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Tue 11 Jan, 2005 05:28 am
Big one near Adelaide too - but it was more controlled.
Sigh.
Eight dead in SA bushfires
Eight people, including two children, have been killed by a fire burning on South Australia's lower Eyre Peninsula.
A further seven people have been reported missing. Those killed were all trying to escape the blaze in cars.
Chief Inspector Malcolm Schluter says five people died in two separate cars in the Wanilla area, and another three were found on the Port Lincoln Highway.
"A vehicle was discovered at Penindie, a little settlement about 25 kilometres north of Port Lincoln," he said.
"There were three bodies in the vehicle, in the burnt-out vehicle.
"We're yet to determine the identity of the deceased people, but it certainly raised the number of people killed as a result of the fire today to eight."
Chief Inspector Schluter says the children were four and two years old, and police have begun the process of identifying those killed and notifying their next of kin.
The two children and their mother were travelling towards Louth Bay in thick smoke when the car veered off the Lincoln Highway and hit a tree.
The residents of the property found the bodies when they returned home after evacuating.
Senior Constable Stuart McLean says it appears the family was trying to escape when the fire was at its peak.
"That's a possiblity, the smoke around North Shields and Penindie at that time was absolutley horrendous, the visibility was very low," he said.
The fire has burnt out 40,000 hectares since yesterday afternoon and is being fanned by winds of up to 70 kilometres an hour.
Emergency crews have also battled smaller fires around the state, but say relief is on the way as a cool change makes its way across South Australia tonight.
Two firefighters have been taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with serious burns.
Tragic events
The tragic chain of events was sparked this morning when a scrub fire on the west coast town of Wangary broke containment lines.
As the mercury climbed towards 41 degrees Celsius, firefighters braced for the worst.
A massive bushfire raged across the lower Eyre Peninsula, near Port Lincoln and about 250 kilometres west of Adelaide, all afternoon.
Hundreds of Country Fire Service (CFS) volunteers were mobilised, but blustery conditions made firefighting all but impossible.
Strong winds swept the fire front across the peninsula.
Town by town residents were warned they were under threat, as it raced from the small cropping town of Wanilla towards the coastal communities of North Shields and Louth Bay.
South Australia CFS chief officer Euan Ferguson said the situation was hopeless.
"At one point in time the wind was gusting up to 70 kilometres per hour after the wind change," he said.
"This is a classic situation where there is no force known to man that can control the fire burning under those conditions."
Several homes were destroyed across the peninsula and authorities are expecting heavy stock losses.
Several townships remain without power and power utility ETSA says it does not know when supply can be restored.
Adelaide Hills
More than 250 firefighters have contained another bushfire in the Adelaide Hills close to the city.
Thick smoke and ash is blanketing the Mount Osmond area, less than 10 kilometres from the CBD.
Aerial water bombers were brought in to fight the blaze.
Firefighters managed to protect 20 homes directly under threat.
Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) spokesman Bill Dwyer says crews are keeping a close eye out for any break in the containment lines.
"Firefighters will be on scene for the rest of the night," he said.
"What they're intending to do as we speak is put a 30 metre perimeter blackened out, which means the fire can't burn through that area.
"Crews will remain on scene throughout the night and make sure that there are no hot spots."
CFS spokesman Brenton Ragless says despite the weather conditions improving, the fire could continue to burn for the next few days.
"The main firefront continues to burn and that's what the phase warning has been issued for, but there are lots of other minor fires which we haven't got the resources to extinguish," he said.
"So that's why this fire I think will take at least a couple of days to extinguish."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4164163.stm
Got to 41.8 C here - which is almost 108 F.
Currently (11:59 AM GMT) Melbourne appears to record 34°C. Is that usual?
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