You know what, you do acclimatise over the years. And remember one of the wonders of Australia, all those fire fighters are volunteers and knowingly put their lives on the line to fight bushfires like none of us can imagine, to save us and our houses, and they lose their lives with monotonous regularity. That's why as that English actress from Ab Fab said one day "Australians are the toughest people on the planet" Ain't that the truth.

Think I am on the night shift to relieve crew at the Narre Warren fire.

Stay safe Badge, and you MartinLuther.

Agreed. And I'm joining the SES so I to can contribute. Might die but hey that's what living in Australia means. I feel like I have finally done something good in my life. Let's see how it turns out

Good on you- keep safe.

I really don't understand the climate over here- how can it change so bloody quickly? (seriously if anyone can explain it I'd really appreciate it)

I hope all are ok
14 dead so far, 100 homes lost
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574...5-1243,00.html

Just a low pressure system, spinning, coming in from the Tasman.

You could see it as early as 2pm on the IR map.

It comes in, and the wind comes from the SW, bringing cool air. Previously we had high pressure and hot winds coming from the North - from the interior.

Its cooler this morning and we have just had lightning and thunder just what the fire fighters want. No rain.

The weather always does this in Melbourne, on a expected heat day you wake in the morning and everything is still, couple of hours later the wind gets up from the north and blows a gale. Gets very very hot and saps all the moisture from the land. Fires erupt due to combustion and glass or rubbish or silly people and with the wind its difficult to stop them as they spot and with the eucalypts being oily they explode. Then later on in the day the wind swings very quickly south west and usually blows just as hard for a while. Brings a cool change but if you are a fire fighter it just turns the fires other ways.

Grass fires go like the wind they travel so fast they just eat up everything in their path, houses, stock, us if we are in front of it.

Just hope the death toll is not what they are expecting this morning.

Thanks to all those wonderful people who volunteer their time and lives free to save us all from fire at this time of the year.

I have just been watching the news about the utter carnage caused by the fires. I hope all of you are safe whom live in the areas affected.
I remember ash wednesday but I was young then and this seems far worse. Special thoughts to all you who are helping fight the fire. my uncles down there in gippsland and has been helping out for the last few weeks, so I've got a bit of an idea how tough it is.
what am i saying I have know idea, sitting up here in se qld.

Anyway take care and good luck

I don't know the area very well at all but I have good friends in Melton South who are safe, but cannot contact their friends in Flowerdale.

Please stay safe (and cool!) everyone.
xxx

Thanks - that sort of makes sense.

It's raining here (Yarraville)- and it rained during the night too... we might even get some water in our tanks at this rate (we had them put in just after all the rain in december, since then it's been bone dry)

Hopefully it will keep going and help with some of these fires.