Bushfires

This has been a week of tragedy. Victoria is undergoing one of the worst human and natural disasters ever. As many of you know from the media, there have been bushfires throughout the state of Victoria since last weekend.



Many of the fires were felt to have been deliberately set by arsonists; evil people who feel unexplainable exhilaration watching huge fires envelope land, homes, cars, and the people in them. With the dry weather over the last two months, any fire spreads so rapidly that people and animals often don't have the ability to outrun them, even in vehicles.



Over 7000 people are now homeless. The stories are horrible. A father and mother each had a child. The father ran back in to get the last child and flames engulfed the home. A mother and father and their son in a wheelchair couldn't make it out of their house. Two teenage girls died trying to save their horses. A father carried a charred little two-year-old out of their burning house. She was burned over 90% of her body and didn't survive. The rest of the family died, and the father is still in critical condition. I don't know if he would want to live. Then there are the animals. Cattle burned where they stood, barn animals trapped in buildings, and the forest animals who had nowhere to go. That some of these could have been started by other humans is unthinkable. Also despicable are the looters and scam artists who are setting up false websites and appeals to collect money for themselves.



Then there are the stories that warm your heart. They make you realize why, even when human hands cause destruction and loot the remains, we grieve when tragedy befalls other humans. A husband and wife ran out of the bush fire and got separated. Each thought that the other was dead until meeting up in one of the refugee camps that have been set up. Their reunion was broadcast all over the news, and brought tears to my eyes. Firefighters are working on 12 hour shifts, and have been going around the clock for days. A firefighter saved a koala from the fires. Australians have donated over $1 million dollars an hour in the last day to help victims of the fires. When the military asked people to donate one shipping container of donated goods to help victims set up housing, 14 were donated. Today, on my walk to work, a cavalcade of about 20 South Australian (the next province over) forestry vehicles came down the road. Cars stopped to honk at them and wave. Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, not exactly the world's richest countried, donated $2 million for the rescues and rebuilding.

Blessedly, very few children seem to have been burned to the extent that they needed hospital. Only two ended up in the Children's Hospital. This is a particular blessing because there seem to be so many very sick children from other causes. Certainly, Australia is bearing a terrible brunt from the changes in world climate. We can only pray for rain, and for the people who are homeless, healing, still dying and mourning.

Paul and I have both started work now. He is trying to get himself out of bed a a decent enough hour to get some work done. I'm trying to get enough sleep with daily 12 hour shifts. I'll write more about the hospital later, but for now I'm off to sleep.