I feel so damn useless sitting here, at my PC in Gatwick. I've got family over there, one of my cousins lives on the coast but flew out to offer help where it was needed (she's a nurse) so in a small way I've done my bit. It hurts to hear about the kiddies though. I can believe arson started it, what I can't believe is that somehow this made a difference; as if, had a piece of glass and a beam of sunlight triggered the first blaze it would have been dealt with before hundreds of lives had been lost. Somehow, I doubt it ...

Well, I have helped a little so far. I've donated artwork that was sold also this weekend to raise money for the bush fire appeal amongst other things.

Kitten is fine! Just out of internet as numerous connections are down from bushfires in the surrounding areas at this time. She says not to worry and will be back on track as soon as she can.

Cheers,

The Voice of Kitten (aka) Bibwit

There's another aspect to this. Moist of my family live in western Victoria with a few in Queensland. So some of us are worried about the burnt and the drowned, but life goes on.

Most of those who lost houses in the towns in the fire areas, and still in those areas not yet burnt, live there because they want to. They want the euclypts up to the gutters, the bush to the back door. The Adelaide hills are full of them. The adults can live with their choices, but it's the kids and their pets that concern me.

In the tornado area of the US they have cellars to go to while the emergency lasts, and having seen some of the tornado documentaries this seem to be for a maximum of an hour.

Why don't Australian homes in the bush have firestorm cellars? Some peanut reported in the paper said cellars are not a good idea as the fire COULD, not always will, consume the oxygen and also smoke could harm people. The fire storms generally burn everything down in about 20 minutes and move on. I could almost hold my breath that long.

I expect that soon insurance companies will require fire cellars like the bomb shelters built during the cold war to save people who are too unaware or stupid or callous to do it for themselves.

Besides while we have been burning the northern hemisphere has been freezing and one of our local religious d*ckheads has said it's god's punishment for the Victorian's legalising prostitution and abortion.

Perhaps we could fire bomb the nutter churches.