The temperature had reached 46 degrees and Peter and I were congratulating ourselves on the decision to stay where there was air conditioning instead of spending the weekend in Beechworth. As we walked into Leo’s (a grocery store) we noticed that a thick column of smoke, greasy blue along the edges and yellow brown in the center, rose over the hills of Melbourne.  Bushfire. Wow, it’s so close, where is it? We speculated as we gathered ingredients for dinner deciding to check the news later. I didn’t think it would be that bad. I am from the Pacific Northwest, we have raging forest fires and everyone goes about their day but here it is terrifyingly different. The forests are so dry from the drought years, eucalyptus shed bark and branches at an amazing rate and it goes up in flames like it has been soaked in petrol.

It was worse than bad, it looked like the end of the world, a war zone, the inferno found in hell. Sadly this weekend has seen the worst bushfires in the history of European settlement in Victoria. At the time of writing this the towns of Maryville, Narbathong and Kinglake has been wiped out, burnt to the ground with no building left standing. Entire towns no longer exist and sadly many of the residents as well. The death toll has risen to 108 people with more than 5000 people not only homeless but with absolutely nothing but the clothing they had on. No wallet, no id, no precious things and sometimes no family, no pets. It’s not even over, fires are still raging and the bodies of people that didn’t make it out of their houses, that died trying to escape in their cars are going to be found for weeks. Terribly, it is thought that some of the fires were set by arsonists and some fires have been restarted by arsonists after the firemen have put them out.

I cannot begin to describe how tragic and moving this incident is. The news from a Whittlesea emergency center showed a man break down in tears while talking to Kevin Rudd, the prime minister. Mr. Rudd won my eternal respect for wrapping his arms around the man and letting him cry on his shoulder. How many heads of state would do that, how many would be there, without security surrounding them, comforting people in this most basic of ways.

I know that most (if not all) of the people who read this are poor, either students or suffering from the economy, but should anyone want to help please check the following website:

Red Cross Australia

Salvation Army

For updates on the fires:

The Age