Australian towns destroyed by wildfires; “cattle burning”
The township of Marysville in central Victoria has been almost completely destroyed by bushfires and there are grave fears for the town of Kinglake, where at least 12 people are known to have died. Aerial pictures taken by the ABC show street after street of completely destroyed homes in Marysville. Most are just piles of rubble. Some still have walls standing and a handful appear to be mostly intact. In all 35 people are now confirmed to have died in the fires north of Melbourne and this morning there are unconfirmed reports of bodies being found in cars overtaken by the fires in Gippsland in the state’s east. … Authorities are unable to get into Kinglake to confirm the level of destruction but yesterday ABC Local Radio listener Peter Mitchell said the entire town was on fire. "The whole of Kinglake is ablaze," he said. "I live a couple of kilometres out of town and when I heard explosions I went to the end of my road to see what was going on and by the time I got there I saw fires everywhere." ABC reporter Jane Cowan visited Marysville this morning and says the township has "virtually ceased to exist". "We were in the main street and it’s like a warzone, like a bomb has been dropped on the entire township," she said. … Resident Raylene Kincaide lost her home and says the whole township is gone. "It’s just devastating. We’ve lost everything. It’s not good," she said. "Our little town had gone 20 minutes after we left. Probably 95 per cent of the houses are gone. She said they are worried that some residents are missing and have not been accounted for. "My partner was up there and he left when he saw the cattle burning. I’ve been in Ash Wednesday, but this is worse," she said.
