Huge clean-up faces Aust, fire victims

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 1

Huge clean-up faces Aust, fire victims

NZPA Sydney Millions of dollars poured into public appeals across Australia yesterday for victims of the tragic bushfires that blazed a trail of destruction across Victoria and South Australia.

Banks, radio and television stations, and newspapers organised appeals with at least $4 million, including Government funds, given or pledged by last evening. Channel Nine network television ran a Telethon on Thursday night which raised $l.B million for the bushfire appeal and other television fund-raising efforts are planned. Two fires still burned out of control north of Melbourne yesterday but were not threatening any townships. Otherwise it was primarily a day of stocktaking for the thousands affected who had lost their homes, belongings, friends, and families. The death toll remained at 69 by late afternoon — 43 in Victoria and 26 in South Australia. This is only two short of the record 71 deaths in the 1939 Black Friday fires in Victoria. About 2000 homes were destroyed by the fires across the two states which burnt out an estimated 8576 square kilometres and caused damage worth about $4OO million. The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, has called on all religious leaders to declare this week-end a time of national prayer and mourning for the victims of the week's bushfires. The tragic loss of life and

destruction ot homes and possessions by the bushfires was one of the great disasters in Australia’s history, he said. Mr Fraser cancelled all electioneering again yesterday but the Federal Opposition leader. Mr Bob Hawke, resumed al a low level in keeping with the public mood. The Queen sent a cablegram to the GovernorGeneral of Australia. Sir Ninian Stephen, yesterday, expressing her shock and distress at the widespread bushfires and their “sad toll’’ in lives and. property. “I have been shocked and distressed by the news of the cruel bushfires in Victoria and South Australia and of the sad toll in human lives and destruction of property," she said. “Please convey deepest sympathy from Prince Philip and myself to the relatives of those who have died, to the injured, and to those who have suffered the grievous loss of homes and possessions." •. The British Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, sent a message of sympathy to Mr Fraser, telling him that he only need ask for any aid that Britain could offer and it would be provided. . On Thursday night 83 people squeezed into a concrete, water pipe in the

Upper Yarra Valley northeast of Melbourne to escape bushfires encircling them. The group, from the townships of McMahons Creek and Reefton. included three pregnant women, elderly people, about 20 children and 15 family pets. The townspeople were in the water-pipe for up to 24 hours until they ■ emerged safe yesterday. “We were trapped and the safest place was the tunnel," said a police spokesman. Two policemen risked their lives three times to drive people to safety in the tunnel, including some who wanted to stay with their risked homes. “They were incredibly brave. They have been brave throughout this fire. Some great acts of heroism they performed," said John Lahey, a Melbourne “Age" journalist trapped with the townspeople. “Two sergeants drove through what was truly a wall of flame. That doesn't sound much but it was a terrifying spectacle. They drove through it three times to save people, including people who didn’t want to be saved. They wanted to stay in their house. “So in the end the policemen bundled two of them without any ceremony into the boot of the car and drove them out to safety’

“Three times those men could have died," he said. Victoria's Country Fire Authority warned that the state's bushfires could flare into life again this week-end if the wind changed direction. ft has issued an urgent plea to people in fire areas to clear any scrub and debris from houses still remaining. “If the temperatures build up and conditions become ripe for a fire we could have a repetition," said the chairman. Mr Laurie Newell. In South Australia an unemployed labourer, aged 19, has been charged with maliciously and unlawfully setting fire to scrub near a town north-east of Adelaide on Wednesday. He was remanded in custody. The magistrate said it was for his own safety. Police investigating' bushfires in the south-east of South Australia believe a broken power-line may have sparked fires which killed 14 people and wiped out forests worth $6O million. One of the men who fought the blaze which razed the Victorian town of Cockatoo and who is in Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital spoke of how he ran for his life to escape the flames.

Keith Harvey, aged 31, was fighting the fire when a wind shift put his life in danger, and resulted in severe burns to his body. On the A.B.C. Television programme, "Nationwide”, last evening, his lips swollen and one eye closed over, he said. "I ran as fast as I could, and I still couldn't beat it.

“Got to the main road, running down the hill. It just swept across. The wind was so strong. The heat burnt the skin on my face. The pain was just so much, you could hardly stand it. It was just a survival thing that you keep going.” After running down the main road, Mr Harvey happened across someone in a car, picking up other people threatened by the fire. “It was only luck that just, down the road there was a car,” he said. He was taken to a fire brigade station, and later

transferred to the Alfred Hospital burns unit. Seven other people are in the unit, with severe burns. Australia's insurance industry was seeking the immediate establishment of a natural disaster insurance scheme after the bushfires, the “Australian Financial Review" reported yesterday. The fires represent Australia's worst natural disaster since Cyclone Tracey ravaged Darwin in December, 1974, and caused an insurance payout of about $260 million (SNZ3SI million). Reports on the Australian bushfires brought a rash of panicky telephone calls by anxious Britons concerned about friends and relatives.

Australian House in particular had received tens of thousands of calls since noon on Thursday, jamming its system. Further thousands of calls direct to Australia made it almost impossible to gel through on international circuits.

Some broadcasts heard in Britain told of 400 people

dying and half of Adelaide being destroyed. The fires were equated with Europe burning from London to Vienna.

More than 500 people have registered as evacuees with the Red Cross in South Australia after Wednesday’s bushfires that destroyed 196 homes in the Adelaide Hills and in the south-east.

. A Red Cross spokesman g said yesteray that 12 field stations had been set up throughout the fire zones to take registrations and these were still being manned 24 hours a day.

A state welfare centre has also been set up in Adelaide to co-ordinate relief and accommodation for the homeless.

A spokesman for the Community Welfare Department, Mr Peter Bicknall. said that offers of accommodation had far exceeded the number of people needing shelter.

Mr Bicknall said there was so much community spirit in the south-east that welfare services needed only to offer limited help.