Worst-ever bushfires in Australia kills at least 171 people

[Hadenamadjid]

Australian firefighters battled 31 blazes in Victoria as the death toll rose to 166 in the country’s worst-ever bushfires, prompting the state government to promise a review of emergency policies.

Five major fires were burning across Victoria, where more than 300,000 hectares (741,000 acres) of land were destroyed, 750 homes were razed and 3,700 people were left homeless, the state’s Country Fire Authority said. Winds as high as 24 knots (44 kilometers per hour) and showers are forecast in Victoria in the next two days, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said.

The number of people killed in the fires was revised from 171 because some fatalities had been counted twice, a spokeswoman for the Victoria Police, who declined to be identified, said in a phone interview today.

“It’s like hell on earth,” Victorian Premier John Brumby told Melbourne Radio 3AW yesterday, adding that a royal commission will look into the fires. “When the time comes to examine in depth all of the issues that occurred on Saturday, obviously fire policy will be one of those areas.”

Two weeks of record temperatures and hot northerly gales across the southeast of the continent made conditions over the weekend worse than in February 1983, when 75 people in Victoria and neighboring South Australia died in what are known as the Ash Wednesday fires.

Deadliest Disaster

The toll exceeds the 71 killed when Cyclone Tracy hit the northern city of Darwin in 1974 and the 71 who died in Victoria’s Black Friday fires of Jan. 13, 1939. Police warned that the number of fatalities will rise as they gain access to affected areas.

The fires may have caused more than A$500 million ($334 million) in property damage, according to Arjan Van Veen, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG.

Australia’s worst natural disaster was on March 4, 1899, when more than 400 people died as Tropical Cyclone Mahina struck Bathurst Bay on Cape York in the far northeast, according to the Australian government’s Emergency Management Authority.

Headlines in newspapers included: “Hell and Its Fury,” “Counting the Cost” and “Worse Than Bali,” a reference to the 2002 terrorist bombings in the Indonesian resort that killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians.

Victoria’s skies were filled with smoke as fires raged to the north and northeast of the state capital, Melbourne.

Record Temperature

Firefighters in the state and in neighboring New South Wales, where 50 fires burned on Feb. 7, are expecting cooler weather to help ease the blazes. The temperature reached a record 46.4 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) in Melbourne on Feb. 7 before a southerly front started to move across Australia’s southeast.

Some of the fires may have been started deliberately, Victorian Deputy Police Commissioner Kieran Walshe told Sky News. “There are no words to describe it -- it’s mass murder,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Nine Network television’s “Today” show through tears yesterday.

Two people were charged with arson over separate fires in New South Wales, police said. A 15-year-old boy was arrested Feb. 8 and charged with setting off an explosive that caused a blaze in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, while a 31-year-old was charged with lighting a fire north of the city.

Deaths in Kinglake

Many of the deaths in Victoria occurred in and around the towns of Kinglake, St. Andrews and Wandong, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Melbourne, where the fire front stretched to 80 kilometers.

“Kinglake’s ceased to exist for all intents and purposes,” Moray Sharp, a local real estate agent, told the Age newspaper. “It was like a sustained bombing attack, that’s what it was like with the noise,” said Sharp, who lost his home in the blaze.

The dead include Brian Naylor, who was the top-rated television newsreader in Melbourne for 28 years before retiring to his Kinglake property in 1998.

The nearby town of Marysville, with a population of about 500, was virtually destroyed with the loss of homes along with its school, pub and police station.

Burned cars were found at intersections and piles of rubble were all that was left of houses in Marysville, previously home to trout farms and eco-resorts, and Kinglake, famous for raspberry farms and olive groves.

Red Cross staff and volunteers are working at 20 relief centers to support those affected, with 3,700 people registered as evacuated.

“The speed of the fires was very unusual and caught people unawares,” Red Cross Victoria Executive Director Andrew Hilton told Bloomberg TV yesterday.

Animal Sanctuary

Healesville Sanctuary, an Australian zoo specializing in native wildlife, evacuated 200 animals, including koalas, dingoes, helmeted honeyeaters and pygmy possums as fires approached yesterday.

State and federal governments pledged at least A$10 million in rebuilding funds and cash payments to victims. Eligible adults can claim immediate payments of A$1,000 and A$400 for children, with A$5,000 for funerals and A$22,000 provided to those who have lost their homes.

