The Victorian Bushfire’s Remembered

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The Victorian bushfire is the most recent tragedy that Australia had to face. The horrible incident was a combination of bad luck and intentional folly by a mad man. To date, the Victorian inferno is the biggest bushfire ever in terms of casualties, with a death toll of 209 people and almost 500 injured.

The bushfires are not yet 100% under control. Just when everyone in the world thought that the bushfires were now a distant memory, more than Australians were forced to evacuate their homes due to new emerging bushfires. That was just two weeks after the huge bushfire erupted. The total death count as of now is increasing with 7,000 Victorians left homeless.

It was Monday when three major fires broke out again. Firefighters were sent to combat the blaze. The culprit to the spread of the fire was the strong wind and the searing temperature.

The biggest arson investigation was launched right away. So far the search for the arsonists of the original bushfires is still ongoing. In Churchill, there is a 39 year old man who was caught in relation to the Churchill fire. He is suspected of intentionally starting the blaze. He was also caught with child pornography in his possession.

The man who remains anonymous to the public has received numerous death threats from people online on his MySpace page and Facebook. His family was also threatened and other people close to him. MySpace responded by deleting his online page, while Facebook is busy deleting the death threats from other people’s postings.

The 2009 Victorian Bushfire is the biggest bushfire in Australian history in terms of casualties. The Black Thursday bushfire in Victoria was actually the biggest in terms of hectares burned. The horrid Black Thursday had about 5 million hectares burned, while this recent one had only about 450,000 hectares gutted.

The striking number on the 2009 Victorian bushfire was the death count. More than 200 dead and almost 500 injured. The closest to this death toll was the 1983 Ash Wednesday, South Australian bushfires with 75 deaths.

Sunday mass started in Australia as the first day to commemorate the recent tragedy. It was the start of the national day of mourning.

People from different walks of life gathered together side by side with the fire fighters, survivors, politicians, and other Australian and foreign luminaries at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.

Kevin Rudd said that every 7 of February the National flag will be flown at half mast to commemorate this tragedy. He also reiterated that the Australian people have shown the Australian character — courage, compassion and resilience.

This is what BBC Australian correspondent, Nick Bryant has to say, “Australia has drawn on strengths it already knew it had in abundance – traits that are by no means uniquely Australian, but quintessentially Australian.”

We mourn the loss of loved ones. prochef360 prays for Victoria and the rest of Australia. In the end, this tragedy has thought us once again that even hell on earth can prove that there are angels in our midst.

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