Fire in Australia

[dominique]

I cannot forget the difficulties and dramas about the forest fires in Autralia these days. I hope all the courage necessary at all the australian people of the forum and in this country in front of this horrible tragedy
Dom

[mark smyth]

Dominique I was thinking the same earlier. My Geography isnt good but I know Paul, Otto and Fermi and in the south east

[mark smyth]

I had a email from Fermi this afternoon that I didnt notice, The end reads

P.S. Thank you for all messages of concern about our safety due to the Bushfires on the Weekend, our house was safely out of reach of the fires but the area is devastated and it’s not yet the end of the fire season.

[annew]

I've been worried too. I hope things get no worse.

[Maggi Young]

I have a horrible feeling that some of these fires are too close to Otto and Tim, too.
Seems so cruel that other areas of that huge country are suffering bad floods while these fires rage.
Very frightening indeed and best wishes to them all.

[Carol Shaw]

Good to know Fermi is okay and hope Otto and Tim are too. Those fires are so destructive and the deaths heartbreaking

[ian mcenery]

I was thinking of this driving home and listening to the news. Let us all hope that the conditions which are making this situation so horrific will change soon

Best wishes to all our friends down under


Ian

[Anthony Darby]

I have heard they have arrested two arsonists. Mass murderers, and should be treated as such. I cannot imagine what goes through these people's minds, just as I cannot imagine what it is like to be in the middle of this tragedy. So many lives lost, and so many more who have lost everything dear to them.

[Lesley Cox]

Email from Fermi this morning said the fires near him have flared up again but seem under control. He hoped he could get home from work though, through road blocks.

Tim and Otto are fine too but again, fires very close. We had a map in our paper yesterday with the areas marked and Fermi's address was one of them. I hadn't realized the fires were so very close to Melbourne in many cases.

Our sky here in NZ is coloured a muddy grey-brown by smoke which is blowing across the Tasman sea.

[mark smyth]

Nasa photo
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=36976

[Hans J]

It is good to know that all our friends in Australia are well !

best wishes for all from Germany

Hans

[David Lyttle]

We are certainly very anxious to know how our family and friends are faring in the face of the fires north of Melbourne. I am relieved that Tim Otto and Fermi are fine in the face of the devastation that is unfolding on our TV news nightly. I have nephew who lives north of Melbourne and I presume he is safe as well.

By coincidence we were hosting some guests from Adelaide on Sunday evening: it was a strange sort of a day here with the temperature over 30 degrees, overcast, and as Lesley said, the sky all smoky so the sun in the evening was quite orange. I am pleased that we received a good rain here yesterday and hope our Australian friends may soon have the benefit of the same.

[BULBISSIME]

We all are thinking about Australian people, and we hope fires will be stopped ASAP.

[arillady]

Talk on the radio now is that dugouts should be compulsory in fire prone areas. A young couple and their baby survived due to a small room built behind a cement rainwatertank and the natural slope of the land - this saved them. The wife had nagged her husband to put it in.
Pat
No decent rains in view - all seems up north.

[Hans A.]

I am glad to hear forum members of Australia a well so far.
Best wishes, Hans