The Victorian Bushfire Tragedy

With the Victorian bushfire death toll now standing at 84 and counting, my earlier complaints about the heat suddenly feel hollow and a bit careless. All around Melbourne rural communities are burning or in some cases have been wiped out altogether. Upwards of 700 homes have been lost. Despite what seemed like reasonable time and warnings, people have been caught totally by surprise by the power, speed and intensity of these fires. Several of the communities we have driven through in our travels - Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Healesville, Warranambool and Warragul are under siege right now with fifty different fires burning in the state. Everyone is praying for rain, less wind and cooler conditions. The army has been called in to relieve the volunteer firefighters and emergency fund hotlines have been set up around the state. There are hourly updates, special reports and we are glued to it all.

Thankfully, we are comfortable in the relative calm and coolness of central Melbourne enjoying a gorgeous southerly breeze blowing in off Bass strait. But this disaster is still hitting pretty darn close to home. The proximity is certainly part of it. Some of these fires are only 50-60 kms away whereas bushfires in the past have seemingly only ever raged in far off California.They are also undoubtedly directly affecting the lives of people we have come to know, so that too is beginning to weigh. I was also thinking about an equivalent event occuring anywhere in Ontario taking 84 lives in one day and I cannot think of one in my lifetime. The power of that loss would be massive and gives one a sense of the scale of this disaster. The other thing of course is that in trying times, one likes to be surrounded by the people you love and for us, that's not quite an option. This is an unwanted and unexpected twist to our adventures abroad but it is also a real reminder that all around our little bubble life and death go on.