austraLasia #2354

Victoria's worst bushfire tragedy
Melbourne: 9th February 2009 -- With an uncertain total of 130 dead, uncertain because it is expected there will be more, the State of Victoria has undergone its worst bushfire tragedy ever - and for that matter in the entire nation.
As confreres from various parts of the world enquire as to the safety of Salesians, our communities, parishes, schools and other ministry settings, the one clear element of better news is that the fires have not directly touched those communities.
There are six communities in potential bushfire zones in Australia: Sunbury, Ferntree Gully, Lysterfield and Bairnsdale in Victoria; Engadine in New South Wales, and Glenorchy in Tasmania. The fires which have caused devastation over the past three days in particular have been raging in an area to the northeast of the city, in what we call 'bush' but elsewhere would be known as forest - of the eucalypt variety. Should 47 degree centigrade temperatures persist, of course, anything will burn. There has been a change (down) in temperatures, which is good news.
Australians are used to the phenomenon, but that does not make it any easier to deal with the scale of this tragedy. This writer has experienced two similar experiences, once as a young practical trainee in Hobart when 50 people died and the school was saved more by miracle than anything else, as all most residences around it simply exploded in the heat. We witnessed it. Fire on this magnitude appears to feed on itself. We were huddled on the school oval under wet blankets watching it happen. Twenty years later a similar experience occurred in the Ferntree Gully area, though our school was some kilometres away from the worst of the devastation.
Despite the safety of our existing physical locations, the wide ministry outreach in parish and school communities in particular does not mean that families in our care have not been affected. We would ask readers to bear this in mind prayerfully.  
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Title: australasia 2354
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces AUL bushfires
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2354