My thoughts are with everyone affected by the Victoria fires. The confirmed death toll is currently at 126, with fears that the reality is closer to 230.
What a terrible tragedy. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to find yourself trapped in a forest fire. I work closely with forest protection here, and I’ve seen what a hard fight it is for the fire crews. You can’t actually fight these fires, all you can do is try to manage them and save as much property as possible. With the record high temperatures and high winds they’re experiencing, it’s going to be a struggle.
It’s even sadder that this was thought to be caused by arsonists. People often wildly underestimate the power of these fires. At least it looks like they’ll be charging the arsonists with murder if they come up with proof.
We get bush fires here too – but we’ve never had anything like the Victoria fires – it’s unbelievable. But here, like there, there is often arson behind it. You have to wonder what goes through people’s minds when they do stuff like this. Utterly devastating.
A lot of our fires have been arson, as well as just carelessness, and we’ve managed to catch some of the culprits. Hopefully they’re able to find those responsible for the Victoria fires as well. I read that they believe someone was reigniting the fires that had already died down, which is just sick.