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Marg????
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 243270" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>difficult child 3 has just gone for a walk on the headland, in the bush. Yesterday in the heat I would have forbidden it, but today I am sure he will be safe. He has his phone with him and I know he won't be out of sight of the houses, he never goes far. He's assured me that if he sees smoke he will call it in on his phone at the same time as heading straight back. We talked about how to keep yourself safe if caught out in a fire - he really doesn't know, I need to teach him. He thought going to stand on the rocks of the headland would be safest, but it would leave him right out in the open and a target for radiant heat stress.</p><p></p><p>He'll be fine. Today is cool and overcast; he's actually wearing a fleecy long-sleeved pullover. And when I was down the road, the brigade fire engine was still in town. One door was open, so clearly they're at the ready. We have two brigade stations in the village, side by side. One is the Rural Fire Service, the other is the volunteer Bush Fire Brigade. Rural will be called out first; if they go it will still leave the volunteers here for a bit longer in the event they're needed.</p><p></p><p>We're safe. It's cooler, there were even a few drops of rain half an hour ago. I left the beach towels on the clothes line though, they'll get drier rather than wetter despite any moisture.</p><p></p><p>The death toll - I've stopped looking. The news breaks on TV say it's up in the 130s now and they still haven't got in to check out a number of towns still cut off. The man I mentioned before who was being interviewed on TV earlier this morning, who wanted to be allowed to drive in to find his wife but the police wouldn't let him - they said that his neighbour came in to the refuge and it didn't look good, the house is gone. So unless his wife and kids managed to get away and find shelter... which is unlikely, because he was talking on the phone to her and she said the fire was just about on top of them then the phone went dead.</p><p>There are so many stories like this. They'll have a follow-up on this story in the morning, but we'll be on the road by then, difficult child 3 has a session in the city at school tomorrow. There's a TV reporter whose wife and kids were at home, he was trying to get through to them. Then he couldn't get any contact. But thankfully, he found her.</p><p>He said the police wouldn't let him through, because "...if you go through, you could be the subject of a coronial enquiry." His house is gone, his wife said it sounded like a bomb going off. She sheltered in the farm dam.</p><p></p><p>The evidence is also being meticulously collected, to nail the arsonists. They're not kidding, about treating the entire area as a crime scene. They will use footage of the fires, photos, every image they have, to get every bit of data on the patterns of the fires and the seat of them and how the developed. They then use this to identify the source. From there they will examine the movements of people in the area - every person in the shelters, either statically there or coming or going, is recorded, nubered, identified and all of it verified asmuch as possible by either personal ID (if they've got it) or friends/neighbours vouching for them (if there are no papers). We went through the same procedure in '94. All of the survivor/refugee documents will be used by the police to vouch for where people were and when. We don't have the death penalty, although Victoria was the last state to have it. They'll never bring it back in, they wouldn't be able to make it retrospective anyway, but if/when they catch someone, he'd better go into protective custody...</p><p></p><p>The army is now in there, helping to get supplies in there, to move people around, to set up and support in so many areas.</p><p></p><p>I can't escape the TV news - but at least they're trying to give us some positive survival stories now. They're just showing a husband and wife now, who have just found out that their children are alive after all. </p><p></p><p>The NSW fires - thanks to the cool change last night, plus the cooler weather, the Peats Ridge fire is now controlled. They were able to successfully backburn in the cooler, still air. However, the fire is not out so peopleneed to be careful.</p><p></p><p>Humidity is high, the smoke pollution is dangerously high (although we're fine here, no smoke).</p><p></p><p>So again I stress - we are in perhaps the safest place. Yes, we are surrounded by bushland, but if it didn't get us in '94, it certainly won't now. And there are no fires anywhere in our neck of the woods. But officials are not taking chances - the Total Fire Ban signs are still up.</p><p></p><p>The floods in Queensland - a five-year-old kid was near the river and followed his dog into the river, and hasn't been seen since. His brother saw a croc nearby, they're fairly certain the croc got him. The floodwaters have dropped another metre, but many places are still isolated, thousands of people are still cut off without supplies. It's still wet season, more rain is on the way. What a pity we can't ship that rain down to Victoria! Or NSW, we'd like some of it too.