Scores killed in Australia's 'worst fires'

[BlueMoon]

Amazing info AJ...So glad you are OK and thanks for the update on those you know of. We are concerned about all of you.

[MC]

Something seems strange about these fires.It is possible that this is not just the work of arsonists.

[Breaking News Breaking News]

Australian Police Hunt Arsonists, Expect Wildfire Deaths to Reach 300 

By VOA News
10 February 2009

Police in Australia have mounted a massive hunt for arsonists they suspect are behind the wildfires that may have killed as many as 300 people and destroyed up to 1,000 homes. 
 
On Tuesday, the official death toll stood at 181, but police have yet to enter some areas where they expect to find large numbers of additional fatalities.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Parliament Tuesday that the communities wiped out by the wildfires will be rebuilt "brick by brick." He committed government funds to aid victims of the fire in the southeastern state of Victoria and the floods in the northeastern state of Queensland.

Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon has been appointed to head the joint-state-federal effort to rebuild fire-ravaged communities in the state of Victoria.

Meanwhile, the government and private organizations have launched fund raising efforts to aid the victims. 

The Australian government has received an outpouring of messages of sympathy from world leaders. U.S. President Barack Obama telephoned Mr. Rudd late Monday to offer condolences and assistance.
 
Australian firefighters were still battling about a dozen wildfires in Victoria on Tuesday. About 400 fires burned around Victoria's largest city of Melbourne, devastating about 3,000 square kilometers of land. Wildfires had also spread to the neighboring states of New South Wales and South Australia.

Police have designated some of the incinerated towns as crime scenes and suspect some of the fires were deliberately set.

A 31-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy have been charged with starting fires in the state of New South Wales.  No deaths have been reported from those fires.

Southeastern Australia is one of the world's most fire-prone regions. Hot summer conditions have been worsened by a long-standing drought.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-10-voa33.cfm

[Astrojewels]

Something seems strange about these fires.It is possible that this is not just the work of arsonists.

  
MC and everyone who is concerned

I have received so many emails on these fires, and it is amazing how many theories are out there, that we are a target for new weather technology, or our anger is reflecting fire, we are under alien threat…and totally mind controlled, please…
 
The whole world is under target for weather manipulation, yet mother nature does her bit too, and if I had to come up with a theory other than arsonists, it could only be for us to go into the same energy with the global financial crisis, because at the moment we are not really affected and holding on, yet this tragedy is going to cost billions of dollars that none of these people have.
 
The facts are  

• Every year Victoria has fires, and every year north Queensland has floods.
• We are in a 10 year drought
• The forests of Victoria are brown, dying and only need a spark to ignite
• We had many days of temperatures over 42 degrees (108 F) and on Saturday, the temps were as high as 47 (117F) with winds over 100 kmh.  
• About 5 years ago the forestry commission introduced a new law that the general public could no longer get wood from the forests, (many of us have wood heating), therefore the forest floors are filled with broken branches and dry leaves
• We are on heavy water restrictions, and not permitted to water gardens, so our homes have no protection. Yet I must add that 95% of people that live rural have a fire plan, they are as well prepared as humanly possible.

   The mind pattern of this tragedy; I could only say being overwhelmed and not anger, because when a fire breaks out, the fire fighters are very well prepared, however this time there was approx 50 fires burning at once, with each having thousands of hectares of ‘trees’ and bush. 

In the 2009 astro section, I said the weather would be like we have never seen, but I had no idea it would be so close to home. You just have to look around the world and how each country is currently experiencing ‘extreme’ weather of that countries standard weather, if that makes sense.

There is always a method behind madness, thoughts anyone?

[Breaking News Breaking News]

Endgame Agenda Behind Australia Wildfires?

aangirfan
Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009

“US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website (probably Mossad-CIA) calling on Muslims (Mossad-CIA agents) in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to ’start forest fires’, claiming ’scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands’.

