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Case
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The backlash starts here
Feb 2000
time: 15:25
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Yesterday was the worst day in this city's history. Two lives and 388 homes have been lost, and it still isn't over.
(BTW, AH, if you're reading this from out of town, your house should be OK. We had a major fire sweep through the Mount Taylor-Mount Wanniassa green strip, but it doesn't seem to have jumped into the suburbs. It came damn close though as flaming embers were raining down at times).
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from: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2003/01/...119054139_1.htm
Another Canberra suburb is on fire after nearly 400 homes were lost along the western edge of the city yesterday.
The latest fire is in Holt.
Some 380 homes have been lost in Canberra after yesterday's devastating bushfires.
Milder conditions overnight have eased the situation but that is expected to change with a shift in the wind to the north-west later in the day.
Areas expected to be threatened include Fisher and Chapman.
Two people have died in the fires.
Twenty per cent of the city remains without power, and it is not expected to be restored for some time.
Crews are also working around the clock to restore power to a major sewage treatment plant.
In the meantime police are investigating a suspected arson attack at Mitchell last night and reports of looting.
Around 5,500 hectares have now been burnt out in the Namadgi National Park, with Priors Hut and the Franklin Chalet both under threat.
Two women have been transported to Concorde Hospital in Sydney with serious burns.
Constable Rebecca Goddard says there are few details on the two deaths.
"The first victim was a man from Duffy who appears to have died from smoke inhalation," she said.
"The second was a female located in the Stromlo forestry settlement.
"Police have launched an investigation into these deaths."
The Emergency Services Bureau says the fire fighting effort is continuing this morning, with two dozen suburbs still listed as in danger.
Milder conditions
Cameron Wade from the Rural Fire Service says temperatures are expected to be milder and winds less gusty.
But he says there is a large number of fire fronts bearing down on a number of suburbs.
"Houses will certainly, I think, have fire around them, there will certainly be activity around homes and so forth," he said.
"We need to make sure that people ... are prepared for that as much as they possibly can, removing combustible material from around their homes and basically making sure that they're aware of the fire situation around their homes."
More than 2,000 Canberrans were forced to flee their homes during the night as fires threatened dozens of suburbs.
Evacuation centres at Ginnindera, Erindale and Narrabundah colleges filled quickly last night as people fled their were forced from their homes.
Dan Mathews worked through the night at the Narrabundah centre serving food and coffee.
He says the scene was devastating.
"A man was just talking to me now, he was in tears, a grown man in tears, he's lost everything," he said.
Homes throughout Canberra burned to the ground as residents used garden hoses in an attempt to stop the flames.
Gabrielle Dole was just one of hundreds of people who decided to flee.
"We voluntarily went because we had the two babies and my daughter so we had to get them out," she said.
Jason Walker from Lyons says he watched two properties on either side of his home burn down. His was saved.
"We had probably 40 or 50 people come and try and let us know if we could help them along, that sort of thing just shows a community like Canberra can pull together," he said.
Many people are expected to find out today if they have homes to return to.
The high number of Canberra houses lost in the firestorm has prompted questions over what happened.
Mike Castle from ACT Emergency Services has responded to criticism firefighters were not where blazes were breaking out.
He says resources were stretched thin over three fire fronts hitting northern and southern suburbs.
"Poor fire weather conditions over a number of days just built the fires, despite the efforts on the ground," he said.
"Once it became obvious that we were getting significant spotting, we attempted to bring all our resources back, but you can understand that some of access from those bushfire areas where we were actually protecting rural properties, they were then actually cut off and had to go into self protection modes."
Extra resources
Meanwhile, extra resources from interstate and the Defence Department will start arriving in Canberra this morning to fight the fires.
Mr Castle says the strength of the fires has been unbelievable.
"Unfortunately when you get something like this scale where we were facing three major fire fronts, that probably would eclipse that fire front that we faced last year coming through the pines," he said.
"You would recall that we actually got favourable wind changes in those patterns during Christmas and we also got some rain."
Fire Authorities say residents in some suburbs will still need to take precautions this morning to protect their house in case of further fire activity.
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19-01-2003 03:45
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