Russell Kirkpatrick's Journal
Australian Bushfires
09-Feb-2009
Over a hundred dead, at least five thousand homeless, and the effects will last for years.
There are a hundred different things I want to say about this terrible event, but I'll limit myself to a couple. First, I'm appalled at the number of comments I've heard from New Zealanders about foolish (and that's being polite) Australians not abandoning their homes sooner. We kiwis live in a green, rain-soaked land, and we don't know what it's like to have to compromise with nature. Generally we just ride roughshod over nature and get away with it because there's so few of us.
Not in Australia, not after a ten-year drought, not in 47 degree heat. These people made what they thought was the correct decision, only to discover too late that living with nature sometimes means being completely overwhelmed by it. Not a single death can be laid at the feet of those who died: all were taking what they thought were appropriate steps to safeguard life and property. This is a tragedy.
It comes home to me because a couple of weeks ago I was right there, on retreat in southern Victoria. And this time last year I stayed two weeks in Yackandandah, currently threatened by flames. I used to borrow Kylie's car and cruise down to Myrtleford to play golf. Halfway between Yack and Myrtleford was a little town called Mudgegonga, a dozen houses and a CFA station. The fire went through there yesterday, and two people died. They weren't in the middle of a forest, and they had a Fire Station right there, yet they still got caught.
Australia is a wonderful place. But part of its beauty is derived from its location on the ragged edge of human habitability. Today we've learned just how ragged that edge really is.
It would also appear a lot of people got caught in their vehicles and perished that way, when for whatever reason they got caught.
My family and I experienced Ash Wednesday in the 80's, and after speaking to dad last night (he stilllives in Vic I don't) he said that the weather was worse than it was then, and that is saying something, I remember that day, I wish I could forget it. I will remember yesterday and wish I could forget it as well.... a friend lost his house, but not his life. Still not sure about his neighbours though.
Foxy, that's awful - I wouldn't want memories like that.
Which raises an interesting point. Fantasy writers like myself use natural disasters as plot devices. We blithely wield the scythe, killing thousands of people. It takes something like this to remind me just how terrible such events are.
I know when the fires hit the Canberra region there was a lot of discussion about staying with your house. Me I wouldn't do it. You can get another house...You can't be safe in a fire storm. Not when the wind is so hot and so strong.
The bush is beautiful but sharing that space means putting your life at risk.
But when you have five minutes warning before the flames are on you, there's no chance. They weren't foolish, but victims of a horrendous wind. I've fought bushfires in the mountains before now, and the bush will grow back, you'll see the scars on the trees for years, and houses will be rebuilt - but those lives can never be replaced, and the animals will be far fewer for a long while.