No doubt many people have heard about the horrific fires that have raged over large parts of Victoria over the weekend. With a rising death toll expected to reach over 200, 700 homes lost, whole towns destroyed it certainly is the worst bushfire incident I can remember in Victoria.
I took this photo of my cars temperature gauge on Saturday afternoon – it’s the hottest day I can ever remember. The heat here in Victoria is a dry burning heat and at 48 degrees celsius or 118 in the old scale.
It wasn’t until late Sunday morning that I heard a close friend had lost his home in Marysville. It hadn’t been near the fires until a cooler wind change at around 6.30 pm on Saturday night changed the direction of the fire and wiped out the whole town. Here in Victoria people are allowed to stay and try and protect their homes against the fire however in this case many people were simply overwhelmed and in trying to escape in the cars perished. A google map shows the extent of the fire.
I spoke to the students this morning about the tragedy and we had 30 seconds of silence to remember those who lost their lives fighting the fires. I also spoke of the many schools destroyed in the fire. At tonights school council meeting we decided to support families who have gone through this tragedy by holding a casual dress day for students on Friday and they make a donation to the relief fund, contacting one the burnt down schools next week to see if we can help supply goods and materials to get them back on the feet during this time and finally donating the proceeds from our annual bush dance in 6 weeks time to the bush fire appeal.
I would like to hear how other schools have supported the families and communities burnt out through bushfires.
Thanks for your comment Robert it seems the tragedy just seems to be getting worse by the day. The death toll rises each time I hear the news. We are also donating our casual clothes day to a school appeal organised by the Department of Education.
Mark, it definitely is something we’ve never seen in Australia before, and hopefully something we’ll never see again.
Being at a Catholic school, we called the whole school together for assembly on Monday morning (having 730 students, whole school assemblies are uncommon) to pray for those affected and those who have died.
We’re having a gold coin day tomorrow in order to make a donation – preferably to a school or schools that have been affected. We’re trying to make contact now through the local Catholic Education Offices