Mass Murder
Posted by tothewire on February 9, 2009
Thousands of firefighters and hundreds of volunteers are battling wildfires in southeastern Australia.
In the state of Victoria, dozens have been killed and at least 100 homes destroyed.
People are busy trying to protect their homes and to avoid the heat, as the temperature reaches record levels.
Australia’s prime minister has called the country’s deadliest bushfires, believed to be the result of arson, “mass murder”.
The toll from the fires in the country’s southeast hit 135 on Monday as Kevin Rudd said he feared the “numbing” number would rise further.
“This is of a level of horror that few of us anticipated. There are no words to describe it other than mass murder,” Rudd told Australian television.
Some of the fires eased on Monday but thousands of firefighters and soldiers continued to battle dozens of blazes across an area of about 3,000 sq km across the states of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.
The authorities expect the toll to rise as they search for scores of missing in more than 750 burnt-out homes and completely destroyed towns.
Chris Harvey, a survivor of a massive fire that tore through several small towns north of Melbourne on Saturday night, told local media that it was a “most horrible day”.
“It’s going to look like Hiroshima, I tell you. It’s going to look like a nuclear bomb,” he said.
From one of our blogging friends living there in the midst of this tragedy. Blog name Mrs Slocombe regrets click below to read post
Be kind and leave Peter Kenneally a comment on his blog and let him know Austrailia is in our thoughts.
okathleen said
Sitting here, listening to the rain thrash against the windows, and looking at the flooded fields, it’s impossible to picture this Armageddon…
http://www.okathleen.wordpress.com
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tothewire said
I agree Okathleen. It has been raining here all day, and I found myself thinking about the fires raging in Australia and the people there.
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