Aussies are Okay?

[Sangye]

Are all you Aussies okay? I saw there's a huge wildfire in Oz that's already killed 14. I hope everyone is safe and nowhere near it. Must be hard on the lungs.

[crackers]

c'mon andrew man let us know you're ok .

[Carol]

I have just heard on the radio that there are now 173 deaths. My husband Alby and I were at a Country Music festival in the town - Whittlesea - near where many of these deaths were. Our friends and I went into Melbourne for the night but Alby is a volunteer fireman and spent the night at the the Staging area with directing traffic, helicopters etc seeing and hearing things that were horrific. We returned the next day back to our caravan and he came off duty a 11am (had been on duty since 3pm the previous day) he had a few hours sleep and we headed back 5 hrs drive to Lakes Entrance. He was absolutley exhausted, had the nights sleep, then drove some firemen into Bairnsdale, came back for a few hours and has now been gone since 4pm yesterday. I rang this morning and he was about to go to bed in a motel and then restart duty again. Fortunately there are no fires near our town at the moment. However there are fires still all over the state. For the overseas people Saturday was predicted as a high fire danger day - extremely high temps - up to 47 degrees and extremely high winds. No fires around Canberra as far as I know which is where Andrew lives.

[Sangye]

I emailed Andrew and he said he's not affected. I should've poste that here so no one would worry.

[crackers]

thanks sangye that's good to know.carol tell alby from me i think he's a real hero.i've been watching the news reports over here and it looks horrific.how do you stop fires that are travelling so fast and changing direction with the high winds.all those poor people who perished and those badly burned.even the lucky ones who survived have lost everything they owned.some mornings i wake up feeling really sorry for myself because i feel a bit off then i think about whats going on down there and i feel a little ashamed of myself.keep safe.
john

[Sangye]

An Aussie friend sent me these links to the Australian Red Cross and RSPCA (animal rescue/ shelter) if you want to make a donation. Also a link to news about the fires. I hope the links work okay.

Australian Red Cross


RSPCA Victoria: News / Heat Wave


ABC News - Top Stories - Breaking news from Australia and the world

[andrew]

Thanks for your thoughts for us Aussies. It's a tragedy what's happening there. Whole families being wiped out. This in this morning's paper: Police fear 300 dead in the ashes | smh.com.au

[crackers]

good to hear from you andrew.keep safe.
john