krazy kat's korner

Reposting what my sis has posted (she used one of the telescopes for her honours).

It's 5 days until the 10th anniversary of the 2003 Canberra bushfires, in which lives and houses were lost, and Mt Stromlo, one of two Australian optical research facilities was destroyed.

Today, a bushfire swept through Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran in NSW, the other of the two Australian optical research facilities.

They'd evacuated all staff. The site has around 10 operating telescopes, plus a visitor's centre, sleeping quarters, kitchen, etc. It's got the largest telescope in Australia, the AAT, which has innovative technology to do surveys.

Since the 2003 bushfires, they changed things to try to help the observatory survive this sort of event. That included special paint on the domes.

It's looking a bit hopeful. 3 of the telescopes are still alive by the looks of it - I'm presuming they mean 'alive' by the fact that they're getting temperature, etc. info from them. The temperature spiked to over 100 C (212 F) outside and the reading inside the dome at that time was just under 50 C (122 F). It's all the smaller things around, plus the other buildings that I'm worried about. And all the telescopes that they don't know whether they're alive yet. From what one of the people involved is saying, it's sounding like possibly the clearing around the area forced the fire around the mountain, that it didn't actually go through the site. I'm crossing my fingers that this is right... Even then, the high temperatures may have been enough to do a reasonable amount of damage, as well as embers.

Feeling a bit teary. Seeing the devastation up at Stromlo was horrible. Let alone this.

ETA: Rural Fire Service has said that there's significant damage. From allsky cameras, the domes they can see are still standing and they can contact some telescopes. Also, Mopra, a mm telescope (antenna) is just down the road. It seems to be still standing, but not contactable (i.e. offline). The antenna structure may survive a bushfire, but electronics/cabling, and the support building likely wouldn't.

2nd post:

This does not look good for Mopra. The antenna itself will have survived (although I'm not certain at what temperature you get warping) but likely cabling etc. will be gone and it does not look good for the support building. I'm hoping I'm wrong... Do not watch if bushfires are triggery for you.

( video )

They've confirmed from the webcams (which too many people are visiting - making it difficult for the firefighters) that buildings (not domes i.e. the telescopes themselves) are definitely on fire at Siding Spring. Some of the staff are fearing for several of the telescopes, particularly one that is a replacement for a telescope that burnt down at Mt Stromlo ten years ago.

It's going to be an incredibly horrible night for a lot of people...

A tiny bit of good news in the Victorian bushfires, with the death toll being revised down by nearly 40.

THE death toll of the Black Saturday bushfires has been revised down from 210 to 173 after the coroner's office was finally able to classify the horrendously damaged human remains.

Some remains that police initially thought came from several victims were, in fact, of one person, while other remains in the initial count of 210 have now been identified as animal.

The drop in the number of victims illustrated the extreme nature of the fires and the difficult task faced by forensic investigators in locating and identifying human remains, police said. And they warned that some of those who died may never be identified.

"The DVI [disaster victim identification] process is a very difficult one - the damage that fire does to the human body is absolutely extreme," the deputy commissioner Kieran Walshe said. "The unfortunate thing is … because of the ferocity of the fires, we will get to a point that there will be remains that cannot be formally identified."

181. And they're expecting up to 300 (they're probably basing it on the missing persons lists).

But a tiny piece of brightness among the devastation.


Koala receiving some much needed aid

Local CFA firefighter David Tree shares his water with an injured Australian Koala at Mirboo North after wildfires swept through the region on Monday, Feb. 9, 2009.


HEALESVILLE, Australia (AP) — Firefighter David Tree and his crew were patrolling land already burnt out by Australia's devastating wildfires looking for flare-ups when he spotted a koala moving gingerly across the blackened landscape.

"I just pulled the truck over, bailed out and went after him," Tree told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I love nature, and I've handled koalas before. They're not the friendliest things, but I wanted to help him."

