Tragedy

I heard, like everyone else, the comparison before hand. Friday night they were warning of climatic conditions similar to the Ash Wednesday fires. I rang Mum and she said she was going into work the next day at 2pm, along with all her colleagues, to be ready just in case.

She ended up spending the whole night there working right through.

It was just an extreme weather day until lunch time. The news was making a lot of the fact that it was Melbourne's hottest February day on record, and then Melbourne's hottest day ever. It reached 46.4 in the city and 47.9 out at Avalon. The winds gusting around 200km were quite frightening. It felt like stepping into a fan-forced oven outside and it was a really bad idea to ware my metal watch out there.

Then, after lunch, the fires started being reported. We heard the first snippets on the news. Someone suggested the ABC radio, for which Dad had to make aerial post-haste as he'd not used the AM band in this house. And then we sat, mesmerised, listening to the number of urgent alerts from the CFA, the increasing numbers of road closures, the endless numbers of communities under threat.

And then the death toll started mounting.

At first, it was only 4, then 14. By dinner it was 25 confirmed and they were warning people to expect up to 40. At lunch time Sunday the confirmed deaths had reached 35 but the police and firies couldn't get into most of the affected areas. We stopped listening for the afternoon as it was just too depressing. At dinner Sunday, my stomach revolted when we heard 66. Then, this morning at Southern Crossstn , I lost my breath and my heart skipped a beat when I saw the number 93 on the screen. Now they're saying 107 with a possibility of that number doubling. In Ash Wednesday, they lost 47 (Feb 1983).

Holy cow.

I have (touch wood with a grip that turns my knuckles white) been no-where near the fires this time. The whole of Victoria can smell the smoke though. It brought back so many memories. That horrible sinking feeling of helplessness, of hopelessness. Facing the fact that there is literally nothing you can do but pack up the car and run. The black and blood-red sky. The choking smoke, the black leaves raining down and the ash coating everything. I have never been so scared as when I was when Canberra was on fire. But at least there were only four lives lost, although even one is too many.

I feel terrible for the poor people not only homeless but also now mourning. Property is one thing, lives an entirely different story. My heart goes out to them and my thanks, along with hundreds of thousands of others, to the fireies - CFA and DSE, the police, the ambo's and all their minions who are fighting this incredible beast with every fiber in their beings.

Just like back then, there are also a thousand inspiring stories of heroism and of courage, of generosity and of spirit that are rising like the phoenix. It's times like these that the human spirit truly shines. I just wish there had been no need.

Holy cow.