Ash Wednesday Fires Anniversary

Commemorations and services were held today in South Australia to mark the 30th anniversary of the Ash Wednesday bushfires on February 16th, 1983. A special service was held at the Mt. Lofty summit, an area that was totally devastated. I blipped a cyclist at this spot on December 10th last year.

The devastating fires that day burned more than 200,000 hectares of land in South Australia and Victoria and killed 75 people. More than 3000 homes were destroyed in bushfires that day. It was a blistering hot summer day of 43C, with winds extremely high creating an incendiary-like fire storm.

See even blacker.

Of the 47 Victorians who died, 14 were volunteer firefighters. Another 28 people died in South Australia, and half of them lived in the Adelaide Hills, a relatively short distance from our home. It was one of Australia's worst natural disasters.

On the night before we got back home from New Zealand there was a scrub and grassland fire at Brownhill Creek, about 3000m from our home. The creek is one of our favourite blipping areas. Residents of the Brownhill Creek Caravan Park were evacuated and I took this photo today from the caravan park. It is next to these gum trees I blipped on December 18th.

The fire was started by a pair of idiots who had lit a camp fire and claimed that stray sparks had caused the blaze which quickly spread down the western side of the road, as shown in my blip. They have been charged for their actions.
The vehicle shown at the bottom of the photo is that of the local area fire control officer checking that no hot spots still remained.