The koala, clearly in pain from scorched paws, stopped when it saw Tree following behind.

"It was amazing, he turned around, sat on his bum and sort of looked at me with (a look) like, put me out of my misery," Tree said. "I yelled out for a bottle of water. I unscrewed the bottle, tipped it up on his lips and he just took it naturally. He kept reaching for the bottle, almost like a baby."

The team called animal welfare officers as it resumed its patrols on Sunday, the day after the firestorms swept southern Victoria state. Tree says he's spoken to wildlife officials, and the koala, nicknamed Sam, is doing fine. And it turns out he's a she.

Link here

So many tears. So much heartbreak.

130 confirmed dead. Over 700 homes lost. They're expecting the death toll to top 200. Entire families have been wiped out. 9 people found dead in a vehicle. 5 people found dead in a house. A 7 year old boy found in a ditch, alive, but they didn't say whether he was burnt.

I sat at work today listening to the radio. Tearing up as a woman says she doesn't know where her brother and sister-in-law and their kids are. Another woman who doesn't know where her mother is. School principals with class lists trying to tick off names at the evacuation centre.

A fire front that travelled 14 kilometres in 6 minutes. The areas around King Lake pretty much didn't have a chance. People with good fire plans and all the preparation had literally minutes to decide whether to leave or stay, and sometimes both options were equally deadly.

The photographer for the Australian newspaper breaks down during the interview over the horrors he's seen. The Prime Minister and Victorian Premier having to stop and fight back the tears during television interviews. Julia Gillard and other politicians barely being able to speak in parliament. TV reporters barely getting through live crosses.

CFA (bushfire fighters) confronted with bodies. These people are volunteers, members of the community, trained in fighting fires, not in finding bodies, in finding families. At least one CFA member lost his wife and kids while he was trying to help others.

And the danger still isn't over. Towns are still under threat from the current fires and new ones. Falling trees are a danger in those areas burnt out. And the emergency services (and now the army) have to go through every house, every car, anywhere a person could possibly have tried to flee, and look for bodies. Or in some cases, what is left of a body after an essential cremation. It may take months to identify some bodies.

This is a nightmare, and for the people directly affected, it's going to be lifelong.

There are no words. Only more tears.

You keep hoping they're wrong, it's not going to get worse, but it does.

It's now officially Australia's greatest bushfire tragedy, exceeding the death toll of Ash Wednesday (1983) and Black Friday (1939).

The official toll is now 96. It will go past 100.

Those poor people.

65 now confirmed dead. Hospitals have said 3 critically injured will not survive.

I don't know how many more areas they have to go through, but this is getting towards the Ash Wednesday toll (Vic and SA).

The news gets worse and worse.

Thirty-five people are confirmed dead and the toll is expected to rise in Victoria's worst bushfires since Ash Wednesday.

The number of dead is expected to reach more than 40 as blazes continue to ravage the state with more than 200,000 hectares affected as 3000 firefighters struggle to contain seven major firefronts.

The largest firefront is in the Kinglake area, where more than 120,000 hectares have been burnt and at least 12 people have been killed. More than 80,000 hectares have been burnt in Gippsland.

Stories from victims recount the horror of the blazes as they ravaged towns surrounding Melbourne and other parts of Victoria.

Police have confirmed that people were killed in fires in the following areas:

Kinglake 6, Kinglake West 6, St Andrews 4, Arthurs Creek 1, Humevale 3, Wandong 4, Bendigo 1, Strathewen 1, Callignee 4, Upper Callignee 1, Hazelwood 3, Jeealang 1.

Friends and family of victims of the Kinglake fire broke down sobbing outside the Whittlesea community activity centre upon learning of the fate of 12 residents who perished in the blaze where six people were killed in one car.

Marie Jones from Canberra, who was visiting a friend at Kinglake yesterday, said a badly-burnt man had arrived at the property where she was staying with his infant daughter, and told her his wife and other child had been killed.

