The Fires
Victoria is burning. With the hottest days on record, comes some of the worst bushfires on record. For me this hits close to home, because I have family in Gippsland surrounded by thick smoke from the bushfires. Although I’m watching the fires from safety in Melbourne, the images still get to me. For many years the Gippsland campus of Monash University in the town of Churchill, has been my place of study and work – it has been a home to me. The shock of the fires has spread all over my social websites. People are posting images and videos of fires on many sites.
Fires behind Monash Gippsland
I’ve seen the hills above the Churchill alight with bushfires before, but from my safe distance it seems more shocking to me. Last week Monash setup a makeshift headquaters for firefighters and fire refugees. There’s a collection Youtube videos of the Churchill fires, such as this one shows the town surrounded by the fires, there’s this one which is cute, but still shocking and this one with a dodgey soundtrack. I’ve also been listening to the CFA radio stream online, where you hear things like, “we’ve had reports of an eighty year old grandmother, a father and some kids trapped in a house.” Here’s the CFA incident summary. There’s a good online map here showing all the fires in Victoria.
Fires behind Monash Gippsland
Monash Gippsland (from the Herald Sun website)
