Aussie Fires

[flyingvee]

Whats happenin' DBB?

[drowningbitbybit]

Yeah, its been a real tragedy down in the south of australia

Sydney missed out on it, but we caught the tail end of the heatwave - 46C out in western sydney
Fortunately, for me, it was a lot cooler by the coast (still in the mid-upper 30s though).
And the heat was driven by gale force winds - it was like standing in front of a hairdrier, even where I was. Down in Victoria this went on for a couple of weeks and so was just perfect bushfire conditions, which inevitably happened.

it seems the ferocity and speed with which they travelled caught out a lot of people - they're predicting the final toll will be over 300

They have a 'stay or go' plan - either you evacuate early, or stay and prepare your house for the bushfire, but whatever happens dont evacuate at the last minute, because you'll get trapped in your car. But the fire was too much and those who tried to stay didnt make it, and a lot of people were forced to flee at the last second and got trapped.

Really though I dont know any more than you - the BBC website has had as good coverage of it as the aussie news.

[dougirwin13]

Luckily I am in South Australia and it's completely missed us

It's horrific to watch on the news...

[Luke]

It's shocking to think that some of fire was started deliberately.

[parrysurf]

bummer with the firestorms! familiar with that scene here in so-cal. another reminder that the planet rules us!

[Kristof]

bummer with the firestorms! familiar with that scene here in so-cal. another reminder that the planet rules us!

The planet had some unfair help from arsonists though, pretty f'd up.. Hm, I guess the f word isn't allowed here