This is usually such a self-obsessed and flippant place I feel silly even bringing up the subject of the fires, or even discussing them as a phenomenon, since it's all a bit real and raw at the moment. The few discussions I've had with people today about this suggests that generally it hasn't sunk in at all. There are presumably about 50 people dead* because of the fires, dying in horrible ways, suffering and terrified.
A couple of times in the last 24 hours I've heard about fires in places I know or where I know people - and have made enquiries - it doesn't seem like the fires are going to touch me directly, but who knows. That's hardly the point anyway. And, to paraphrase what David Furler said on Facebook, we all thought we'd been very stoic to just get through the hottest day in Melbourne's recorded history. And then we discover quite a few people in the same state didn't get through it at all. It appears there are people wandering around various towns in the state wrapped in blankets and with terrible burns in some cases having lost family members - hundreds (or more) slept in the streets last night.
*Next day note - over a hundred now.
*Day after note - 173 apparently.