“The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network (probably a Mossad-CIA group), argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the ‘eye for an eye’ doctrine….” - Jihadists Urge Arson; Australia Burns Deadly - Topix

Cause of investigated bushfires in New South Wales 2001-02 to 2003-04

Source: Australian Institute of Criminology. NSW RFS investigations data

Arson blamed for Australia’s fires - the following is from Forums of Pravda.Ru

“There has been unrelenting war on the rural sector of Australia and it’s been going on for a few decades. The rural sector has been decimated…

“The predominantly white Christian Aussie population has been under unrelenting attack for over 30 years and the last stand has been held by the people of the rural sector…

“The US boasted it had destroyed the rural economy of the old USSR or the food-growing areas of China…

“In the 70s and 80s Australian environmental experts stated clearly that the maximum population that Australia could support was 13 million…

“Keating and Hawke dumped millions of asians and middle-easterners on Australia, pushing the population to an unsustainable 21 million and rising…

“Chemtrails successfully dissipate and halt approaching rain…

“Are we going to be informed next week or next month that the price of bread must rise triple-fold because of the bushfires…

“You’re unaware of the twin-agendas currently being run by the US: ‘world famine’ coupled with ‘global warming’…

“Then combine that with the alleged ‘global financial collapse’ and the ‘plague’ scenarios currently being put into place….

“So, whilst the Aussie bushfires MAY simple be a natural and spontaneous, tragic event .. it’s possible they may also be part of a wider agenda…”

http://www.prisonplanet.com/endgame-agen...fires.html

[Breaking News Breaking News]

SICK AUSTRALIAN MURDOCH JOURNO EXPLOITS BUSHFIRE TRAGEDY TO PUSH ISLAMOPHOBIC PROPAGANDA.

lataan.blogspot.com

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The recent disastrous bushfire in Australia, which have killed some 180 people and destroyed nearly 800 homes, has been callously and cynically used by ‘Sydney Daily Telegraph’ senior journalist and right-wing blogger at that paper, Piers Akerman, to push his extreme anti-Islam hate mongering by claiming that Islamists may have deliberately lit the fires as a terrorist act.

Akerman has opportunistically and outrageously abused the victims of the tragedy and taken advantage of his senior position with the newspaper in order to propagandise his anti-Islam stance. Needless to say the ‘Sydney Daily Telegraph’ is a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper. Need one say more!

Akerman, well known for many years in Australia for his ultra right-wing racist views, has stepped over the line by exploiting and abusing the tragedy of those that have died and those that have survived but lost everything they had, simply to push his racist Islamophobic propaganda.

UPDATE

One wonders how long it will be before some troublemaker takes up the advise given by Neil Livingston of Executive Action LLC, a so-called ‘security’ company (mercenary) operating out of the US, who has said “terrorists could claim responsibility for the Australian inferno even if they had nothing to do with it - though he added that could ignite a 'hell of a backlash' against Muslims in Australia”.
Just as easily, a Muslim-hater could also claim responsibility while pretending to be a ‘Jihadist’. As has been shown, the lunatic Islamophobic Piers Akerman has already suggested that Jihadists may have been responsible. It would be just a matter of time before one of Akerman’s racist bloggies takes up the challenge of deceit to false-flag the Muslim community as the perpetrators of the fires. 

http://lataan.blogspot.com/2009/02/sick-...loits.html

[Astrojewels]

That kind of article is just to push buttons and get people angry, and it probably will work in some areas. It will be interesting to see what kind of people they do catch, and whether they can be charged with murder because those who are responsible have not lit a fire, they have performed a massacre, especially in Marysville.

The homes destroyed are way past 1000 now, and 7000 people are homeless. It is just so sad, so sad.

[Richard]

I agree that it is very sad. I hope everything works out well for everyone.

[AndrewX]

Hi everyone,

As Karen said, there's no fires down my way... yet.:shock:  Hopefully we've seen teh worst of it now.  It's cooled off a bit outside, and it poured heavily for about an hour where I am last night... really heavily.

Spare a thought for the near 300 that have died from the fires now, and many more who have lost everything they owned.  What a time to lose all your possesions... in this economic climate.:(

I'd also like to spare a long thought for all the untold victims of such distasters, namely the animals... who in the eyes of many are more important than humans given the manner in which their fellow humans have (mis)treated them throughout their life.  Thanks for the pic Rick, very touching my friend.

[b]Australian Police Hunt Arsonists, Expect Wildfire Deaths to Reach 300 

[/b]
This MUST BE A JOKE.  300???  More like 3,000 PLUS.  They must be playing this down, they MUST be.  Marysville alone has thousands of animals in its State forest that has been flattened and covered with ash.  I know... I've hiked through their years ago and was astonished at the scope and magnitude of the wildlife there. 

They have made it clear that arsonists are to blame.  Even to the point of many of these stooges having the hide to re-light areas that were hard fought to extinguish no sooner than the firemen/women had left the area to fight the front further downwind.  Do you believe that??!!  How sick can you get!!:X

Isn't it incredible how when they're suppose to implement terrorist-charges in justifiable cases, they don't.  I'm glad the lawmakers have their priorities straight... idiots.