Authorities began the grim search for bodies this morning following Saturday's devastating bushfires. Police expect the death toll to surpass 40.

The CFA expects hundreds of homes have been destroyed. Among the properties destroyed were the Marysville and Kinglake police stations.

Both Marysville and Kinglake townships have been nearly wiped out by the fires, with Marysville residents evacuated in a convoy this morning from the area.

CFA spokesman Paul Swan said firefighters still battling nearby blazes.

The Marysville fire is part of the Murrindindi blaze, which has now merged with the Kilmore fires. About 100,000 hectares is now burning in that area.

Police said they did not know if the age of those killed in the fires but expect some children are among the dead.

Police suspect some fires were deliberately lit yesterday despite warnings that it was the worst day in Victoria's history for fire conditions.

A police spokeswoman said investigators would not be able to establish how many of the fires were arson-related until they could survey the scenes and establish the origin of the blazes.

18 people were treated for severe burns in the Alfred Hospital, eight of them in intensive care, ABC radio reports.


One of my cousins lost his rented apartment near Craigieburn (we think).

And bloody arsonists are continuing to light fires in those areas. I know what I'd like to do to them.

I hope the Victorians here and their loved ones are okay. Absolutely shocking news, and it's only going to get worse once authorities finish going through the towns :(

VICTORIANS today awoke to the greatest bushfire catastrophe since Ash Wednesday. A statewide inferno that may have claimed up to 40 lives is still burning out of control.

Police, who last night were finally able to reach the blackened ruins of towns and communities, confirmed that 14 people had died. Six people who perished in a single vehicle in Kinglake, in the upper Yarra Valley, may have been from one family.

But police conceded they had little idea of how many others could be interred inside their ruined homes. Today they will continue the search for at least 25 people who were unaccounted for last night.

As more than 3000 firefighters and thousands of residents in dozens of communities last night battled to save homes, it emerged that hundreds of properties had already been lost.

Wandong, near Kilmore, suffered extensive losses and at least four people are known to have died.

Fifty houses were reportedly lost in the Redesdale area near Bendigo.

Police suspect some fires were deliberately lit.

The fires were driven by hot winds of more than 100km/h, and record temperatures that peaked at 46.4 degrees in Melbourne, hotter even than Black Friday in 1939.

Premier John Brumby described it as a "a deeply sad and shocking tragedy — an incredible and terrible loss".

"My heart, and I am sure the hearts of all Victorians, goes to the families and to the firefighters and volunteers who continue to battle the fires," he said.

"It is just a day I hope in my life time I never see repeated."

Exhausted firefighters battled blazes that spread in a thick band across the entire state. A squally change in the afternoon simply changed the direction of many fires, opening up new fronts, and new threats.

All 14 confirmed dead were victims of the single most devastating fire, which started near Kilmore, north of Melbourne, before turning south-easterly, burning dozens of homes in Wandong, and threatening Whittlesea. With the afternoon change, the fire turned on the town of Kinglake, isolating it as trees blocked the road. Hundreds of residents were sheltering in Kinglake's CFA station last night.

That 46.4C for Melbourne, hottest day on record, is 116F.

We've devised a new form of torture. Wrap someone up in elastoplast, leave it on for a day, then rip it off. There was lots of yelping and almost tears as mum took the tape off my back tonight and I have a welt.

*

It rained tonight! Some heavy showers, and from the radar it looked like the fire area was getting it. So hopefully it will have done most of the rest of the controlling. They may not need to waterbomb tomorrow, and then baby Lara might be able to sleep.

I'm getting the impression that the majority of you aren't interested in the fire stories/photos. I put them up because it's something that is a little more unique to my corner of the world and I thought there might be some novelty factor. Is there any interest in a google earth map of the fire area and where I live?

All taken at our local oval. Helicopters and a shot or two of the awful smoke that had us nervous. Photos and commentary by sister.

( excitement, smoke and dirt )