Shocked ambo says 'a lot of heartache to come'
By Nic MacBean in the Yarra Valley

Posted Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:33pm AEDT
Updated Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:59pm AEDT


Mr Llewellyn says the Kingslake community is just coming to grips with what they have experienced. (AAP Image: Melbourne Herald Sun)



At the time of writing there were almost 200 confirmed fatalities from the nation's worst bushfires, but the feeling on the ground is that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Everyone following the story has heard of Kinglake, the town that bore the brunt of the fires north of Melbourne.

David Llewellyn from Metropolitan Ambulance spent Monday in the Yarra Valley town, and he was staggered at the scale of destruction.

"The devastation is complete and utter," he told the ABC on Tuesday.

"I think it's just the tip of the iceberg. We've got hundreds dead and who knows where the ultimate toll will take us."

Mr Llewellyn is just one of the thousands of rescue workers who are being confronted with some of the worst scenes in Australia's peacetime history.

"They're finding families huddled in corners, there are deceased people who haven't been found or accounted for," he said.

"This is going to be a massive exercise, ongoing for days, if not weeks, if not longer."

Mr Llewellyn appeared strangely calm for a man who had seen the things he had seen in Kinglake.

He said he was running on a kind of autopilot.

"It's unbelievable to see the looks of terror still in people's faces," he said.

"They're just coming to grips with what they've experienced and what they've been exposed to."

The strength of the community and the strength of the human spirit has inspired Mr Llewellyn.

"There's about 500 people left within the community itself at Kinglake, others from Pheasant Creek which has been all but wiped off the map and [from] Kinglake West," he said.

"They're just trying to piece together what they've got but the fire's still active and there's a lot of smoke.

"There's a lot of heartache to come."


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181 confirmed dead....another 120 missing and unaccounted for....796 homes gone....

Mothers, fathers, teenagers, children, elderly....gone.

It really sucks for Australia!

Last I heard there is a criminal investigation going on as well on this fire.

I wish the best for the survivors dealing with the after math of this disaster.

Arson is such a cruel crime... to wildlife, to native bushland, to people...livestock livlihoods...


if any of the intentional fires that were lit, caused death.. the arsonists will be charged with murder.

Victoria bushfires have destroyed Marysville, says John Brumby
| February 11, 2009

Article from: The Australian

VICTORIAN Premier John Brumby has confirmed the worst fears for the township of Marysville, describing it as "like a bomb" hit it and warning that the fatality rate "will be very high".

The Australian revealed this morning that fire authorities fear that up to 100 of its 519 residents may have perished in the blaze that left only a dozen homes standing in the town, northeast of Melbourne.

Mr Brumby, speaking on ABC Radio National's Breakfast program, said that he had visited Marysville since the fires and saw first hand that "there is nothing left".

"I went there (to Marysville) as a kid, I can remember that, I think three million Australians have been to Marysville and done Stevenson's Falls, there's just nothing left of the town," he said.

“It's so eerie – there’s no sound, there’s nothing," he said. "There’s no activity, there’s no people, there’s no buildings, there’s no birds, there’s no animals, everything’s just gone. So the fatality rate will be very high.”

Asked if he expected more bad news on the death toll from the fires, which stands at 181, Mr Brumby said: "The number will continue to increase. Yesterday we had two emergency meetings of cabinet...and were briefed on all of these issues by the relevant authorities, so the number tragically will continue to increase.


CFA firefighter John Munday, who was in one of the fire trucks that entered Marysville about 10 minutes before the firefront swept through the town just before 6pm on Saturday, described in horrific detail how little hope so many residents had of escaping, let alone surviving.

"The toll is going to be massive," Mr Munday said.

He described how he and his crew had to make the heartbreaking decision to save themselves knowing they were leaving people to die.

"We had people banging on the sides of our tanker begging us to go back to houses where they knew there were people trapped, but we couldn't because if we had, we'd all be dead too," Mr Munday told The Australian.

"There were children running down the streets with flames behind them. It was hell. I never want to go back to that place, never.

"As we drove down to the Gallipoli Park, where people were assembling, we knew there were people in homes that were on fire and they had no hope.

