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Just catching up on the CFA Channel last night and came across this . These people had no idea what was about to go down . I'm horrified looking at it. That town isn't there anymore. They were just standing there watching it come upon them they had no idea what was about to hit them..:-2:-2:-2

And the sinking feeling that some of those people aren't with us anymore.

YouTube - King Lake seconds before the front hit.

this one is a few young people who decided to evacuate . but if you notice the cloud going ahead of them you know they would have driven into more spot fires. Once the main cloud is over your head you're ****ed.

YouTube - Trying to Escape the Strathuwen/King Lake Fires... Melbourne/Vic



I don't think people will leave this late again.

fuzzywuzzy;1181221 wrote: Just catching up on the CFA Channel last night and came across this . These people had no idea what was about to go down . I'm horrified looking at it. That town isn't there anymore. They were just standing there watching it come upon them they had no idea what was about to hit them..:-2:-2:-2

And the sinking feeling that some of those people aren't with us anymore.

YouTube - King Lake seconds before the front hit.

this one is a few young people who decided to evacuate . but if you notice the cloud going ahead of them you know they would have driven into more spot fires. Once the main cloud is over your head you're ****ed.

YouTube - Trying to Escape the Strathuwen/King Lake Fires... Melbourne/Vic



I don't think people will leave this late again.

Awwwhhh thanks Kaz.

Because of the royal commision there isn't a lot of footage of the fires before hand. This was just sickening knowing how things ended up.

there's a lot of kids on UTube expressing themselves at the moment and it's a good thing too they need to get it out.

fuzzywuzzy;1181224 wrote: Awwwhhh thanks Kaz.

Because of the royal commision there isn't a lot of footage of the fires before hand. This was just sickening knowing how things ended up.

there's a lot of kids on UTube expressing themselves at the moment and it's a good thing too they need to get it out.


Yea,, its a hard lesson to learn at any age how fragile life is:(but i think when you are young it comes as a huge shock

In the first video, everyone seemed simply overawed by the immense flames to do anything.

I sure hope those kids in the second video got through ok.

OpenMind;1181557 wrote: In the first video, everyone seemed simply overawed by the immense flames to do anything.

I sure hope those kids in the second video got through ok.


your right, as many were not trying to leave as so many vehicles were shown parked.

....they obviously were in shock and just didn't know what to do.



I don't think I would know either.

OpenMind;1181557 wrote: In the first video, everyone seemed simply overawed by the immense flames to do anything.

I sure hope those kids in the second video got through ok.


I think they must have done, because how else would the video have been able to be shown.

Actually, if you click on 'more info' to the right of the second video, there is a much bigger account of their experiences and shows that they did, in fact, survive.

well I showed you the before scenes, here's the aftermath next morning taken by some locals.

Please use discretion and I'd advise you don't have the little ones around you when watching this. They are not nice scenes. So I've warned you now.





Marysville before



Marysville after

fuzzywuzzy;1181707 wrote: well I showed you the before scenes, here's the aftermath next morning taken by some locals.

Please use discretion and I'd advise you don't have the little ones around you when watching this. They are not nice scenes. So I've warned you now.

YouTube - Kinglake /Pheasant Creek Bushfires February 7th 2009



Marysville before

YouTube - Marysville Tour3

Marysville after

YouTube - Marysville 08/02/09




-OMG........just so much devastation.



I just had no idea of the 'after' math.



I am praying that help comes soon and cleans up these areas, so that people can try to learn to live again.:-1

It is one thing watching it on video and being absolutely shocked at the power of these fires and the devastating aftermath, and this is looking at it on a computer screen. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like standing there live, with the smell of smoke and fire, the noise of trees and building burning to the ground and the 360* real life experience of all this destruction around you. It is hard to image worse.

My heart continues to go out to our Australian friends.