What can I say... this is devastating.:(

[Breaking News Breaking News]

Australia to officially mourn fire victims

By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer 
56 mins ago
 
YEA, Australia – Australia took the first steps Thursday toward officially expressing grief for the scores of people killed by wildfires, with the prime minister saying a national day of mourning will be held.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also ordered that military bases be opened to house some of the more than 5,000 people who lost their homes in Saturday's blazes.

He said a national memorial service would be organized for a national day of mourning, although the date has not yet been chosen. At least 181 people have been killed, but officials say the death toll could exceed 200.

"It is important, it is very important that the nation grieves," Rudd said.

Compounding the sorrow for some families is that the coroner's office for the state of Victoria has not released the bodies of their loved ones for funerals, and an official said the wait could take up to two weeks.

Victoria Police Chief Christine Nixon told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the coroner's office was just starting to collect information, including forensic samples, from families to identify the bodies. Officials have said some victims were burned beyond recognition.

State coroner Jennifer Coate has said the work could still take a week or two, Nixon told ABC, adding, "It's a long and slow process as we work our way through the so many people who have died."

The Victoria government said next-of-kin of anyone killed in the fire would receive a compassion and bereavement payment of about $6,500 toward funeral expenses.

Residents have been allowed back into some towns but others are still sealed off for the grim task of collecting bodies from collapsed buildings and to prevent residents from disturbing potential crime scenes if arson was suspected.

Teams are still searching Marysville, where authorities said there could be 50 to 100 deaths in the town that once had a population of about 550.

The Australian Defence Force bases that have been opened can accommodate up to 2,000 people, including meals, Rudd said.

The fires destroyed more than 1,000 houses and burned 1,100 square miles of land.

Many of the homeless are staying with family or friends, but not everyone has a place to go. Relief centers have sprung up in Yea, 68 miles north of Melbourne, and a few other towns, sheltering families and offering donations and other aid.

About 30 people were living in a dozen army tents on a sports field in Yea. Volunteers cooked hundreds of meals and others sorted donated clothing, bedding, toiletries and medicine. There was even a box of cell phone chargers.

Aid agencies and counselors set up shop, and a bulletin board advertised free housing offers, pet boarding, trailers to haul goods, laundry service and massages.

The Salvation Army brought in a mobile youth center, featuring computers with Internet access, a Wii, X-Boxes and a large movie screen with comfortable couches. A few teens bowled with the Wii outside, and about eight youths inside checked their MySpace pages or played online games.

"I kind of like it here," said Mark Petkovski, 11, whose family has lived in a tent here since their Flowerdale home burned to the ground. "You feel like you're camping."

While the children played, their parents sorted out insurance claims, picked up clothes and registered for government assistance.

Sean and Anthea Galpin were applying for assistance because Sean's workplace — a conference center in Flowerdale — would be not be running for a few months. The Galpins used sprinklers, a fire hose and even a mop to fight the fire at their seven-acre pasture in Glenburn while their newborn daughter and 2-year-old son slept in the house.

"It was our first time fighting a fire and I hope our last," said Anthea Galpin, cradling 3-month-old Lucy. "We were well-prepared but I was still in a panic. When that smoke rolls in and day turns to night and it's either fight or flee ... I wanted to run, but Sean had his head about him. It would have been a mistake to get in the car."

The fire burned to the edges of the lawn around their house, but their efforts paid off. "We're now living on a postage-stamp size bit of unburned area, but we did it," Sean Galpin said.

About a dozen large fires still burned north of Melbourne, leaving a smoky cloud resting low in the valley over Yea, and residents were warned to look for changing wind and forecasts of warmer weather next week.

But for the first time since "Black Saturday," no town was under direct threat, thanks to cooler weather and thousands of firefighters building containment lines.

"We're driving around today warning residents that we are going to burn controlled fires in their area," said volunteer firefighter Howard Shell, in Whittlesea, north of Melbourne. "They've been through a lot in the last five days and are obviously very concerned about seeing smoke, so we want to give them a head's-up on what we're doing."

Authorities were investigating a suspicious scrub fire that started Thursday in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe. Firefighters had the fire under control and police had released an image of a man wanted for questioning.

Arson specialists say they have concluded that the wildfires had six separate sources, four of which were not suspicious. Foul play was suspected in the fire that destroyed Marysville and they are convinced another deadly fire, known as the Churchill fire, was arson.

Wildfire arson carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison but authorities have said they will bring murder charges if they can. A murder conviction carries a maximum life sentence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090212/ap_o...Di4swfYhAF