Black Saturday a Photographic Update On Victoria's Bushfires
Posted: Thursday, February 26, 2009
by Dr Jeannette Kavanagh
Dr Jeannette Kavanagh and Daughter
I first wrote about what we now call Black Saturday some weeks ago. Then I was in a state of shock and disbelief about the loss of human life, the injuries and loss of life among livestock and wild animals and the devastation of property. In fact, whole towns have been ravaged to the ground by the fires.
At that time, we had never experienced such a huge loss of human life in a natural disaster and at that time, the number of people who are no more was about thirty-seven. Just a couple of days ago, a man who'd been burned in the fire but who had been hospitalised for his burns, passed away after valiantly trying to cling to life for two weeks. His death brought the total to 210.
In this collection of photos, you'll see some of that courage. The acronym CFA stands for Country Fire Authority and it is an entirely volunteer run organisation. The fire men and women in the Department of Sustainability and the Environment have battled the blazes side by side with their comrades in the CFA. One volunteer firefighter David Balfour, came down to Victoria from Canberra. He wanted to repay the debt paid by Victorian firefighters in the 2003 Canberra fires. He died in the blaze, leaving a wife and three young children. Here are the photos:
Photos of the bushfires
In the preview that hyperlink didn't work:I don't claim to be a website expert - so just put this address into your Internet browser - http://www.calmingwords.com/bushfires/Victorian bushfire photos.pdf
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Hi Jeannette, thank you for sharing this up close and personal account. It's a beautiful thing when people come together at any time, but especially when tragedy strikes. I am praying for healing and restoration. Blessings to you, TeresaHello Teresa,
As always, thank you for your kindness. I've now been to five separate funerals including the national day of mourning. Three of the other funerals were for friends of mine who died in the fire. I still can't bear to think how frightening their passing must have been.
But yes, in tragedy we learn so much about what really matters. Community spirit is strengthened by these awful events.
In Victoria, as in parts of the United States of America like California, we are used to bushfires. Many people have intricate survival plans in place and the usual wisdom is called the 'stay and defend' approach. This fire, its velocity and its intensity, the suddenness with which it escalated and many fires joined each other - all of that has altered our way of thinking. Recently, when a smallish fire broke out, over 90% of the residents evacuated immediately.
Blessings to you and your family also.
Dr. Kavanaugh, I find this so sad, I feel for all of the families that have lost loved ones, not to mention their homes, their beautiful land, and all of the destruction that this massive fire has caused. You said in your article that this was a Natural disaster, was it lightning? Whatever it was, those pictures were worth a thousand words...My heart is heavy for all that has been lost, from the families loved one, down to the animals in the trees and forest that this fire has destroyed....This was a great article, and tribute to those that have helped in this situation...Thank you so much for sharing this with us....this article was a good update, and I was just thinking about this today...wow...then I found this....Well done my friend, well done. Your fan and friend in pen......Gary.Thank you Gary for your kind thoughts of support.
As I write, the schools in which I work part-time, have been closed on another fire alert. This time, it's the gale force winds. Healesville is a beautiful little town in which I work a couple of days a week as a coach for teachers. It's surrounded on the north, east and the west by fires and the fear is that all those fires will join together in the 150kms per hour winds - I think that's about 90miles an hour.
When the bushfires are referred to as a natural disaster, I guess I meant that the fires are part of the life cycle of many of our eucalypts and other trees. As you know, many of our trees need fire in order for their seeds to germinate. Of course, we now do a lot of back burning to control fires and only a few are set off by lightening. Unfortunately, it's been found that the fires in Marysville and Kinglake were deliberately lit.
Needless to say, the arsonists have had to have police protection while they await trial.
A more recent outbreak was caused by farm machinary because it only takes one spark on such dry earth to erupt into fire. Experts abound and the latest idea is that we can no longer talk about Melbourne being in drought because that implies a temporary state. We may never recover from this long dry. Amazing. Just as I typed that, it started to rain. Nothing serious yet, just a few drops - to underscore my optimism.
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