Lets hope none of our Freinds on here and anywhere else from down under have been affected or caught up in this massive tragedy.
Lets hope the catch the arsonists who have made matters worse, mass murderers they should be burnt at the stake

Thoughts and prayers go with the unfortunate people caught up in this

Edited at 12:19 Mon 9/02/09 (GMT)

Agreed tids, shame we cant send this Siberian snow cloud there way to help out (no sarcasm in there, a genuine thought)

I have family down under myself and hope everything goes back to normal asap!

I've actually seen the aftermath of a bushfire when i was in Canberra a few years ago.

It's just horrific, i hope everything gets resolved quickly.

It is shocking that someone could do that.

And i also bet they wont be caught either which is a shame for all the people caught up in this terrible disaster.

Are they sure it was arsenic that was just a mild possiblity on this mornings news.

Hope everyone here is okay horrific news

I have a cousin.. Australia, Melbourne..

Its a horrible thing to happen.

good to see that we are getting international support.

There are two disasters in Australia right now. We have the Victorian bushfires which can only be described as hell on earth.

But up in far north Queensland, there are also very bad floods which have cut off towns and the main highway for days....

freaky country I live in

Never mind, apologies for any offence for taking it slightly off topic

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7878412.stm

Just reading about the arson side of it there, some really strange people in this world......hope those responsible are caught and bought to justice.

Edited at 21:38 Mon 9/02/09 (GMT)

Way to keep it on topic Mike, even i know what he meant...well done for spotting a mistake.


On topic, Just heard the Death toll is at just over 150.

Good to see support from other country's,i live in Melbourne and it is absolutely horrific to witness what has happened here,death toll is 170 innocent lives lost,and that is set to rise as for the arsonist factor around 70% of fires in Australia are deliberately lite , 1 has been caught and he happens to be a fireman
very very sad

That is proper crazy, how can a fireman start a fire when he knows he is risking the lives of what could well be his friends......

It is crazy,not sure why they do it adrenalin ,excitement ? I must say our firemen are doing a brilliant job in fighting the fires,but the fact is the odd 1 is a few sandwiches short of a picnic and starts them

My reckoning is they do it so they can look like the hero's maybe which is very twisted indeed.

Or is it something to do with pay? I know it happens in America because some firemen get paid for extra time and what not. Could also be something to do with wanting to be a hero........

Very sad to watch on the news.

Sorry...just to add some light humour to a tragic topic.......arsenic is a poison mate.

And well done Mike for spotting the problem that Australia has regarding Arsonists, i thought it was a one off....goes to show what we know eh? Cant understand why its come too light now, maybe the Aussie government wanted to cover the problem up as cases before was not as severe as this??? Im just speculating that so dont quote me

Tried that already mate, had my knuckles rapped by Mr_mcq hence the edit......

Death toll still rising, i rang over last night to check my family over there was unaffected and thankfully that seems to be the case.

Just using english grammar rule it sounds grammatically incorrect to say arson in plural conjugation.

Anyway off topic sorry

I do hope they are all caught and heart goes out too all families 150 is a shocking number

latest numbers on the news is 185 dead 80 missing 1000's of homes burnt.

I still don't get what enjoyment idiots get out of lighting fires!

So far donations from Australian public is around the 30 million mark!!!

its actually $45 Million (Australian Dollars) as of earlier this afternoon.

Victorian Premier John Brumby made a great quote on the news this afternoon.



and $45 Million donated to the Red Cross alone from a country with a population of only 21 million, thats just fantastic, and that is NOT counting foreign donations either!

A powerful first hand account of a close call:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25026912-2702,00.html