DeinosInferno

In my last post, I mentioned that temperatures were likely to hit 44°c on Saturday. Well, it actually went over 46°c! It went over 49°c at Avalon! I kept cool sitting in front of the fan while surfing the net or reading a book; totally unaware of the horror many country Victorians were facing. I did look out the window at about 3:00pm wishing that the cold change would just hurry up. What I saw outside was odd. It was like cloudy but those weren’t clouds. The cold change arrived half an hour earlier than expected at around 5:30pm. It was a mixture of hot winds and cool breeze. Eager to cool the pigeon hole down, I rushed around to open all of the windows and balcony doors to flush out the hot air indoors. Happy that the hot day was over, I eagerly anticipated for the temperatures to drop faster but something inside me didn’t feel all that good when I looked at the skies outside.

It wasn’t until later in the evening that I learned of the terrible bush fires going on all over country Victoria when I turned on Sky News. I immediately felt anger towards idiots who could have started the fires for fun. There were no mention of arsonists deliberately starting fires around Victoria at the time but there was a news item about a deliberately lit fire in NSW. Shortly before or after 10:00pm, the news came through that 14 people have been confirmed dead. Minutes later the newsreader speculated that the figure could go as high as 40. That’s when I thought, “This is bad, real bad.” Being home alone, I went straight for the phone to call M. I needed to hear his voice. He too was just as shocked as me by the death toll. After that, I logged onto an online group and left a message asking if members living in those areas were alright. It sounds silly now because how could any members in trouble log online but at the time, I wasn’t thinking straight.

When I got up on Sunday morning, I refused to turn on the TV because I simply wasn’t in the mood to learn more of the aftermath. I was already imagining that at least one or two arsonists had been detained and that their love ones were defending them saying things like, “Oh, I don’t know what got over him of late. He has always been such a Good Boy.” When M eventually turned on the news, the death toll was higher than 40 and climbing. We switched channels to check out the latest news. I saw the lower end of an electricity pole still smouldering, its upper end ‘floating’ midair because its middle part was totally burnt off by fire. I saw a little boy of about 5 crying, looking very terrified, in the back seat of a family car. I saw a woman crying (comforted by her son) because the house that she worked really hard to own was gone. I saw a dead horse lying on the ground. And worst of all, I saw cars piled up together looking like the drivers were desperately trying to escape but ended up smashing onto each other. Their vision was probably blocked by the thick smoke. I heard the sad account of a woman at an emergency shelter who had not seen her hubby since Saturday. I heard survivors talking about how quick the fire was travelling (e.g. like a freight train). I heard of farmers walking around their properties, guns in hand, to put down livestock that were too badly injured. And then I heard that one of my favourite newsreader – Brian Naylor and his wife were also killed at Kinglake. How very awful?

Bush fires are a common threat during the warmer months in Australia but I never expect natural disasters to go so horribly wrong here. People who stayed to protect their properties were courageous. They weren’t to know that the fires would visit them with such ferocity. The latest death toll according to Sky News is 126. I hope it won’t go up any higher and wish that the people who were hospitalized get the best care and recover quickly.

Despite of all the horrors, here is something more positive. Someone responding to my post in the message board did tell of an account of a pony being rescued by a family. Here in our pigeon hole, M and I used to say, “Spare a thought for the furry ones.” We were mainly referring to our little Guinea Pig then but really we should also spare a thought for all animals that got caught up in this ‘fearfully-great’ inferno. I am sure that we will hear more stories of survival, lucky escapes and animal rescues in the coming days. People are already showing their resilience and strength, vowing to rebuild and Uncle Rudd is right behind them on this. Rebuilding small towns like Marysville that has been completely razed is not going to be an easy feat.

Note: The title of this post is just an attempt to play with words.