Wiped out: Town destroyed by killer firesBy Jane Cowan in Marysville and reporters
Updated Sun Feb 8, 2009 12:32pm AEDT
Marysville lies in ruins after a bushfire tore through it
The township of Marysville in central Victoria has been almost completely destroyed by bushfires and there are grave fears for the town of Kinglake, where at least 12 people are known to have died.
Survivors in Marysville told ABC reporter Jane Cowan of seeing house after house go up in flames as the fire hit, with exploding gas canisters hurled through walls, and said at least one woman had been killed.
Aerial pictures taken by the ABC show street after street of completely destroyed homes in Marysville. Most are just piles of rubble. Some still have walls standing and a handful appear to be mostly intact.
In all 35 people are now confirmed to have died in the fires north of Melbourne and this morning there are unconfirmed reports of bodies being found in cars overtaken by the fires in Gippsland in the state's east.
Six of the confirmed dead have been found at Kinglake, six at Kinglake West and four each at St Andrews and Wandong, all north of Melbourne. More bodies have been found at Humevale, Bendigo, and Arthurs Creek and there are reports of at least one death in Marysville.
Authorities are unable to get into Kinglake to confirm the level of destruction but yesterday ABC Local Radio listener Peter Mitchell said the entire town was on fire.
"The whole of Kinglake is ablaze," he said. "I live a couple of kilometres out of town and when I heard explosions I went to the end of my road to see what was going on and by the time I got there I saw fires everywhere."
'Ceased to exist'
Jane Cowan visited Marysville this morning and says the township has "virtually ceased to exist".
"We were in the main street and it's like a warzone, like a bomb has been dropped on the entire township," she said.
"People there are in an absolute state of shock. Most people had already left, but the people, I'd say about 30 people that are still left and had spent the night sheltering on the Football Oval there, are just completely dazed.
"[They are] walking around the streets with rugs around their shoulders because it's actually getting cold here now if you can believe it.
"And they tell stories of how fast everything turned bad there yesterday, about five or six o'clock in the evening.
"They say they actually thought the fire was going to go around the town of Marysville and then in a matter of minutes the sky went black and they knew they were in big trouble.
"People are talking about sheltering in their homes seeing every single house in their street go up in flames in a row, one by one ... of narrow escapes ... houses that managed to survive.
"There's a handful of houses that miraculously are still standing in Marysville.
"One lady whose house actually made it said she thought she was going to lose hers as well as she watched all the others go up around her.
"Then one of their windows cracked and she thought that was it theirs going as well. But somehow they made it.
"There are stories of households that sheltered three families in one house. Of gas bottles from nearby houses exploding and then piercing their houses and then those houses catching fire as well. It's an absolute warzone.
"They're just in a state of shock John. It's way too early [to talk about rebuilding].
"The people who are there are being very generous with their emotions. Everything's very raw, there are lives that have been lost in Marysville.
Fatalities
"People are saying that there are bodies in the town, terrible stories of for instance a woman who was found in her car this morning, obviously, was trying to escape. She didn't make it. She had her crockery on the seat beside her in the car.
"That's where their heads are at the moment. It's way too early to start thinking about rebuilding.
"They've got no power, no water, no phone coverage. And they've all actually just left the town, abandoned the town this morning, in a convoy.
"They've been driven out by the emergency services now who are cutting trees off the road to get them out because it's just not safe to be there even now because they've absolultely no services."
'Cattle burning'
But there were conflicting reports from the nearby township of Narbethong, south-west of Marysville.
Resident Raylene Kincaide lost her home and says the whole township is gone.
"It's just devastating. We've lost everything. It's not good," she said. "Our little town had gone 20 minutes after we left. Probably 95 per cent of the houses are gone.
She said they are worried that some residents are missing and have not been accounted for.
"My partner was up there and he left when he saw the cattle burning. I've been in Ash Wednesday, but this is worse," she said.
But Jane Cowan said she believed "probably three houses have been lost" in Narbethong.
"It's very difficult to tell at the moment, we're still getting a handle on the damage there," she said.
"It's nowhere near the same damage as places like Marysville. It looks like there would have been a lot of damage to stock, paddocks are blackened, but it's still very difficult to get a handle on it.
"Homes have been lost all over the place out here but I couldn't give you too much information about Narbethong now."
About 700 firefighters are working around Kinglake, Kilmore, Murrindindi and Marysville.
The SES number is 132 500. In a life-threatening emergency or to report a fire, call 000.
Grim day ahead
Eighteen people are being treated for burns at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, eight of whom are in intensive care.
Emergency physician John Coleridge says it is going to be grim day for those searching for others caught out by the fires
"There are apparently cars along the roadside just abandoned," he said.
"Unfortunately they'll probably find many more people, many of whom may not survive."
Hospital workers say the injuries suffered by victims are the worst they have seen since the Bali bombings.
In total, the blazes are thought to have burnt through more than 100,000 hectares and caused extensive property damage.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485378.htm 
Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:25 pm
