A quiet night here in Gembrook. Not so for the rest of Victoria.

Kilmore, North of Melbourne, Fires started yesterday afternoon and went east across the top of Melbourne Destroying all in its path. 6 lives lost in each of Kinglake and Kinglake West. Still active.

Fires in the Latrobe Valley (Victorias Power Generation Center). 3300 Hectares destroyed in Churchill. Lives lost in homes and on the roads.

Fires in Bunyip State Park. Crossed South of Princes Highway and destroyed property in Towns south of Highway. Now moving North East. Wind has shifted to the South East, which will bring the fires back towards us.

In the Western District, a delibrately lit fire west of Horsham has desroyed part of the township and many hectares of land and stock.

Bendigo, north west of Melbourne has seen extensive damage.

The temperatures have cooled to the Mid twenties today. No sign of any substantial rain however. Lots of Lighting.

Late yesterday a lighting strike started a fire 500 meters north of our house in Avonsleigh. Simone and her mother evacuated along with our loved puppies Louis and Matilda. Louie and Tilda are living at the Animal Emergency Centre in Hallam (Simone works as a Vet Nurse there part time). I went across to Avonsleigh last night to make sure that everything was ok (it was), and by the time I got there, the CFA had every thing well under control.

I pay credit to the volunteers of the CFA. They are 99% Volunteers. They are doing a magnificent job against great odds. Our firies are some of the best in the world.

Cheers,

Hugh

Hugh,

My family and I are sending prayers your way everyday. Keep safe.

mark

Same here Hugh!

I am sorry to hear about the fires, I saw very shocking images of them at TV. I hope that you your family and pets continue to be ok and the fires be extinguished

Take care!,

Claudio

Keep safe, my friend.
I saw very shocking images of them at TV.

Larsa Q

Thanks for your good wishes guys.

I am home again. The property at Gembrook is not under threat tonight.
We just came back from collecting the puppies for their holiday camp and I am putting together a spagetti bolognese a la Hugh.

66 lives have been lost now. Hundreds of homes are destroyed. The townships of Marysville (Simone and Honeymooned there) and Kinglake (I grew up there) have been wiped from the map.

The fire that destroyed those two towns is still at large.

This fire has gone contrary to all fire fighting theory. 40 minute fire fronts (5-10 minutes is the norm). The speed of the fires has gone completely off the scale.

Some of the bigger fires have been deliberately lit and it turns out that the fire near our house here in Avonsleigh was also deliberately lit. Hanging is too good for them.

Cheers and thanks again. We both apreciate your thoughts and wishes.

Ironically, northern Australia is in flood...

Floods, bush fires, ten foot high man eating bunyips! Who'd want to live in such a place?

Hugh

Hugh!
Watched last night at tv what is going on in your country. its an absolute catastrophy. Things are going out of control. I wonder how long people will need to think about what they are doing.

Anyway we feel here with you all wishing that things are turning to the better soon.
Peter

Thanks Peter.

This is actually an annual occurance in Australia, although nowhere near as bad as this. The last time it was anywhere near this bad was in 1983.

We are battling the dry from a ten year drought (although last springs rain was quite good, it still was below average). And coupled with record high temeratures and strong blustery northerlies, we knew we were in for a shocker.

Canberra copped it two years ago. The Alpine Region was burnt to a crisp about 5 years ago... We live in Australia. It happens.
We were not prepared for the ferocity of what happened in the last 48 hours, it was freaky.

Cheers,

Hugh

Hugh
My best wishes to you, family and friends to stay safe.

The irresponsibility of people sometimes shows no bounds, but as you say, fortunately those people are far outweighed by the good and decent.

I'll send you some of our welsh snow

Mike

DSE Fire Fighters starting Back Burns near Gembrook. These were worse than useless.



A CFA Volunteer taking a well earned break.

These are not my photos. They are gleaned form various news Services.

