There were reports on the news this morning that people in Kinglake could see the smoke column 25km away and thought they had time to get in their cars and leave. Two minutes later the fire was on top of them, it was moving so fast. I suspect many who drove off were caught in cars and even the short trees around there are at least 150' tall; the tall ones are more than 250' high. There were also reports that people who were "prepared" had too little time to start their pumps, the fire had moved so fast, so all their efforts relied on dry firefighting techniques. A bit tricky in temps as high as 46 C (130+ F) and winds of 120kph (70+ mph).

The Duty Fire Officer in Victoria was saying it will be at least a fortnight before they have anything like a full tally on casualties and infrastructure. And, even before the weekend's fires, Melbourne's morgue had received so many 'heat stress' cases it had space for only one more. The Alfred Hospital's burns unit had 18 at last count.

I'm sure your solace will be welcomed.

Cheers, Rowan