Powerful video:

YouTube - Victorian Bushfire Black Saturday 2009

mikeinie;1181815 wrote: It is one thing watching it on video and being absolutely shocked at the power of these fires and the devastating aftermath, and this is looking at it on a computer screen. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like standing there live, with the smell of smoke and fire, the noise of trees and building burning to the ground and the 360* real life experience of all this destruction around you. It is hard to image worse.




turn up your oven to it's maximum then sit facing it. Close your eyes . Now imagine big bull ants about an inch long falling out of trees and biting you . You take off your glove and loosen your uniform for some air circulation becuase on top of the fires it's still 42 degrees. Then the sparks and embers raining down on top of you begin to burn you so you quickly do up your uniform again. You put your face mask on again and you feel suffocated, and it's hard to breathe. You can hardly see out of your goggles because all the ash and dust is stuck to them you keep wiping it off but it's like mud on a windscreen.

It's hot, you cough a lot and get a sore throat, Your adrenilin is rushing and your knees shake a little then you go numb and turn on auto pilot, You stop seeing the dead animals and burning houses. You don't think anymore of who could be inside them. You stop thinking about how family members are doing back in your town, but it doesn't quite work. You still think about how they are coping and are they afraid? All you want to do is get back there becuase as you look across the country side you can seeing the fire heading in that direction.. You've lost all recognition of time because you can't tell if it's day or night because the smoke has blocked out the sun and everything is dark.

You pray that the truck doesn't get another flat tyre. You stop talking to people because they are panicked and exhausted and they have their own issues to deal with. Because exhaustion is setting in you keep missing the first rung of the trucks steps and hurt your back. Suddenly you find yourself hurting when you try to haul yourself up into the truck. Your arms are tired, your legs are tired, and you have a headache from the constnat flashing of the lights , Then when the 12 hour shift is over you can't relax or sleep because the fire is still going and it could turn any minute onto your own home. The wind is your enemy and you stiffen when it blows up. You're now insensitive to the smell of smoke, you simply can't smell it anymore. Then you joke about the positives of your house burning down..........That horrible vase you got as a wedding present will finally be gotten rid of, and the house needed renovating anyway..:wah: For days after townsfolk have short tempers and the alcohol comsumption goes up to never before seen levels. there are counsellors on standby but nobody needs them just yet cause it's not over. YOu avoid newspapers and news broadcasts

You finally hear what has happened in other places and it horrifies you because it could have been you, and you break down and cry .................and then you sleep.

.



That's about it in a nutshell really.

fuzzywuzzy;1182005 wrote: turn up your oven to it's maximum then sit facing it. Close your eyes . Now imagine big bull ants about an inch long falling out of trees and biting you . You take off your glove and loosen your uniform for some air circulation becuase on top of the fires it's still 42 degrees. Then the sparks and embers raining down on top of you begin to burn you so you quickly do up your uniform again. You put your face mask on again and you feel suffocated, and it's hard to breathe. You can hardly see out of your goggles because all the ash and dust is stuck to them you keep wiping it off but it's like mud on a windscreen.

It's hot, you cough a lot and get a sore throat, Your adrenilin is rushing and your knees shake a little then you go numb and turn on auto pilot, You stop seeing the dead animals and burning houses. You don't think anymore of who could be inside them. You stop thinking about how family members are doing back in your town, but it doesn't quite work. You still think about how they are coping and are they afraid? All you want to do is get back there becuase as you look across the country side you can seeing the fire heading in that direction.. You've lost all recognition of time because you can't tell if it's day or night because the smoke has blocked out the sun and everything is dark.

You pray that the truck doesn't get another flat tyre. You stop talking to people because they are panicked and exhausted and they have their own issues to deal with. Because exhaustion is setting in you keep missing the first rung of the trucks steps and hurt your back. Suddenly you find yourself hurting when you try to haul yourself up into the truck. Your arms are tired, your legs are tired, and you have a headache from the constnat flashing of the lights , Then when the 12 hour shift is over you can't relax or sleep because the fire is still going and it could turn any minute onto your own home. The wind is your enemy and you stiffen when it blows up. You're now insensitive to the smell of smoke, you simply can't smell it anymore. Then you joke about the positives of your house burning down..........That horrible vase you got as a wedding present will finally be gotten rid of, and the house needed renovating anyway..:wah: For days after townsfolk have short tempers and the alcohol comsumption goes up to never before seen levels. there are counsellors on standby but nobody needs them just yet cause it's not over. YOu avoid newspapers and news broadcasts

You finally hear what has happened in other places and it horrifies you because it could have been you, and you break down and cry .................and then you sleep.

.



That's about it in a nutshell really.


