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I was browsing the thread on metafilter about the bushfires in Victoria and came across this lengthy comment from user tim_in_oz, in which he describes how some family managed to connect across the globe via email, phone and radio.

It’s been a stressful weekend.

My wife, 2 dogs and baby live in the middle of a quarter of a million acres of tinder-dry eucalypt forest in an old gold-mining town called Blackwood. On Saturday, the Redesdale fire was being pushed south by strong winds and had got to the point of threatening the town of Woodend. If it had gone past Woodend and into the northern tip of the Wombat forest, we would have been absolutely fucked. The wind change came through just in time for us, pushing the fire away to the east. Towards Kinglake. Our fortune was other people’s doom.

Meanwhile, far to the East in Buxton - which abuts Marysville - the parents of some good friends of mine were preparing for what was quite literally the fight of their lives. I spoke to them at 7pm last night. Carolyn described the fires she could see from her house. She seemed both well prepared and calm. Her daughters, D1 and D2, live in California and Paris respectively. I emailed them and told them what was going on. They both tried to call their parents, but by that stage the phone lines were down.

The Parisian daughter, D2, managed to get a cell phone call through in the early hours of the morning. She reported:
>They are trapped at Buxton but alive.
>They spent all night fighting the fire and they’re exhausted.
>At one point they were completely surrounded by the fire,
>and the flames were meeting from either side above them.
>There are still spot fires, which they’re fighting with buckets
>since the pipes have all melted or burst, but now they can
>take turns to sleep.
>Charlie and Betty and their daughter Tracy are with them.

Here’s the global village for you: at one point a friend of D2’s, to whom this email had been sent, was listening to ABC radio by streaming media in Holland. The announcer relayed an urgent request: did anyone know if Charlie and Betty from Buxton were safe. Friend in Holland emailed D2 in Paris. D2 telephoned ABC radio in Melbourne. Announcer in Melbourne puts her through on air and she relays the fact that Charlie, Betty and tracey are alive and sheltering next door. I’ve got an mp4 file of the call - if I could work out how to put it up I would.

Meanwhile the fires have all linked up into a front that’s nearly 100km long. And the southerly winds that are keeping me, my wife and baby safe are now pushing the fire front north. If it breaks the containment lines between Yea and Alexandra, my parents are in the direct line. Their farm has been wreathed in smoke and ash for the last day and they have been sleeping in 2 hour shifts through the night.

75 dead so far and when people stop fighting fires and start actively looking for bodies I imagine it will get a lot worse. The weather yesterday was absolutely apocalyptic. 46 degrees celcius - 115F - and gusts of wind sufficient to knock you off your feet. I hope I never experience another day like it in my lifetime.

Here is the mp3 of the call.

(Mefi user pompomtom has also made the m4a file available for download.)

If you have heard about the terrible fires in Southern Australia and would like to help the Australian Red Cross is accepting donations online.