The Victorian Bushfire disaster. - Page 14

FPV8U · 13-02-2009, 08:22 PM

Some amazing pics Cam, massive devastation to the area..

A Close friend of mines GF's Family (Mother, Father & Little Brother) were all taken in the fires in whittlesea, i may have to take you up on that offer of the truck yet, massive cleanup job infront of many people up there.

CAMS290 · 13-02-2009, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FPV8U

Some amazing pics Cam, massive devastation to the area..

A Close friend of mines GF's Family (Mother, Father & Little Brother) were all taken in the fires in whittlesea, i may have to take you up on that offer of the truck yet, massive cleanup job infront of many people up there.

No problems whatsoever Jase, just let me know via PM and I will be only too pleased to help mate.

The scale of the clean up is just unimaginable, and I have only seen one relatively small area, these poor people are going to need all the help they can get.

FPV8U · 13-02-2009, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CAMS290

No problems whatsoever Jase, just let me know via PM and I will be only too pleased to help mate.

The scale of the clean up is just unimaginable, and I have only seen one relatively small area, these poor people are going to need all the help they can get.

Your a champ Cam, I'll let you know, poor girl has more on her mind at the moment than cleaning up i imagine..

rodderz · 13-02-2009, 09:23 PM

I cant imagine what the place looked like directly after the fires passed through...it must of been like a scene out of a nuclear fallout movie

People struggled to escape in their cars on a road with a speed limit of 80km/hr, due to smoke, embers, fallen trees or the fire overtaking their car while on the move. The road between Kinglake West through Pheasant Creek and onto Kinglake was littered with cars. Not sure of the outcome of the occupants...

**Sorted** · 13-02-2009, 09:27 PM

That really hits the heart when you see cars burnt out like that :(

The wagon just looks like it crashed and came out relatively unscaved as considering other pics of cars i have seen that anything plastic has melted and even alloy wheels have melted

Second pic looked like they nearly made it out in the car seeing in the not to far distance green grass and tress unburnt

CAMS290 · 13-02-2009, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sorted

That really hits the heart when you see cars burnt out like that :(

The wagon just looks like it crashed and came out relatively unscaved as considering other pics of cars i have seen that anything plastic has melted and even alloy wheels have melted

Second pic looked like they nearly made it out in the car seeing in the not to far distance green grass and tress unburnt

I saw a bloke in a 90's model Toyota Hilux 4x2 tray coming down Plenty Rd today on my way up to Whittlesea, the white paint was singed, the aluminium tray was melted on one side, the grille was melted to the bumper bar, the mirrors were melted.....but she was still going.......Toyota Tough

**Sorted** · 13-02-2009, 09:56 PM

The BRAVE HEREO's the CFA

CAMS290 · 13-02-2009, 09:59 PM

Someone mentioned about a 747 water bomber.....well here it is....what a monster, and how would you go refilling the water tanks ?
http://www.evergreenak.com/supertanker/index.html

**Charliewool** · 13-02-2009, 10:15 PM

The wagon looks as though it's had something to do with the chain-sawed up tree in front of it, going by the bonnet?....
Some of the pics released so far leave me utterly speechless!... Cam's pics driving thru the devastation today, The amazing Boston times pics posted by (I think Eamon), The cars with alloy rims melted like solder, The barren almost moonscape like land left, You can almost feel the silence in some of those pics, after what must have been such a roar from hell.
Looking at some of those cars, and imagining the sheer utter terror of a firestorm about to engulf you... Imagining the thoughts that were the last of those poor souls..
It's just beyond comprehension!

punktured · 14-02-2009, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falcon4L

Also on a side note I thought I'd share a really disapointing experience I had. On monday I went to volunteer and donate my time as a sparky to hook up generators which they needed people to do and had no one. I went and spoke to the bloke looking for people but he knocked me back because I wasnt in the ETU! I was outraged and any chance the ETU ever had of me joining up is now gone and I will make sure none of my friends join, It's not like I was stealing their work.