Corporate donations to the bushfire appeal have topped A$5 million, with the nation’s four largest banks pledging A$1 million each. Wesfarmers Ltd., the country’s second-largest retailer, promised A$500,000, an amount matched by department store chain David Jones Ltd.

Federal opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull and his state counterpart, Ted Baillieu, pledged bipartisan support for relief efforts. Brumby and Rudd each pledged A$2 million in government donations to the state bushfire appeal.

Proceeds from an international cricket match between Australia and New Zealand scheduled for today will be donated to fire victims, host broadcaster the Nine network said.

New South Wales, while fighting its own blazes, sent 255 firefighters, 50 tankers and five paramedics to assist Victoria, Premier Nathan Rees told reporters at the weekend.

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[123Rpg]

This fire was arson.I wonder if some groups have considered setting Wildfires during high winds as a terror attack.Very simple yet potentially catastrophic like this one.

[Hadenamadjid]

This fire was arson.I wonder if some groups have considered setting Wildfires during high winds as a terror attack.Very simple yet potentially catastrophic like this one.

Many parameters must be combined so that these fires become devastating and they are possible only in limited areas and in a single season. Besides I think that in 98% of cases you succeed just to kill many animals which have nothing to do with the stupidity of men and do only devastate forests or fields, so I HOPE that no group will have the idea one day to begin such actions. And I think that the pyromaniacs responsible for these fires, even if they cause only material damage, should be executed.

[123Rpg]

This fire was arson.I wonder if some groups have considered setting Wildfires during high winds as a terror attack.Very simple yet potentially catastrophic like this one.

Many parameters must be combined so that these fires become devastating and they are possible only in limited areas and in a single season. Besides I think that in 98% of cases you succeed just to kill many animals which have nothing to do with the stupidity of men and do only devastate forests or fields, so I HOPE that no group will have the idea one day to begin such actions. And I think that the pyromaniacs responsible for these fires, even if they cause only material damage, should be executed.

And you dont think they could wait until the optimal time like this?.

[123Rpg]

I found this article from 2003 confirming that it has indeed been planned before.

FBI: al-Qaeda detainee spoke of fire plot

PHOENIX (AP) — The FBI alerted law enforcement agencies last month that an al-Qaeda terrorist now in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States.
Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, told The Associated Press that officials there took note of the warning but didn't see a need to act further on it.

The contents of the June 25 memo from the FBI's Denver office were reported Friday by The Arizona Republic. Davis declined to share a copy of the memo and an FBI spokeswoman in Denver didn't immediately return a telephone call.

The Republic reported that the detainee, who was not identified, said the plan involved three or four people setting wildfires using timed devices in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming that would detonate in forests and grasslands after the operatives had left the country.
The memo noted that investigators couldn't determine whether the detainee was telling the truth.

The newspaper said many forest law enforcement officers it contacted had no idea the warning had been issued.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... fire_x.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Hadenamadjid]

This fire was arson.I wonder if some groups have considered setting Wildfires during high winds as a terror attack.Very simple yet potentially catastrophic like this one.

Many parameters must be combined so that these fires become devastating and they are possible only in limited areas and in a single season. Besides I think that in 98% of cases you succeed just to kill many animals which have nothing to do with the stupidity of men and do only devastate forests or fields, so I HOPE that no group will have the idea one day to begin such actions. And I think that the pyromaniacs responsible for these fires, even if they cause only material damage, should be executed.

And you dont think they could wait until the optimal time like this?.

No, frankly, even if it is the 'optimal time', it isn't something to do, too much imprecise means, and even for terrorists point of view, where is the 'bravery', the 'valiance' for them to do it? Na, forget that.

For the 2003' article, i charge up that on the American paranoia of this times (still largely present nowadays).

[123Rpg]

The report said that Abu Musab Al-Suri, urges terrorists to use sulphuric acid to start a forest fire, as well as gasoline.

The writer stated that “targeted forests” are in the nations that “are at war with Muslims,” including the United States, Europe, Russia, and Australia.

The posting said that setting forest fires were legal under extremist Islamic law as part of a “eye for an eye” and that can produce “amazing results.”

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