To all whom it may concern, inc Keith from OZ and luvs3rds, whose comments above and in seperate posts I respond to here.

I'm writing on the night of Wednesday, 11th February, 4 days after the event.
Thank you from a Melbourne, Victoria, resident for your concern, thoughts and especially prayers. I live in middle suburbia and am at no risk from the fires. However, in terms of personal impact, a couple of staff members at a local large hospital where I often work have suffered the loss of their homes and one, a professor of medicine who lived in a small outlying town of approx 1,000 people called St. Andrews, actually perished.

My elder brother Robert and his family live on a 120 acre farm in a neighboring region called Christmas Hills. Many houses on an adjacent road overlooking his local town of Yarra Glen have burnt down, including that of a mate who I often work alongside in the above hospitals ICU. Roberts own house escaped only through the timely intervention of 3 Country Fire Authority trucks and the "Elvis" air crane- bloody useful thing to have about when your house is about to go up.

The combination here on Saturday 7th February of searing local heat (46.8C, ~115F), high winds, tinder dry bush with lots of combustible fuel lying about and perhaps a couple of barking mad arsonists, is a very difficult one to defeat. Current death toll seems to be 181 confirmed with every likelihood of reaching 200+, 4,000 folks newly homeless, and no idea how much in property loss, but it's immense. The psychological scarring of country Victoria will stand for generations.

At 3.2m people, Melbourne is a large city even by international standards, but in Australia we have never had a natural disaster of this magnitude before. Although the deaths of about the same number in the Japanese bombing of Darwin during WW2, though equally tragic, occurred in a war context, ie. they were intentional. To lose this many people in one day to the forces of nature is a new experience to this nation.

Thank you again to all who bother to read this and pause to remember those who have lost so much in a few moments. My donation will be to the Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. If anyone feels led to assist, that's a pretty good place to start.

Sincerely,

John