Australia counts deadly fire toll, BBC News, Monday, 9 February 2009
Quote:
The number of deaths from bushfires that have already claimed 170 lives in the Australian state of Victoria is likely to rise, officials have warned.
Police believe some of the fires were started deliberately - actions which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said amounted to "mass murder".
Survivors have recounted how they fled walls of flames. Some people died in their cars trying to escape the fires.
Some rural towns have been completely destroyed.
Police have sealed off a number of sites, including the devastated small town of Maryville, as possible crime scenes.
Victoria State Premier John Brumby said: "We have had whole communities just completely wiped out, completely obliterated, by what people would describe as literally a fireball that just came over the hills and devoured everything before them.

"It's the largest natural disaster in our state's history and Australia's history."
Scorching temperatures, drought, tinder-dry bush and constantly-changing wind directions on Saturday helped fan the blazes, affecting an area of some 3,000 sq km (1,200 sq miles).
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Another royal disaster - this time in Australia - 170+ deaths in bush fires which a good president of an Australian republic should have prevented.
This story merits attention because human lives have been lost which could have been saved and it is important to save lives wherever possible.
There is an absolutely urgent need to explain to the world political community how the failure of Queen Elizabeth as head of state is leading to one disaster after another and this news story is simply the latest disaster for which she as head of state is responsible.
If people can be educated about the failure of the Queen, as I am trying to do here and in
my website, then political action can be taken to have revolutions in countries like Australia (and Scotland where I stay) to change these Windsor realm countries into republics which can then elect a competent president as head of state who can then insist on action to save lives.
The Queen is to blame for these fire deaths. Why?
- The Queen allowed a poor Australian Prime Minster - Rudd who did not prevent the bush-fire deaths.
- The Queen allowed the usual suppression of Rudd's critics
- The Queen allowed poor building regulations and/or poor enforcement of regulations which should be making houses and their immediate location fire-proof. Instead, trees and other tinder have been allowed too close to houses, houses built which burn too easily and so on
- The Queen allowed arsonists to roam the country free the same as scum are allowed to roam free here in Scotland and other countries the Queen rules.
So people should fear that the Queen, Prince Charles and the royalists, until they are stopped, are going to cause many more deaths of innocent people.
The Australian armed forces shouldn't fear the Queen though - they should enforce a ban on the royal family visiting Australia and arrest the Queen's Governor General as a first step towards an Australian republic.