Wow :yh_clap

I am lost for words...

no, thank you mikeinie, You've helped me remember, I've been blocking it all out.

Tah mate, i"ve been not sleeping properly and drinking too much just so i didn't have to remember the intricasies, better out than in I guess. I've been consentrating on one damn tree that just wouldn't go out....but wondering why that was so important to me. It helped block out the rest. I havent thought once about the discomfort side of things or how much I cried. Hhhhmmmmm I'm indebted to you . Maybe I'll be able to sleep now.

You're a good writer, Fuzzy. The way you put it really brings it home - the reality of it all. You'd make a good journalist I reckon. Consider that if you ever decide to leave the fire service. You have the knack of being able to tell the story so the reader feels like they're actually experiencing the event.

My prayerful thoughts are with our Australian friends!!! I hope they can get back to normal life as SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!

:wah: Don't know about that OP but thanks. I'm not a career firey I'm a volunteer, most of the CFA is.

The sound of a bush fire is like a freight train, or hurricane, it' gets louder as it approaches. Then at 4:00 am in the morning when the humidty is high and the temperture is cold it's just a crackle like in an open fire place. That's one thing that really gets me about all of this, during the day we were sweating like pigs and on the night shifts we were freezing . I was literally shivering, you stop for a rest and you needed the fire blankets to keep warm on top of the heavy black urban fire coats. Your uniform is wet and you seek out a good hot spot to stand in front of to keep warm. The irony huh?

I remember that woman screaming at us to get around the back of her property where she had her newborn calves housed. She had too many spot fires at her door step to put out herself. then, thank you, thankyou, thankyous. I think she was okay after that, she just needed a bit of a hand. We got screamed at a lot that day. I was prepared to fight fires and do a job, I wasn't prepared for calming people down. Speak to them in a calm friendly voice and smile. Actually smile at them. Bizzarre under the circumstances. I knew instinctively these fires weren't normal and they must have known too.

Why did that older couple want to get to their house? They could see fires all around them. what were they going to do when they got their? tumble some things into the car and turn around and come back again? what if we couldn't control the fires? What were we supposed to do then?.....save them? All those stupid questions keep going around in my head .............what if? We have no power or authority to make people leave, we can only watch and hope they are going to be okay. We couldn't even give advice when it was asked and people needed that little bit of a push to leave the area. That's when I said to a woman and her son "if it was me I'd be going". That woman had no idea of what we had just come through and seen. We knew better than her and we couldn't pass on the info to help her make the decision. Why? Because we be sued.

it all happened just too quickly . There were no radio warnings because the transmission tower was burnt. And it came too quick for proper warnings so people only had us for communicaton. And we're standing there thinking the same as them " what the **** is happening here?, where the hell did this come from?". Saturday is a normal trading day, people were still at work. Their neighbours were ringing them to come home. We had cars rushing everywhere. Fortunetly people were switched on enough not to block our path.

I didn't want to use the radio, the traffic on it was mental at one stage. Team leaders and captains were calling for trucks and strike teams and more trucks. I just didn't want to be apart of that traffic. There were strike team leaders losing patience and you could hear it in their voices. residents were screaming at police at road blocks, blocking their path to their homes. But the law is very clear on this , if you leave you can't get back in again. Women complaining that they left their kids and animals in the house. ( ****ing idiots) :-5 then the police have to escort them to their homes tying up resources. :-5

The one thing that stands out about that day was the lack of information. Granted it couldn't be helped because you can't pull radio waves out of your arse if there is no transmission tower. but it left everyone in a state of chaos. Knowledge is power as they say . At least it would have helped people with the decisions they had to make. But then again so many areas were blocked off like major highways and such that people couldn't get out of the region anyway. Fires were everywhere. Victoria is as big as the entire land mass of Britain. Could you imagine these fires and the number of hectares that has been burnt over there? How many major roads freeways and highways would it encroach upon? people did make a run for it and got through but others didn't and are now dead.

I hope the royal commission into this turns out some useful advice.

Sitting down talking to my husband as to whether we're going to let the house burn is a conversation I'll probably have again in my lifetime, I just hope it's not too soon.

