Daily News Channel
As fires smoldered and sometimes raged across sections of the scarred landscape Tuesday, rescue officials in Victoria attempted to offer solace to hundreds burned out of their homes and frustrated at being unable to return. Tent cities sprung up around Whittlesea, just north of Melbourne, as relief agencies pitched camps for those forced out of their homes
Through a smoky haze, flames continue to dance around the remains of a house, a shed and the blackened trunks of trees on remarkable video footage filmed moments after a firestorm swept through the rural Victorian town of Kinglake, Australia. Resident Brad Price is holding the camera, providing a slightly breathless commentary of the destruction of his home and town as smoke clogs his throat and blurs his vision. “Everything’s gone
Parts of southeastern Australia turned to recovery Tuesday even as fires smoldered and sometimes raged across sections of the scarred landscape. Tent cities sprung up around Whittlesea, just north of Melbourne, as relief agencies pitched camps for those forced out of their homes. Weekend bushfires “completely wiped out” the towns of Marysville and Kinglake, officials said.
Investigators in Australia believe some of the deadly wildfires ravaging dry southeastern bushland may have been set, a conclusion prompting Australia’s prime minister to call such acts "mass murder." Officials in Victoria state have launched arson investigations into some of the blazes, which have killed at least 166 people, decimated massive spans of land and left thousands of people homeless. “I think it’s important that the nation braces itself for more bad news,” said Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, tearing up at one point during a TV interview on Monday. “This is a little horror which few of us anticipated.” News that some fires may have been deliberately set brought a note of disgust from the prime minister
For 25 agonizing minutes, journalist Norm Beaman did not know whether his wife had perished in wild fires sweeping southern Australia, after he lost mobile phone contact following an explosion and a scream. Beaman, a veteran reporter for Channel 7 news, was racing home to his property on Mount Disappointment, north of Melbourne, talking to his wife Annie as she tried to defend their home from the fires that have left dozens dead.
Australia’s raging wildfires have killed at least 130 people, decimating massive spans of land and leaving thousands of residents homeless, creating situation officials say they’ve never experienced.
At least 108 people have been killed in Australian wildfires that the country’s public broadcaster Sunday called the worst in the nation’s history. Kendra Jackson, leading senior constable of Australia’s Victoria state police, told CNN the latest death toll Sunday. The number of dead is now far higher than the toll of 75 in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983