Death toll in Australian wildfires rises to 25

[7000 Color]

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SYDNEY – Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia on Saturday, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. At least 25 people died and the toll could rise to more than 40, police said.

Witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash as temperatures hit a record 117 degrees Saturday and combined with raging winds to create perfect conditions for uncontrollable blazes. A long-running drought in southern Australia — the worst in a century — has left forests extra dry.

The fires were so massive they were visible from space. NASA released satellite photographs showing a white cloud of smoke across southeastern Australia.

Police said they believed some of the fires were set deliberately and predicted it would take days to get all the blazes under control.

The threat eased somewhat early Sunday as temperatures fell sharply, winds slowed, and rain began falling in some areas.

Thousands of firefighters struggled through Saturday night to make headway against the largest of about a dozen large fires in Victoria state that earlier in the day ripped unchecked across at least 115 square miles of forests, farmland and towns. The single worst fire was about 60 miles north of the southern city of Melbourne.

"The whole township is pretty much on fire," Peter Mitchell, a resident of the town of Kinglake, where at least six people died, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio during the inferno. "There was no time to do anything. ... It came through in minutes."

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said investigators making their way into burned out areas had confirmed 25 deaths, all of them in Victoria state.

"To have 25 confirmed deceased, that gives me great concern that the numbers are going to get substantially higher as the day goes on, as we're able to get into the fire zones behind the fires to do those searches," Walshe told Nine Network television.

"It's been, I think, the worst day in our history," said Victorian Premier John Brumby, whose parents' house was among those saved by firefighters Saturday.

Temperatures that reached a state record of around 117 degrees Fahrenheit eased late Saturday as a cool front moved through the hard-hit Gippsland region east of Melbourne, but along with it came wind changes that pushed the fires in new and unpredictable directions.

Forecasters said temperatures would only reach about 77 degrees on Sunday around Melbourne.

On Saturday, steel-gray smoke clogged the air and flames roared to two-story heights, while homes and businesses burned. At least one fire truck was charred, though the crew escaped injury and went on to rejoin the fight, officials said.

In the Gippsland town of Taralgon, resident Lindy McPhee watched in fear as a fire front edged closer to the town until rain began falling late Saturday.

"It's raining black soot," McPhee told Sky News television. "We'd been watching the glow for hours."

In Wittlesea, another Gippsland town, organizer Sally Tregae said she canceled performances at the town's annual country music festival and sent thousands of visitors out of town to safety.

"I saw trees explode in front of me," she said. "It's a horrible thing, and a horrible thing to see. I have friends who have lost houses."

Victoria's Country Fire Authority deputy chief Greg Esnouf said the conditions on Saturday were "off the scale" in terms of danger.

"We've still got a massive amount of work to do to get these fires under control," Esnouf told Sky. "It's going to take days and days to get them under control."

Late Saturday, Walshe said 14 of the dead were at four sites all connected to the same fire north of Melbourne. Six of those died in the same vehicle at Kinglake — raising fears that they may be a family. Officials declined to give details of the deaths until further investigations were carried out.

"This has been an absolute tragedy for this state," Walshe told a news conference. The death toll "could even reach up into the 40s," he said

In New South Wales state, police detained and questioned a man in connection with a blaze but released him without charge.

Earlier Saturday, Sydney, the New South Wales capital, was shrouded in a pall of smoke from three fires burning north of the city. Crews battled into Sunday to keep several uncontrolled fires away from homes.

In South Australia, the third state in the heat wave's grip, the threat from a large fire eased on Sunday.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer, as rising temperatures bake forest land tinder dry and blustering winds fan embers.

Some 60,000 fires occur each year, and about half are deliberately lit or suspicious, government research says. Lightning strikes and human activity such as use of machinery near dry brush cause the others.

Australia's deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia. In 2003, hundreds of houses were destroyed and four people died when a huge blaze tore into the national capital, Canberra. In 2006, nine people died in fires on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. - AP

[7000 Color]

S ds wat u kol d start of global warming? moend na gyud diay ang world? hahay.. mangandam na gyud ta ani..

[seven_segment]

yam! saman? dayon pa tah ani ug immigrate?

c kristoff, nagbasa pud...hehehe

break na oi...gutom na...


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 2 (2 members and 0 guests)
seven_segment, edddder

[7000 Color]

dayun ghapon oi, bahala matay na paig kaysa patyun ta sa kagutom.. sama arun gutom na.. break nata oi..

[purecebuana]

Aircraft drop water bombs to douse the flames

Australian emergency crews are stepping up their efforts to tackle wildfires that have ripped through the state of Victoria, killing 35 people. About 30,000 firefighters are battling several major fires, and the number of confirmed dead is continuing to rise. Victoria Premier John Brumby said he had accepted an offer from the federal government to send in the army.

Entire towns have been destroyed in the fires, fanned by soaring temperatures and unpredictable winds. Forecasters are predicting more extremely hot weather in the region - which has seen record temperatures of 47C (117F) in recent days.

'Absolutely horrific'
Officials say they are battling against the worst fire conditions in the state's history.
Witnesses described seeing walls of flames, trees exploding and the skies raining ash, as fires tore across 30,000 hectares (115 sq miles) of forests, farmland and towns. The school's gone, the hall's gone... some people left it too late.

Strathewen resident

At least 100 homes have been destroyed in Victoria and about 14,000 homes are without power.
Most of the people who died came from a cluster of small towns to the north of Melbourne.
At least 12 people died in the town of Kinglake, four at Wandong, four at St Andrews and three at Strathewen.

One Strathewen resident told ABC local radio how people had witnessed "absolutely horrific" scenes as they had helped battle the flames.