It was made very clear that there is no such thing as a safe area for people to go anymore. There is no such thing as a refuge. There is a point to register your details but you can't rock up to a refuge and wait out fires. You have to be prepared and ready to be responsible for your own actions. Reason? Ask the coppers who had to escort 200 people from a refuge point in Marysville. They were all congregated a the local football oval thinking it was safe, it went up in flames too. They got out through flames just in time.

You are a hero

it is an honor to know you

:):):)Good news eveybody.:):):):):)

I saw one the of regional officers at footy training the other night. I asked about the courses I was supposed to be on and he said they've been cancelled or put back because of the busy fire season.

BUT!!!!!

He told me how he's getting me on the "Staging Area Managers" course, and another course that is really hard to get into ..............but I can't remember the second one because I went numb after he told me about the first!!!!!!!!! I said " don't you have to do other lead up courses before you can do that?" He said "Nah!! We can get you in, trust me " I told him to take off his socks so I could kiss his feet!!!!!

They really really like me!!!!!! They think I can do that job!!!!! FINALLY!!!! I get to boss people around :wah::wah::wah:



:yh_dance:yh_dance OMG !!!!OMG!!!!OMG!!!!!:yh_dance:yh_dance

Good luck Fuzzy :yh_flower

Nothing like being a boss;):yh_rotfl



Good luck.

fuzzywuzzy;1186565 wrote: :):):)Good news eveybody.:):):):):)

I saw one the of regional officers at footy training the other night. I asked about the courses I was supposed to be on and he said they've been cancelled or put back because of the busy fire season.

BUT!!!!!

He told me how he's getting me on the "Staging Area Managers" course, and another course that is really hard to get into ..............but I can't remember the second one because I went numb after he told me about the first!!!!!!!!! I said " don't you have to do other lead up courses before you can do that?" He said "Nah!! We can get you in, trust me " I told him to take off his socks so I could kiss his feet!!!!!

They really really like me!!!!!! They think I can do that job!!!!! FINALLY!!!! I get to boss people around :wah::wah::wah:



:yh_dance:yh_dance OMG !!!!OMG!!!!OMG!!!!!:yh_dance:yh_dance


wow fuzz thats great news.and good luck :-4

They like you because you're good at what you do and they believe that you can cut the mustard.

Go it Fuzzy :-6

Well done Fuzzy !! Good luck, I'm sure you will get it. :yh_nailbi:yh_hugs:yh_worshp:yh_star:yh_party

Not only can I cut it, but I can spread it on bread as well.:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

This is exceptional news for me guys Thanks for your support and love thover the last couple of months.

I found this recently . It's a radio talk show on 3AW Neil mitchell is talking to a bloke who is still in the aftermath of the fires and can't get out of his area. I don't think Neil was prepared for what this guy was saying.

The Age | Victoria bushfires | theage.com.au

I'm Numb I think ...17 years and 9 months for destroying 156 homes and killing 10 people ........****ing **** ...I don't know what to think ..how do you explain this?

i'm just ..............I dunno. Just dunno.

Black Saturday arsonist Brendan James Sokaluk jailed for 17 years

Just read through this thread again ..... okay I'm upset and I'm angry because in the end not only did he affect people here but also our friends overseas who worried about us ......I'm sorry I need to stop crying and go punch something now .

Cookies must be enabled | Herald Sun

Ummm too many people have told me that he doesn't normally act this way ..He's putting it on. (video of his confession)

and not many people know that he did after he was under suspicion. He knows how to manipulate . and peple have watched this video thinking the way he talks is indicedent of his medical condition.....F**k I know plenty of people in the country that talk like that .

fuzzywuzzy;1392350 wrote: I'm Numb I think ...17 years and 9 months for destroying 156 homes and killing 10 people ........****ing **** ...I don't know what to think ..how do you explain this?

i'm just ..............I dunno. Just dunno.

Black Saturday arsonist Brendan James Sokaluk jailed for 17 years


Two points, if he spent time as a fire volunteer then you would expect him to be able to recognise the conditions where a bushfire was imminent and the slightest spark would start one, therefore his claim to have thrown a burning cigarette end out of the car window without thinking it might be a problem rings false. Secondly the complete change in his manor of speech when denying setting a second fire suggests that he was playing on the autism during the rest of the interview - he was taken out of the expected line of questioning and had not prepared his response.