Black and Red

I have started this sentence so many times.

I don't know what to write. 

What can I say?

people light fires.

houses burn.

people die.

Australia is used to bush fires. They come every year and leave behind a mess of ashes. But this, this was mass murder. It's just the same as someone running around shooting people with a gun. 181 people were burned alive. No one wanted to leave their house and come back to a pile of ashes. As people tried to escape the fires, they were faced with car crashes, fallen trees and many became surrounded by the fires. 

The fires started on Saturday and on Monday there were still 50 of them burning. 

More than 700 houses were burnt down. All the things people thought were valuable have turned into ashes. What value are they now? But you hear peoples stories and they don't talk about how much they miss their china vase or plasma screen. They talk about how much they miss the people they love, the people that died. They talk about how happy they are to be alive and how much they appreciate everyones help. Because everything else doesn't matter, this is too big to worry about those small things. 

The red cross bush fire appeal has raised $28 million to support the people effected by the fires. The whole country is helping. I've just spent the afternoon with a few other people painting shipping containers to send supplies to Victoria and the containers will be used as shelter for just a few of the 1000s of people that have become homeless. We live on the other side of Australia and the whole town has come together to give money and supplies to the people of Victoria. Even people on the other side of the world are ready to help. How amazing is that?

You should definitely read the blog about it on TWLOHAs page. I read it over and over again. All the people offering support and showing they care. 

This is a huge disaster.

But there's huge amounts of support.