As you know Australia unfortunately had huge bushfires here this week on a unprecedented scale, sadly with over 200 people killed and over a 1000 homes destroyed. Without forgetting that, i thought this might be of interest to you and there are some very moving and spectacular photos, if you have never seen a bushfire or have any interest in the fire fighting.

Photo gallery at top of page...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/

Another gallery...
http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5037339-5006020-1,00.html

The fires through the eyes of the mostly volunteer country fire fighters...
http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5037377-5006020-1,00.html

While this gives you an idea of the ferocity and extent of the fires...

CONDITIONS for a perfect firestorm led to Australia's greatest natural disaster at the weekend. Drought, hurricane-force wind and record temperatures after a record heatwave combined to create the deadly Black Saturday Victoria fires. The University of Melbourne's senior lecturer in fire ecology and management, Kevin Tolhurst, said conditions on Black Saturday were some of the worst the world had seen for a potential outbreak, the Herald Sun reports. He said the fires were so hot the energy they released could have supplied Victoria with electricity for at least two years. Up to 80,000 kilowatts per metre of heat was expelled as the fires raged on Saturday. Dr Tolhurst said this equalled about 500 atomic bombs landing on Hiroshima. Eyewitness accounts said they didn't see evidence of fire and then all of a sudden they felt the area around them was exploding," Dr Tolhurst said. The unprecedented bushfires were so savage because of the previous week's heatwave. He said this sapped up the vegetation's moisture, making the land tinder dry. "What was quite unusual and unique about it was the fires took so readily and developed so quickly. The conditions were so dry the fuel ignited," Dr Tolhurst said. Department of Sustainability and Environment fire behaviour specialist Peter Billing said spot fires, travelling up to 15km from the fire front, rapidly accelerated the blaze. "Spotting defeats the control of the fire,' Mr Billing said. The front then fragmented, creating fingers and tongues of fire rapidly spreading up spurs and gullies. "Bits and pieces of a very ugly fire will go all over the place," he said. "The original fire, the parent fire, can fragment so it is not a clean edge and you cannot determine exactly where it is." He said prevailing wind, with gusts reaching hurricane force levels up to 120km/h, initially drove the fire." But once it is established it becomes a monster of its own physics," he said.

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