50 days on and still Destructive.

Way back on December 1^st last year, a lightning strike started the first of a series of fires burning in the rugged Victorian Highlands. As it is too rugged to get to, apart from Aerial fire bombing, the on ground fire crews have been unable to get safe access to these blazes and have had to wait in large part, till the fire reaches an area where they have a chance to stop it.

By now these fires have largely joined together and have burnt over a million Hectares, an area larger than the greater Melbourne area. Because of the rugged, inaccessible country the fire is in, without a major change in our current heat wave and masses of rain all over the area, there is little hope of putting the fire out, just in controlling and containing it to where they can safely access it.

Although 39 houses have thus far destroyed, thankfully there has only been one human life lost to it so far and that in an accident rather than the fire itself, but it has cost the lives of countless animals, both domestic and wild, causing massive damage to the natural habitat and environment, let alone the cost to the economy.

From the start, there have been up to ten and a half thousand men involved in the effort, working in shifts, just to control and contain at the moment. With crews of fire-fighters coming from New Zealand, Canada, and the US of A.. Plus all the local residents who have stayed home and defended their properties whilst waiting some, even still do so, at the cost of their wages and sometime even their future employment. So whether you judge this fire (Series of) as an environmental or economical disaster, it has been very, very costly.

Although there was more than one fire and possibly more than one original cause, the first fire was by a lightning strike in a remote area impossible to reach and full of flammable material built up over many years.

The warning herein our every day lives is to be very careful in all that you do and say and to avoid any lightning strikes from you or an deliberately lit arguments from others, whether part of your group or complete outsiders who just like stirring up trouble.

The above fire can not be put out unless it comes into open country. As long as it remains in rugged country, it will continue to burn. Either till it reaches the coast and runs out of fuel, or we get the massive rains promised this weekend that will dampen it enough for Air Bombing, and so that Ground Crews can get safe and effective access to the edges.

Likewise in our lives, whilst some problems can be effectively handled almost immediately, some problems simply have to be controlled until they burn themselves out or the problem is neutralized by natural causes.

The thing to do then is to be like the Fire-fighters and local residents. Stay alert, do what you can do and dampen down all the hot spots and put out all the spot fires. As warned this can be costly, both physically, mentally and financially.

So be warned and do what you can to reduce possible, potential disasters either starting or gain access to extra fuel to keep them burning.