Recent Incidents

Australian Wildland Fires

The Australian not unlike the American West is no stranger to the disasters caused by wildfire.  Hopefully this doesn’t foretell our upcoming fire season after three years of drought.  The weekend blazes in Victoria State killed at least 181 people. Officials said the death toll could exceed 200.

Police detained two suspects Thursday after they were reported acting suspiciously in an area burned out by last weekend's fires, some of which authorities suspect were set by arsonists.  They have concluded that the fires had six separate sources, four of which were not suspicious. Foul play was suspected in the fire that destroyed the Town of Marysville and in another deadly fire, known as the Churchill fire.

More than 400 fires ripped through Victoria on Saturday, destroying more than 1,000 houses, leaving some 5,000 people homeless, and scorching 1,100 square miles (2,850 square kilometers) of land.