The worst Australian bushfires in history: 150+ dead

All relevant info from CNN's current article on the Australian bushfire disaster.

I didn't think I'd comment on this ... Still wondering if I should ... but I guess I will. As anyone who isn't stuck in a sealed cavern without a TV or a radio will know by now, Australia is undergoing a horrific disaster: bushfires (same as forest fires, but even more dangerous as they burn bush and low growths and move significantly faster across open fields) are burning across the Victoria area and have reached hundreds of square miles in size, and still growing rapidly.

As I write this (now at 11:30 AM), there are currently 156 reported fatalities, and that number certainly is far from slowing down in its rate of growth. Estimates place the eventual predicted death toll at about 250. 250 innocents, killed by a fucking wildfire. Hard to believe in these modern times, even by my usual standards of uncaring jadedness.

The fires have destroyed many villages and cities in the area and are still going strong. All of Australia's firefighting and Disaster Relief resources are in the area, trying to get as many out as they can while trying to combat the cataclysmic inferno. Unfortunately, Australia is comparable to a landmass the size of the continental United States with a population the size of Texas: fairly numerous, but simply too spread-out and diluted, with some concentrated urban areas, to be able to fight the flames effectively. Even the tens of thousands of firefighters risking their lives to quell the blazes are basically useless compared to the immense scope of the fires.

But that's not the worst part, in my opinion. The worst thing about these fires? They aren't natural. It's becoming increasingly clear and decried that these blazes are all (or mostly, if I recall correctly) manmade: arson. And I'm not talking about a careless flick of a lit cigarette into some grass on the side of a road; criminal arson. The intentional lighting of the dried bush to specifically create a blaze.

The Prime Minister (of both Australia and New Zealand) is far too soft and lenient when he calls these arsonists 'mass murders'. 'Demented murderous depraved fuckwits' would be ever-so-slightly closer to home. Actually, forget it; I can't even find words in the English language that are dark or violent enough to express my intense disbelief and insane outrage at this.

If anyone reading this can spare a dime or two, or some clothes or equipment or ANYTHING, I beg you to send it, via monetary or material donations, to some of the charity programs being set up as I write this. I'd send any excess cash I had, if I had any money to begin with.

These sorts of stories make me sick.