Reports of the fires can be see on these links.

http://www.theage.com.au/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/

Cheers,

Hugh

Thanks for the updates Hugh. Keep your squirt gun handy. Prayers are out for rain!

Regards
Steve

Horrible situation you have got down there. Saw some terrifying footage on the TV last night.
Thoughts and prayers going out to all you folks.

Charles

Greetings all;

By request the Austrailian Wild Fires thread has been moved here to Aeroscale Site Feedback. The aim is to get more of the Aeroscale community involved in this timely issue. I am sure we all have our good friend Hugh Coleman (MerlinV) and his family and the other folks involved on our minds and hearts.

Hugh , I pray for the safety of you and your family and every one comes out unharmed .

The death toll is well over 100 now, with hundreds of houses lost.


Fire map

Anyone wanting to donate money or other should contact the Australian branches of the Salvation Army or Red Cross...

Thanks Rudi.

I am back at Gembrook. The Bunyip state park fire has jumped the lines on the north western section. It is now threatening us. Not immediately and not the sort of fire that destroyed Kinglake and Marysville, but a fire nonetheless.
Wolfgang (father in Law) and I have enacted our defence plan and are intending to stay and defend the house and the factory.

I will keep you updated if the electricity stays on.

Cheers,

Hugh

Good luck Hugh.

I've got a friend that stays near (ish) you in Selby, but I think he's near to the fire station.

You're in our thoughts mate!

Rudi

Hi Hugh and all our friends in Oz

Really dreadful news - and it's appalling to hear that a number of the fires seem to have been set deliberately!

Take care

Rowan

Hi Hugh and all,

I hope that the fire will not cause more damage.

Here in France (and probably over other places in Europe) snow is just starting to fall... I wish we could send it all to you.

I hope for all the people in the fire area that this tragedy will stop soon.

Jean-Luc

Thankyou all for your kind thoughts and wishes.

SImone and I attended a community meeting at the Gembrook CFA last night. Apparently the initial threat message was a tad exagerated. This was only that the topography changed the local wind direction from ESE to SSE.
The DSE and the CFA both addressed us.
DSE (who I will publicly state here have been sitting on their hands for the last week; we hear them on the scanner sending the CFA away again when the CFA attends to assist) told us that the Buyip Ridge fire (See above) has flared up on the north western edge and broken the containment line. The fire should head north towards Hoddles Creek (missing us) but the front will spread as it travels.
Next Monday, they are expecting anoth Northerly, which assuming that the fire has not been dealt with yet (if the DSE has any thing to do with it, it will not), will then turn the fire back towards us.

We can only wait and see.

The toll has reached 173

Cheers,

Hugh

Hey Hugh.............thanks for taking the time to post updates..........thus alerting us that you are, in fact, OK.

When is it gonna rain?

Regards
Steve

My thoughts are with you all over there.
I really dont know what to say.....
Nige

Thinking about you, I' ve got relatives out there but they are OK as of yesterday. Hang in there
Andrew

The Bunyip Ridge Fire has been active today and has spotted (the wind has blown embers which create spot fires) north and north west of the containment lines.
This morning we fitted sprinklers to the roof of the factory. I'm not sure whether they will save it in the even that the worst should happen, but I am happier knowing that they are there. Watching them dousing the roof of the factory with water was very satisfying.
I went down to Kooweerup this afternoon to feed my and Wolfgangs horses.
On the way back I could see the fire in the hills and see the spots developing as I drove. As I drove, the radio announced that the threat had increased for this area.
My wife is sitting on a hill the other side of the road blocks that have been put in place only a Km and a half from here. She is watching the fire and will inform us if it comes over the ridge and heads down the slope towards us. At this stage, we believe that the fire will still run north of us, but we will have to remain allert for embers and smoke coming off the flank of the fire.

Cheers,

Hugh

Fingers crossed for you Hugh... I am in Greensborough and therefore not in any danger but nonetheless the St Andrews and surrounding fires are only as few kilometres from here...
Brad