Australian fires

[PhilGE]

Anyone from Down Under know how Jack Spira and any other mandolin friendly folks are doing in the state of Victoria? I've read of terrible wildfires in Victoria and I'm a bit worried for Jack's well-being. I dropped him an email yesterday morning and have not heard back from him.

[Graham McDonald]

Jack lives a bit further south (but not all that much!) from the fires north of Melbourne.

www.theage.com.au has maps of where the fires are and Emerald, where Jack is, is out of the way a bit

That said, there are quite a few musicians that I know who live up in the Coldstream and Kinglake areas and I am just hoping that they will be OK. We went through the same thing in Canberra just on six years ago and I still get twitchy on a hot day when the wind is from the north west and there is some haze in the air.

cheers

graham

[Ivan Kelsall]

I just spoke to my ex-nextdoor neighbours who are living in Adelaide,having emigrated from the UK 2 months back. They tell me that the worst of the heatwave is over,the temp.has dropped to 32 deg.F.(& they think that's cooling off ????). The pics. on the UK news which prompted my phone call showed that 2 large bush fires had now joined up & covered a vast area. There's one township that's had over 80% of it's homes totally destroyed. The authorities are saying that they suspect that many of the fires were diliberately started - unbelieveable what some b******s will do.
My heart goes out to all the folk who've lost their homes & property,& to those who have lost family members in this great tradgedy.
Nearly every year we see/hear of bush fires in California & see the devastation that they cause.
You folk may be thousands of miles away,but you're still in the minds of all right-thinking & compasionate people all over the world,
Saska :(

[JEStanek]

When we were driving from Healesville down to Gembrook/Emerald, we would routinely pass through sections of woods that had been burnt before. Somewhat fortunately, Jack's place is in the middle of some pasture land lower on the hills without many trees around so, I'm hoping, even if the fires came through, his place might be safer. He may also be out doing the festival circuit too. Getting to visit with Jack when I picked up my mandolin was one of the highlights of my trip to Australia.

Jamie

[mandroid]

some reporting here too, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7877178.stm

I was looking around on the Site and saw satellite photos .

Temperatures in the 40's there , over 100 F.

[Graham McDonald]

9am Monday morning here, and I have just spoken to Jack Spira in Victoria. He is OK, and the fires didn't get too close, just close enough to be scary. Current death toll over 100 with 750 houses burnt. The big fire area north of Melbourne around Marysville and Kinglake is mostly hilly eucalypt forest with small towns and lots of people living on a couple of acres in the bush. That is where a lot of the poeple dies, either in their houses or caught on the roads trying, too late, to get out. The weather has changed and is much cooler, but the change in wind direction can just drive the fires in another direction

graham

[Gerard Dick]

Those eucalyptus leaves are covered with a wax to protect them in drought. In fire they might as well be soaked in gasoline.

[Graham McDonald]

It is not so much the waxy outside of the leaves as the oil in them ;)

cheers

[PhilGE]

Thanks, all. Just heard from a friend of Jack that he's okay and the situation in Emerald is as Graham described above. Keep everyone in that region in thought and prayer - it's been devastating.

[JEStanek]

Glad to hear it. Thanks Phil and Graham.

Jamie

[Coffeecup]

There are updates on some folkies in the affected areas on the Mudcat forum. All safe so far.

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=118422&messages=80

[mandroid]

maybe Jack is not in a burned area, but, returning to The Age in Australia, today,
"At least 173 people are dead and 24 blazes remain out of control as Victoria's bushfire crisis enters its fourth day.

So many people at present are not OK some burned in their cars while trying to escape.

"The death toll from the bushfires is certain to rise further as more remains are found in more than 700 burnt-out homes strewn through the 330,000 hectares so far razed in Australia's worst bushfire disaster."

Police are pursuing some Arsonists who seemed to not think there were enough fires.

[D C Blood]

We have a wonderful friend, Geoff Morris, a disc jockey, both on a local FM station and on worldwidebluegrass.com, and he lives in Bendigo, about a hundred miles north of Melbourne. They had some pretty close fires there, but I think he's a little north of the worst areas. He said the fires near where he is are pretty much under control now. Of course, that is subject to rapid change. Keep the prayers coming.

[jackspira]

Hello everyone,
PhilG directed me to this forum. Thank you all so much for asking after me! I've been overwhelmed by emails and phone call the past few weeks, I have so many kind friends!
I'm fine though and have suffered only the stress of being on alert for evacuation. Unlike many others around me who have suffered a great deal more.
The main dilema is what wood can I fit in the car and what do I leave behind! I must admit it was the spruce and the rosewood that got priority in the end, I figured I could always get more blackwood....I hope!

A lot of my freinds have been sevearly affected, but all survived thankfully. I'm starting to get stories of people close to people I know who have died, and its the sort of thing that touches every one in some way. One of my guitar customers has lost his father. On the weekend I was volunteering at the local market, and one of my freinds told the story of his wifes best friend. She and her husband died in Marysville. They didn't live there but were up there in a cabin for a weekend holiday. They didn't know the area well and were found in their car down a dead end track next to a locked gate. Horrible! It sure is affecting us all.

We had another scare last night which turned into a bit of a fun time! A small fire to the west of me got out of control and headed into Belgrave, where many of my friends live, so they all evacuated here to my house with multiple pets and teenagers. I had fun cooking up a big dinner and chasing escaped pets. We played a few tunes until about 11pm when the fire was downgraded and they all could go home, perfect!

There is more hot weather coming this week, but I hope it will all be over soon. Thank you all again for you're concern, and I hope this post answers all the questions.
Thanks!!
jack

[frankenstein]

Hi folks. Glad to hear you are ok Jack.. There are some fires still burning in a few differents parts of the state. Very distressing time for many aussies and our hearts go out to those who have lost everything. Here are some shots taken 3 days ago on the hume highway near Flowerdale as my wife and i came down from northern New South Wales where it has been flooding..also one of our native friends escaping the heat in South Australia.. Heres hoping things improve swiftly and praying for rain.. :)