"The whole town died around us as we bunkered down on the outside of the oval ringed by funeral pyres while all around us we had the screaming noise of gas cylinders exploding in homes.

"The only way we could have saved them was to put ourselves on the altar and put a sword to our own hearts."

The official death toll from the Black Saturday fires had risen to 181 last night, with 15 confirmed dead in Marysville.

Late last night an urgent threat was declared for townships surrounding the Alexandra base camp from which fire fighting efforts were being coordinated after a southerly change fanned the Murrindindi/Yea fire which covers more than 100,000 hectares.

Since Sunday, The Australian has interviewed more than 30 of about 80 Marysville residents taking refuge in Alexandra.

Almost every one of them relayed a story about a fellow resident who they had not been able to establish contact with and whom they feared had perished.

Kevin Rudd, who saw the devastation of Marysville first-hand on Monday as accompanying reporters were ordered to remain in their vehicles, yesterday told parliament of the "trauma of scars and blackened vehicles along the road".

Facing a public backlash over delays, the Victorian Government opened roads into Kinglake, another destroyed town north of Melbourne, to allow residents to return.

Residents who escaped the fires in Marysville were distraught when told by officials at a tearful, and at times angry, public meeting in Alexandra yesterday that they could not predict how long it would take police to complete the task of identifying the dead.

Already more than 50 unidentified bodies lie in Melbourne's morgue, and amid the ruins around the state. Victoria's topforensic expert has warned that some victims may never be identified.

Sergeant David Rowles from Victoria Police said Marysville had been declared "one huge crime scene". "It is horrific down there, the devastation is extensive and the DVI (disaster victim identification) officers are searching the place house by house," he said. "We cannot predict when anyone can go back in. It is possibly weeks."

Resident Marie O'Sullivan drew thunderous applause when she stood up and called for calm and compassion for the emergency services workers charged with finding bodies after some members of the audience began expressing their frustration at not being able to return to Marysville immediately.

"We have all lost a lot," Ms O'Sullivan said tearfully. "If that town is full of bodies, and my home is there too, then we can't be angry, we can only be sad."

Later, she told The Australian she feared the worst. "Every car, every house and every tank could have a body in it. I know that one of my friends has died and her two sons, too. Everyone knows someone who is missing."

Those missing include Liz Leesfield and her boys, Mathew and James. Ms O'Sullivan said she had learned that the three had died in their spa when the fire swept through their new home.

"Liz was part of a little sewing group we have in town and she and her husband and boys had only just moved into their new home a week before the fires," she said.

"Liz and her husband, Rod, who survived and is in hospital, had saved for five years to get the deposit to buy this property which they were going to run as an accommodation complex. She was just an absolutely energetic, bubbly, wonderful woman who had worked so hard to achieve this dream and I can't believe she's gone but it appears to be the case," Mrs O'Sullivan said.

Another Marysvile resident who lived near the Leesfield family, Steve Guilfoyle told the same story. "Liz was an extremely religious person, the whole family was. They were always good for a laugh, mountain hillbillies who'd lived in the area for years and had settled back in town just days before this tragedy."

Mr Guilfoyle, who narrowly escaped with his wife and two children last Saturday stood in tears at the community meeting trying to pick out faces in the crowd in the vain hope he might find some of his missing friends. They weren't there. He paid tribute to some of them later.

They included Errol and Harley Morgan. Mr Guilfoyle said Harley Morgan worked in the Narbathong mill but was always talking about retirement. "He was a chain saw sculpter and made a lot of art that many of us had in our homes. He was a bloke who loved a yap; Harley would chew your ear off." He described Kirsty Nilsson who ran the Christmas Shop in town and her husband Issac who worked in Melbourne as an arts distributer and who are also missing, feared dead as good mountain people.

"Kirsty was into everything. The kinder, brownies, the school. They were just beaut people."

"And then there's Lizzy Fisk and her beautiful boy Dalton who's only 12 years old or thereabouts. They died together I understand. Her husband Glen is a CFA fighter. Everyone in town loved Lizzy, especially the children, they adored her. If there was something going on around town, then you can bet your bottom dollar Lizzy Fisk would turn up. She was one of the most community spirited people you could ever meet.

