On the Bush Fires in Australia

February 16, 2009 by maureen.ulrich.

I recently received this email from a friend in Melbourne, Australia, and I am passing it along to you. Maureen, thank you for your concern.You would understand even more than me (a city dweller) how it would feel to lose nearly your whole community. Marysville for example is where 1/5th of the town died, in some cases whole families. Nearly every building including the school & homes of 1500 people went up like they were hit by an atomic bomb. Yesterday (a week later) locals were bused in to see what happened to their town & homes…but not allowed to get out of the bus. The town is being treated as a crime scene and there are still missing people not found under  the rubble of their homes or the homes and building they ran to seek shelter in.The speed at which the fire moved has everyone amazed and no one has ever seen anything like this before. In some places the radiant heat was so intense it killed people any closer than 200 meters….The stories of heroism are amazing. For example one (as yet unknown) policeman got 200 people who had gathered on an oval in Marysville to leave town with only seconds to spare…if they had stayed they all would have died.The man who was saved by his horse which pushed him through a guard rail & down a hill into a stream. The horse was slightly burnt but lived too.The people who fled to a neighbours coolstore hid inside while the owner put out spot fires around the coolstore & sucked air from plastic bottles to be able to breathe in the oxygen deprived air.A week later the fires are still ranging but at the moment there are no people or properties under treat. The city of Melbourne has been covered by smoke haze all weekend so we have a constant reminder of what is happening. There is very little we can do except donate money & blood. Everyone has been affected by this and most people I speak to are grieving in some way - even if they have not been personally affected. It is a great show of support to offer to donate to the bush fire appeal. The best place to donate is the Red Cross. They and the government are working together to get cash payment direct into the hands of people who have lost everything and those injured in hospital.(From the Australian Red Cross website) “Red Cross will not deduct any funds whatsoever from the Appeal for administration costs with all funds going to people and communities affected by the fires. Every cent received by Red Cross is being transferred on a daily basis to a Trust Account set up by the Victorian Government for distribution.”I cannot believe that in just 4 days the Australian public (not including the Government & corporate sectors) have donated over $50 million.It would be great if you let other people who want to do something  know that the Red Cross is the best way to go. 

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