Going Up in Smoke: Victorian Bushfires burn more than 1m. Acres

Currently, in North-East Victoria, a massive bushfire is blazing. This bushfire has destroyed 1,000,000 acres of scrub, and, most alarmingly, housing and private land.

The bushfires started in early December by a thunderstorm, when lightning sparked several blazes in the Victorian Alpine region. In total, there were 5 fires altogether, but at the rate they were blazing, they were destined to become something that Victoria hadn't seen in a long, long time: a Megablaze. This would happen when 2 or 3 of the fires met each other, and fuzed together. This made it much harder for the SES (State Emergency Service) and the CFA (County Fire Authority) to control these blazes.

Many people's houses were (and still are being) destroyed, why just last night (15th Jan), there was breaking news on Channel 10 that 7 homes were destroyed that night. The 15th January also sparked major havok in the CBD and various parts of the suburbs. At approx. 3:30pm, the fires cut a major electicity link between Victoria and New South Wales, throwing vast amounts of Melbourne into a blackout, which caused chaos in Melbourne's many cafe's and fine dining restraunts, but more importantly, caused major delays in it's Public Transport system, particularly in the rail sector.

The CFA and SES have got most of the fires under control, however, they are still burning. These fires have also affected people's health and breathing, because ever since these fires have started, a thick blanket of smoke has engulfed the city of Melbourne, and surrounding suburbs, giving them a half 'yellow' look, making the sun turn an alarming orange colour, and making it very dangerous for people with Asthma to go outside for long amounts of time. People have been taken into hospital on the way to work in some cases, to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Ok, sure, this seems like a distaster, but why write a blog on it? Well, it's because late in December, we were pretty sure that our property in Merrijig (at the base of Mount Buller) would be destroyed by these fires. We took our most precious posessions out of the house, and placed them into storage until the fire has been extinguished. The house is of great significance to us, because both my grandmother and grandfather have been laid to rest there ( Thier ashes were scattered in the creek at the base of the property).

I also wrote this, because I believe that our firefighters are not getting the proper thanks that they deserve. These firefighters are not getting paid to do this, and they are risking thier lives trying to save other people's homes and lives. So, to finish this, I'd like to send thanks to the firefighters, in a true Aussie way.

Thanks, fellas. See ya down the pub.