Mate i don't know who you spoke to but that is a load of crap. Non ETU members are not getting stopped from coming up, I have seen and spoken to a few up there who aren't in the union. You have to go sign up to get a wrist band from the police before you can go up the mountain.

Also, on Monday no one could get up, ETU or not. We only started getting up on tuesday with most of our guys coming up wednesday and have been there since then with around 15-20 guys a day. We have done most of the effected areas with still a bit more to do in Flowerdale since residents are starting to come back to their homes, but now our problem is we are running out of generators.

Bobman · 14-02-2009, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CAMS290

Someone mentioned about a 747 water bomber.....well here it is....what a monster, and how would you go refilling the water tanks ?
http://www.evergreenak.com/supertanker/index.html

There's also a Russian-built IL-76 and a DC-10 super bomber.

It's sad that our Government haven't trialled these here or even purchased our own Elvis aircraft.

We have to lease them. This is Australia we're talking about too (driest country on earth). What a joke!

The super bombers could be re-filled with sea water at Avalon or East Sale one would imagine. It could be done.

mcnews · 14-02-2009, 09:12 AM

This morning's fire map. If you the lettering Trev near Eildon that's where I have been waiting for it to come over the hill for the last week.

This morning's map.

Spanrz · 14-02-2009, 01:17 PM

This what was at the the Fundraiser in Narre South this morning.
Had too many sausages (after getting the wifes order muddled up with mine).
Plenty of cars around. Lots of V8 noise, must of been a few thousand over the 6 odd hours.
Must of raised thousands of dollars for the community.

The vid below is of a Fairlaine. Think I heard a 589 cube conversation in there somewhere. Beside his car was "MINTXW".
I thought it was my next door neighbour, as his car sounds dam like it. But the owner of the fairlaine was from the other side of town.

http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/k...rent=Prozb.flv

Swear to god this thing made my heart stop. Then with the harmonics of the exhaust palpatations, it physically made your heart start to pump again.
I reckon they should use this car as a "defib" in a hospital

CAMS290 · 14-02-2009, 05:50 PM

Some more today on the Kinglake Heidelberg Road, she's burnt to a crisp, it has burnt the guts out of 80 feet tall gums.....unbelievable.

Trek · 14-02-2009, 06:11 PM

Donated $13.70 in total today. I know it ain't much, however, every contribution counts.

MO · 14-02-2009, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trek

Donated $13.70 in total today. I know it ain't much, however, every contribution counts.

Its not a p.....g contest so how much you give doesn't matter the fact you gave is all that matters.
Good on ya.

schultzie · 14-02-2009, 06:36 PM

keep the photos coming, they are unreal, is the ashphelt apart of the money boral is donating apart of the materials donation?

Falcon4L · 14-02-2009, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by punktured

Mate i don't know who you spoke to but that is a load of crap. Non ETU members are not getting stopped from coming up, I have seen and spoken to a few up there who aren't in the union. You have to go sign up to get a wrist band from the police before you can go up the mountain.

Also, on Monday no one could get up, ETU or not. We only started getting up on tuesday with most of our guys coming up wednesday and have been there since then with around 15-20 guys a day. We have done most of the effected areas with still a bit more to do in Flowerdale since residents are starting to come back to their homes, but now our problem is we are running out of generators.

I wasnt coming to help on the mountain, I was aware of the contractors wrist bands and such as my mate is currently in marysville. But the guy I was told to speak to knocked me back due to me not being in the ETU. Dont know who he was but he was the guy I was sent to. So wether or not he preffered to use ETU members only or not I dont know. This is just what happened to me

Romulus · 14-02-2009, 08:42 PM

They're excellent photo's CAMS290. Thanks for sharing.

Spanrz · 14-02-2009, 09:15 PM

I don't think photo's will roll in, in a big way, till the roads get open up to the public.

The memories of Ash Wednesday and my house fire (not related to either of these bushfires) come rolling back.
I went up to a relations house back in the Ash Wednesday fires, and it's like the 2nd shot all over again.