"The list goes on. The fire has changed us from a town of residents to family. But for now we're waiting for names and coming to meetings like this hoping we might spot one of them. But they're not here."


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Lee, I don't know what to say... that's horrible.

I feel for all the people there. What a horrible thing. The fact it may have been intentionally caused makes it a horrid crime.

I hope it all stops soon and that the missing end up being misplaced instead of the alternative

Sometimes one person can do great things...

the stories that are coming from the fire affected areas of basic human goodness, of genuine community heart are incredible...

One man drove four hours, delivered his caravan (trailer) and the keys and left again with a note attached to the 'van he parked at the refugee camp, it read, " For as long as it is needed, for whoever needs it most." and a phone number to call when it needs collecting.

The international media has shown the volunteer firey giving water to a koala, who is sat at the base of a burnt out tree in a black wasteland...

so much devastation...

so much loss...

Too right it is murder. Mass murder as i think i saw your pm describe it.

Is there any chance they might get caught? Or do they usually go undetected?

Jess, was worried about you.
Saw that pic with the koala, should get an award.
You & your's OK.
Is it anywhere close to you?
Any of our Mingle family getting hurt that you know of?

I only know what is being broadcast through the media, however, there are photos of a suspect lighting a fire at one of the firefronts of saturday, and another couple of suspects are in custody for questioning, of other fires that were lit in the south east of the state.

Some get caught, some don't...sadly.

It is so hard to grasp just what one impulsive moment of dangerous actions can create...

Surely it could not have been expected that lighting fires on that horrible saturday could reak so much destruction...surely that was not the intent... but a horrible side affect of their actions...

There's only two minglers that I know personally, that are from Victoria, and I spoke with Rivame on monday, and her and Lou, (the other mingler) are both fine... they know people who have been affected...

and of course, the people that they know, have lost friends...

What does an arsonist expect then when they start a fire on a burning hot day in the bush? Do they plan on just killing a couple of people and a bunch of wildlife? They must be aware of the potential damage they could cause.

POLICE investigating the Victoria fires have arrested two suspected arsonists.

Two men were arrested near Taggerty after reports of "suspicious behaviour between Seymour and Yea in relation to the fires", a police spokeswoman said.

"The investigation is in its initial stages. Two people are assisting police."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25043709-421,00.html

......................................


They got two of them at least. Looking for other suspects in others.

I hope they get them all.

Good.
I certainly hope that they're the right folks.

This is so sad Jess. My heart goes out to all your country men.
Especially those directly affected.

One of the suspected arsonists were released this morning... with the high emotion across this country... the grief, disbelief, sadness...

Eventually it turns to anger.... and to start pointing fingers is wrong.

Blame won't bring back hundreds of dead and injured people, nearly 800 homes, hundreds of thousands of hectares of burnt bushland and pasture.. over a million dead and injured native animals... whole ecosystems gone....

One thing many may not be aware of, is Victoria has been in the grip of one of the worst droughts in the European settler history of australia...for many years now... the bushland, and native fauna have been struggling, as have the humans to exist for a very long time...these fires have decimated, devastated and destroyed so much...perhaps this may be irreversible...time and weather will tell.

And for all you naysayers.... global warming is alive and well and hammering the eastern states of Australia...

floods to the north.... massive fires to the south...all regular occurances here, but not of this magnitude.

Thankyou for your condolences... thankyou for your thoughts...we're a tough lot here, we know how to suck it up, and get on with it...and we know how to stand together, for as long as it takes.

To everyone, spare a thought for your aussie mates...

Some idiot lit another during a telethon for the victims!

More arrests and more suspects.

http://www.news.com.au

Holy Cow, I didn't see a single article mentioning that many people were injured or killed. Just discussions of the animals and land and a suspect. I didn't realize any towns were hit.

I felt bad about it already. But then, I'm from an area where fires are not unusually and my dad and brother in law are in professions that are often called in to fight those fires.

Any major fire anywhere in the world strikes a chord with me.