Under a Blood Red Sky: Photos of the Canberra firestorm

[Alexander's Horse]

My God - confirmed city houses destroyed reached 532 this evening

At least 30 farm houses were also destroyed.

[Docfeelgood]

Over five hundred homes?!!!!!!?
WOW!
UFB!


What are these homes made from? straw?


Glad yours is ok AH

[Alexander's Horse]

Thanks Doc

Most of the houses destroyed were full brick or brick veneer. Whole streets wiped out in seconds.

[Lancer]

Case, thanks for the info.

I can't imagine what it was like watching the fire come at you and having your family there. Didn't they consider evacuation or was there no time?

[Alexander's Horse]

It all happened pretty fast, some were evacuated but you really needed to make your own decisions.

You get some big fires up there in the NW of the US.

[Jon Miller]

I saw some when I was up Mt Jefferson, but I never had any get close to my hosue..

JonM iller

[Alexander's Horse]

Here's a web site with personal reminiscences of the fires, or "Black Saturday" as it is now being called.

http://members.austarmetro.com.au/~brd/

Australians might have lost their homes but not their sense of humour:

Day of Terror in the Suburbs of Canberra

by Richard from Weston

My day of terror began on Sunday morning when I tuned into a local radio station. The previous day I had been busy inhaling ash, hosing houses, watching flames come towards me from three different directions etc etc
etc. But by 10pm Saturday night the fires had moved on and it seemed that everything had worked out well for my street.

When I woke up on Sunday morning we still had no electricity, but the cooler weather and lack of wind
gave plenty of reason for optimism.

So nothing could have prepared me for that sickening moment when I turned on the radio and heard that Prime Minister John Howard was rampaging unchecked and unstoppably through the suburbs of Weston Creek, engulfing the bodies of hapless residents in hugs and stifling their senses with grating small talk.

At first he seemed to be safely contained within Duffy, two whole suburbs to the west, and at that point it still seemed unlikely that he would get anywhere near Weston. But in the unprecedented conditions we were facing, he moved quickly and unpredictably. Suddenly, without warning, his appearancesflared up in Waramanga, barely a kilometre to the south. It was obvious that even my own seemingly safe street could soon be in danger.

I wished I had time to do some preemptive backburning to block off his progress, but there was no time. Instead I just stood nervously on my front lawn armed with a hose and a rake - ready to fight him off and protect
my home and loved ones even if it took my final breath to do so.

But my luck was still in. Whether it was due to a change in the wind, or whether firefighters intervened, I don't know. But his course changed and he left my part of Weston mercifully untouched. By mid Sunday afternoon I
was finally able to feel confident the crisis was over. I could go back inside and relax, knowing that I could probably live the rest of my life without ever seeing him come anywhere near my neighbourhood again.

[Skanky Burns]

[ravagon]

... ... Wait a minute ... Do you seriously expect us to believe that, somehow, somebody put John Howard out? ...

[Alexander's Horse]

He's not very popular down here.

I saw a good line in the weekend papers as to why: "Canberra looks like Pymble, votes like Cessnock"