Living in the bush and the  consequences.

In Australia, we face bushfires (known too many as wildfires) every summer, something that every Australian child learns early. Through 2009, we have had several years of terribly crippling drought, the reservoirs were very low, and that summer bush and forest was tinder dry.
We then had a heatwave with temperatures over 40° C for a fortnight. When came to the conditions from hell a day with temperatures well above 45° C and the most dread of all, the hot, dry winds from central Australia blasting like a furnace through the southern states, turned the situation in the bush from extreme to explosive. One careless match or a lightning strike is all it would take, then it happened! Lightning storms broke out over southern Victoria causing multiple fires to break out through the state.                    

In particular, in the mountain ranges to the north and east of  Melbourne, areas populated by many small towns and is a stunning part of the state. But it was to become the depths of hell. For the many creatures, the many people of these areas that is precisely what it became. It started as usual with the firefighters (many volunteers) who set out to do what they did every summer, to risk their lives to protect people and property.

Little did they know this was to be one of the greatest battles with the elements ever fought in Australia. As the day progressed, the temperature rose and rose until it was more than 45° C, and if that was not enough, up came the hot north winds growing intensely throughout the day, reaching speeds of over 90 km an hour. Now the entire day from hell was just starting, with temperatures climbing and wind speed climbing too. They fought with everything they had, water-bombing planes, helicopters, water tankers and firefighters. They fought to the point of exhaustion and well beyond yet still they fought. But even their bravery and determination could not stop these fires from hell, with the flames now leaping several hundred meters into the air.                                   

Now several fires had joined up, and we're moving at 90 km an hour on a vast front, nothing could stop this blast furnace from hell. The fire was raging as it racing at tremendous speeds across the mountains and was even jumping from mountain ridge to mountain ridge, now travelling at unheard-of speeds and temperatures so high that when the fire roared up trees, they just exploded in fireballs.

Now that fire was moving at speeds unheard of before, travelling a distance of some 40 km in 20 minutes, trapping whole communities in their homes and cars as they tried to escape the raging inferno, from which they thought they were safe. The fire raced towards them across the tops of the trees, fireballs racing in all directions. The sounds were like a runaway locomotive with such enormous roaring and explosions.

But there was no escape. The trees had fallen across the roads, trapping and killing those in their cars. Those in their homes could do nothing but watch the raging inferno approach, throwing fireballs ahead of it. This causing them to shake in sheer terror as it raced towards them, engulfing houses as it came, some homes even exploded instantly in the intense heat.

When it was all over three days later, the loss of life, both human and the animal, was absolutely horrendous. One of the horrors was animals dying slowly in their paddock because of their injury, and it was not safe or practical to get to them to relieve their suffering, this became Australia's most extraordinary baptism into hell.

Now the bush is growing back, the wildflower is back stronger and better than ever, and like the natural environment, we are rebuilding our homes, lives and business for that is what we do, for we are Australians.