"The school's gone, the hall's gone... some people left it too late. We've lost friends, and we're just waiting for more - children, loved ones," she said.
The town of Marysville, with about 500 residents, was said to have been burned to the ground.
Local fire officer Greg Esnouf said: "We're starting to get some reports in now that are very saddening. This latest report says Marysville possibly one building left standing - that's just shocking."

One person was reported dead in Marysville, but most residents managed to shelter from the blaze in a local park.

'Tragic day'
If winds pick up, the authorities fear fire could spread
Tens of thousands of firefighters have been trying to contain blazes in two other states - New South Wales and South Australia - but the fires there were largely contained or burning away from residential areas. The fire service is using water-bombing aircraft to contain fires and thousands of volunteers are using water hoses. "It's obviously a tragic day and a tragic week in our history," Mr Brumby said. Late on Sunday, he said he had accepted an offer from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to send in troops to relieve overstretched emergency crews. "This is a terrible and devastating tragedy," Mr Rudd said.

Bushfires are common in Australia, but the current blazes are the most deadly since 1983, when 75 people died on a day that became known as Ash Wednesday.

[EL LOCO]

Oooi ka kuyaw diay ani.... canada nalang ta Yam para walay kulba sa sunog... by the way.. rumor has it that the cause of the fire is due to airsoft games.(hehehehe)

[cute_6423]

HEALESVILLE, Australia – Towering flames razed entire towns in southeastern Australia and burned fleeing residents in their cars as the death toll rose to 84 on Sunday, making it the country's deadliest fire disaster.

At least 700 homes were destroyed in Saturday's inferno when searing temperatures and wind blasts produced a firestorm that swept across a swath of the country's Victoria state, where all the deaths occurred.

"Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters as he toured the fire zone on Sunday. "It's an appalling tragedy for the nation."

Thousands of exhausted volunteer firefighters were still battling about 30 uncontrolled fires Sunday night in Victoria, officials said, though conditions had eased considerably. It would be days before they were brought under control, even if temperatures stayed down, they said.

Government officials said the army would be deployed to help out, and Rudd announced immediate emergency aid of 10 million Australian dollars ($7 million).

The tragedy echoed across Australia. Leaders in other states — most of which have been struck by their own fire disasters in the past — pledged to send money and volunteer firefighters. Funds for public donations opened Sunday quickly started swelling.

Witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash on Saturday as temperatures of up 117 F (47 C) combined with blasting winds to create furnace-like conditions.

The scene was utter devastation Sunday in at least two regions — the town of Marysville and several hamlets in the Kinglake district, both about 50 miles (100 kilometers) north of the state capital Melbourne.

In Kinglake, just five houses out of about 40 remained standing, an Associated Press news crew who overflew the region observed. Street after street was lined by smoldering wrecks of homes; roofs collapsed inward, iron roof sheets twisted from the heat. The burned-out hulks of cars dotted roads. Here and there, fire crews filled their trucks from ponds and sprayed down spot fires. There were no other signs of life.

Even from the air, the landscape was blackened as far as the eye could see. Entire forests were reduced to leafless, charred trunks, farmland to ashes. The Victoria Country Fire Service said some 850 square miles (2,200 square kilometers) were burned out.

"This is our house here — totally gone," Wayne Bannister told Sky News, standing with his wife Anita amid a tangle of blackened timber and bricks in Kinglake.

Another man, who was not named, described to Sky battling the flames with a garden hose until he heard first his car gas tank, then a house propane tank, explode. He and his wife fled through a window.

"It rained fire," he said. "We hid in our olive grove for an hour and watched our house burn."

Witnesses said about 90 percent of the buildings in Marysville, a town of about 800 people located 20 miles (35 kilometers) west of Kinglake, had been ruined. Police said two people died there.

"Marysville is no more," Senior Constable Brian Cross told the AP as he manned a checkpoint in nearby Healesville on a road leading into the town.

The official toll climbed higher during the day, reaching 84 at 20 locations by Sunday night, according to a police statement. It was expected to keep rising.

Australia's previous worst fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and razed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia state. Seventy-one died and 650 buildings were destroyed in 1939.

Police said charred bodies had been found in cars in at least two places — suggesting people were engulfed in flames as they tried to flee.

At least 80 people were hospitalized with burns. Dr. John Coleridge of Alfred Hospital, one of the largest in the fire zone, said injuries ranged from scorches on the feet of people who fled across burning ground to life-threatening burns. At least three would probably die, he said.

Victoria police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said police suspected some of the fires were set deliberately.

Temperatures in the area dropped to about 77 F (25 C) on Sunday, but along with cooler conditions came wind changes that officials said could push fires in unpredictable directions.

Dozens of fires were also burning in New South Wales state, where temperatures remained high for the third consecutive day. Properties were not under immediate threat.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. Government research shows about half of the roughly 60,000 fires each year are deliberately lit or suspicious. Lightning and people using machinery near dry brush are other causes.



>>delikado ni dah
maau dri wlay wildfires
fireflies lang
heheh

[LaBelleza]

saw on the news not long ago that 84 are dead and more than 700 homes have been destroyed (sorry if u've mentioned that already above...couldn't be bothered reading). anyways im in perth...way far.

[7000 Color]

ni result na gyud ang mga kalaki sa mga tawo na wala mag care sa atua mother earth.. makaya pa ba kaha ni ug solbad nho na pulos man labad ang mga tawo especially mga leaders sa other country like china, pulos mga taas ug pride.. saun nalang ni oi..

[purecebuana]

The wildfires that have ripped through the state of Victoria

Australian officials have warned that the death toll from wildfires that have already killed 108 people in the state of Victoria is likely to rise further.