least) on Saturday. 46.7 degrees Celsius where I live. That day was also very windy. And this is after years of drought, decreasing rainfall, hotter Summers and drier Winters. Everything was set to burn. Some fires were probably just accidents of nature, but some appear to have been deliberately lit. Some towns have been completely wiped out, and some about 90% wiped out. Nearly 200 people are counted dead so far.

This batch of fires wasn't near me (in Melbourne) or near my family's farm (about 50 kilometres from Melbourne), but there have been fires around my family farm before (about 300 metres away was the last one). The fire season tends to move southward as Summer progresses, so we usually expect them in our area a bit later.

As happened with Hurrican Katrina and the big Boxing Day Tsumani in Asia, people are donating a lot. In my family, we got all our spare stuff (clothes, shoes, luggage, et cetetra) and went to donate it all in one go, but the Red Cross said they've already got more stuff than they can distribute. But other organisations are involved also, so we might donate it through the Salvation Army. Also my company is organising a donation drive with the Salvation Army.

[Dirty n Evil]

Glad to hear you're doing well, Scaramouche - and thinking of others. Yay you!

[Azrael]

This is one of those times when I could wish resurrection actually worked. Then we could hang them twice.

Good to hear our local forumites are well. Prayers for all there. Godspeed.

[LadySheDevil]

I just can't get over the idea of people using an already horrible natural disaster as an excuse to go and make things even worse than they have to be.
And I thought looting was bad...

[midgetshrimp]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090213/ap_ ... _wildfires

[Dirty n Evil]

25 years for the first charge, and 15 years for the second charge maximum? I'm sorry, that's entirely too light for all the pain and suffering this individual has caused. The only way those 40 years would be sufficient is if I was to describe tortures that would disturb some of our more sensitive forumites. This just makes me mad.

[Asaryu]

Oh goody...a pedophile and an arsonist...I can think of a few choice things to do to him as well.

[Mythiene]

Let’s send Scaramouche. They did say they brought him to the Melbourne area.

Stupid black-hearted little son of a... I don’t understand people sometimes, really. What I’m wondering right now is, why would he light the fire in the first place? Did he think it’d be funny? People would appreciate it? Those 200-something victims might have a thing or two to say about that, if he hadn’t killed them.

Honestly, I’m just absolutely incensed. I can’t believe somebody would do something like this... Imagine if he had killed Asaryu. There would be entire hordes of people that would be devastated by this loss. Now understand that all two hundred of the victims have a group of people like that, and for them, it’s a reality... Makes me sick just thinking about it. And a real person with actual feelings decided that he wanted to cause such horrific suffering. How?

Edit: Fixed a typo.

[Asaryu]

The fire that he's supposed to have lit is responsible for 27 deaths.

As far as I'm concerned, that's 27 counts of murder, right there.

[Scaramouche]

The fire that he's supposed to have lit is responsible for 27 deaths.

As far as I'm concerned, that's 27 counts of murder, right there.

Should be, yes.

[Bear]

I vote for slow roasting over a pile of his burning possestions...

[Scaramouche]

I vote for slow roasting over a pile of his burning possestions...

Oh, poetic justice. Me likes.