That 2nd shot goes to show how the heat killed everything in it's path.
It has stripped it bare. Friggin' Unbelievable. :ticking:

rodderz · 15-02-2009, 12:54 AM

It will be interesting to see what the same barren shots look like in a few months. Nature grows back pretty quick and most native species actually reproduce after fire, it's a trigger mechanism. The brachen and wattles will be seeding he next rain and the gums will shoot out new growth.

It all depends on the heat though; the last big Mt Beauty bushfire got so hot in some areas the earth was completely burnt underneath and nothing came back.

One of the articles today mentioned that a lot of houses built of brick have fallen outwards and scattered everywhere, not jut fallen in. They seem to think it indicates that the fire sucked the oxygen out of the houses where it was still fresh thus "exploding" it from the inside out. Seems to be in line with witnesses who mention the same thing. Must of been hell

CAMS290 · 15-02-2009, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schultzie

keep the photos coming, they are unreal, is the ashphelt apart of the money boral is donating apart of the materials donation?

I think that Vic Roads contacted Boral last week and said "Come and fix the roads and we will sort the costs out later"

But Boral will be donating materials to the cause too, as well as a cash donation.

We are pretty quiet at the moment and therefore were able to get up there and into it straight away.

Some parts of the road are cooked where trees have fallen and burnt the bitumen and where cars have been burnt....pretty bad where the 4 cars where burnt with the occupants at Kinglake West.....it has left a sort of small crater.

Jason[98.EL] · 15-02-2009, 11:23 AM

good to see that people are getting up there so soon to get the roads ect fixed so the bigger harder work can get done

cam i still have the offer up to you to give a helping hand when you do the delivery of crushed rock that will be my labour donation

i would love to get teams together that are tradies to offer their services and get up there to help out with the rebuilding side of it all when we can

Jason

QualityCounts · 15-02-2009, 03:23 PM

"AUSTRALIAN and Americans have come together in Los Angeles and New York to raise more than $76,587 for victims of the Victoria fires"

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...-23109,00.html

punktured · 15-02-2009, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falcon4L

I wasnt coming to help on the mountain, I was aware of the contractors wrist bands and such as my mate is currently in marysville. But the guy I was told to speak to knocked me back due to me not being in the ETU. Dont know who he was but he was the guy I was sent to. So wether or not he preffered to use ETU members only or not I dont know. This is just what happened to me

It's sad hearing stuff like that. It's a state of emergency and some weekend warrior is on a power trip (which is happening a bit). The ETU would not be behind anything like that, and the guy that told you this should be strung by his balls!

dave351cid · 16-02-2009, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by punktured

It's sad hearing stuff like that. It's a state of emergency and some weekend warrior is on a power trip (which is happening a bit). The ETU would not be behind anything like that, and the guy that told you this should be strung by his balls!

i agree.

i am an ETU member myself and i would find it hard to believe that the officials would support this. sounds like someone on a power trip.

dave351cid · 16-02-2009, 01:15 AM

this is an incredible photo. really shows it as it happens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sorted

[img]The BRAVE HEREO's the CFA

mcnews · 16-02-2009, 08:30 AM

This morning's firemaps, I have made the much more viewable than the PDFs available from CFA etc.

The Main Fire Area Overall

Zoomed to the area around me

Zoomed to the area around Healesville

Falcon4L · 16-02-2009, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by punktured

It's sad hearing stuff like that. It's a state of emergency and some weekend warrior is on a power trip (which is happening a bit). The ETU would not be behind anything like that, and the guy that told you this should be strung by his balls!

well thanks for clearing that up mate, makes me feel better towards the union now. Still disapointed about it happening though.

Melz · 16-02-2009, 09:28 AM

My uncle has been working over the past week in fire affected areas trying to restore phone lines in the areas. He just can't describe what is happening there, except its all gone.

I went for a look at what has happened in Bendigo, the house I was looking at buying only a couple months ago is gone. Just looks like someone removed the house and put the roof on the ground. The same with so many other houses in that area. All that is standing is a bit of corrugated iron, a chimney stack and a child's swing set, very eerie...