Things may be rather slow around here but we've got quite a few Australians on board. These fires going on down under have been so devastating and horrible what's happening there has felt so familiar so I couldn't not say anything here... and then I saw this picture below and read the story, and I felt like I was going to rupture a tear duct.

[addimage]http://www.theaustra...mon/imagedata/0,,6480884,00.jpg[/addimage]

http://www.news.com....raldsun/story/0,21985,25038852-2862,00.html

Australians, stay safe and I do hope you all are OK!

Yea, saw this in the news. I'm heading down there next fall. Australia is such a beautiful place, it's a shame to hear about all these fires.

I live in Sydney and we've had many bushfires over the years.. nothing I've ever seen has come close to what happened in Victoria on the weekend though..

So many lives lost and so many homes destroyed.. :(

Aww this koala story is all over the news/world at the moment.

Victoria has always had bush fires but this one was so different, the speed it was going (from the wind) was terrifying, people only had a few minutes or even seconds to decide either to stay or flee. The last horrific fires in the 80's had a death toll of around 73, This ones at 181 and still counting. One story made me cry so much but it's too shocking to post.

I have never experienced a heat as great as last Saturday. I walked outside and in seconds I felt like my head was pounding from dehydration and my skin felt as if it was burning from the strong hot winds. The sky was completely covered in smoke and we new a some bush fire was happening but not to such a degree. The temperature reached something like over 44 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit ??). Hottest day in record. This plus strong winds and draught was a recipe for disaster .

It going to take years to recover...