[m i a o w] the cat

Horrible nasty fires took out chunks of Canberra over the weekend and apparently the danger is still quite high. I walked out the back door today and the sky was clouded by smoke - it smells like a huge campfire. The smoke is coming from the alpine areas in the north east of Victoria. There is only about three kilometres of visibility in Melbourne at the moment - it’s given me a sick feeling. So many people in Canberra have lost everything - there was nowhere near enough emergency services to deal with the fire - the ACT only had 12 fire tankers which were nowhere near enough - I don’t know why they didn’t have back up ready to come in from New South Wales. I’m working in risk and community safety - so I think some of us (probably not me) will be heading to Canberra in a few days time to see if we can find out what went wrong - or at least try and get some idea.

The Age
- Disaster in the Capital
- Forty Years of Artists Treasures Gone
- Bush Paradise Turns Deadly