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 243270, member: 1991"] difficult child 3 has just gone for a walk on the headland, in the bush. Yesterday in the heat I would have forbidden it, but today I am sure he will be safe. He has his phone with him and I know he won't be out of sight of the houses, he never goes far. He's assured me that if he sees smoke he will call it in on his phone at the same time as heading straight back. We talked about how to keep yourself safe if caught out in a fire - he really doesn't know, I need to teach him. He thought going to stand on the rocks of the headland would be safest, but it would leave him right out in the open and a target for radiant heat stress. He'll be fine. Today is cool and overcast; he's actually wearing a fleecy long-sleeved pullover. And when I was down the road, the brigade fire engine was still in town. One door was open, so clearly they're at the ready. We have two brigade stations in the village, side by side. One is the Rural Fire Service, the other is the volunteer Bush Fire Brigade. Rural will be called out first; if they go it will still leave the volunteers here for a bit longer in the event they're needed. We're safe. It's cooler, there were even a few drops of rain half an hour ago. I left the beach towels on the clothes line though, they'll get drier rather than wetter despite any moisture. The death toll - I've stopped looking. The news breaks on TV say it's up in the 130s now and they still haven't got in to check out a number of towns still cut off. The man I mentioned before who was being interviewed on TV earlier this morning, who wanted to be allowed to drive in to find his wife but the police wouldn't let him - they said that his neighbour came in to the refuge and it didn't look good, the house is gone. So unless his wife and kids managed to get away and find shelter... which is unlikely, because he was talking on the phone to her and she said the fire was just about on top of them then the phone went dead. There are so many stories like this. They'll have a follow-up on this story in the morning, but we'll be on the road by then, difficult child 3 has a session in the city at school tomorrow. There's a TV reporter whose wife and kids were at home, he was trying to get through to them. Then he couldn't get any contact. But thankfully, he found her. He said the police wouldn't let him through, because "...if you go through, you could be the subject of a coronial enquiry." His house is gone, his wife said it sounded like a bomb going off. She sheltered in the farm dam. The evidence is also being meticulously collected, to nail the arsonists. They're not kidding, about treating the entire area as a crime scene. They will use footage of the fires, photos, every image they have, to get every bit of data on the patterns of the fires and the seat of them and how the developed. They then use this to identify the source. From there they will examine the movements of people in the area - every person in the shelters, either statically there or coming or going, is recorded, nubered, identified and all of it verified asmuch as possible by either personal ID (if they've got it) or friends/neighbours vouching for them (if there are no papers). We went through the same procedure in '94. All of the survivor/refugee documents will be used by the police to vouch for where people were and when. We don't have the death penalty, although Victoria was the last state to have it. They'll never bring it back in, they wouldn't be able to make it retrospective anyway, but if/when they catch someone, he'd better go into protective custody... The army is now in there, helping to get supplies in there, to move people around, to set up and support in so many areas. I can't escape the TV news - but at least they're trying to give us some positive survival stories now. They're just showing a husband and wife now, who have just found out that their children are alive after all. The NSW fires - thanks to the cool change last night, plus the cooler weather, the Peats Ridge fire is now controlled. They were able to successfully backburn in the cooler, still air. However, the fire is not out so peopleneed to be careful. Humidity is high, the smoke pollution is dangerously high (although we're fine here, no smoke). So again I stress - we are in perhaps the safest place. Yes, we are surrounded by bushland, but if it didn't get us in '94, it certainly won't now. And there are no fires anywhere in our neck of the woods. But officials are not taking chances - the Total Fire Ban signs are still up. The floods in Queensland - a five-year-old kid was near the river and followed his dog into the river, and hasn't been seen since. His brother saw a croc nearby, they're fairly certain the croc got him. The floodwaters have dropped another metre, but many places are still isolated, thousands of people are still cut off without supplies. It's still wet season, more rain is on the way. What a pity we can't ship that rain down to Victoria! Or NSW, we'd like some of it too. Marg [/QUOTE]
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