Scenes from the inferno

It is only now, two days after the event, that estimates of damages, lives and properties lost in what has been officially called the worst fires in Australia's history can be made with any precision. Although, as firefighters are still searching for bodies in the burn out remains of homes and vehicles, the death count, already estimated at up to 100, is likely to escalate. The sheer horror of this experience is impossible to truly comprehend. The photographs and news reports are graphic and the interviews with those affected are heart wrenching. Watching one such interview on television last night which showed a woman in tears at the loss of everything in life she owned, except the clothes she was dressed in, I felt overwhelmed by the enormity that dealing with such a loss would represent. Many people (both those personally involved and us fortunate ones who have been spared), in understandably trying to make this loss easier to bear for those who are suffering, comment on the fact that at least they were lucky to come out alive. And indeed this is true - they have been spared the agony of what must be one of the worst possible ways to die. This however in my opinion does not mean we should sympathise with them less because the loss of material things is in some way more trivial. The woman interviewed last night had lived in her home for 35 years. I have only lived in my present home for 7, but that home, as I'm sure was the case for all of those now homeless people in Victoria, represents my life in many ways. It is filled with treasured mementos, photographs, books, music, art and things passed down to me by parents, grandparents and other loved ones, plus the various goods and chattels purchased with income earned in many long and often trying years of work. Some of these things could be replaced by simply going out and buying more stuff. Many of them though are priceless, impossible to replace and the sudden wrenching of them from my existence would leave me truly impoverished. And that doesn't even take into account the house itself, which in my case is certainly no palace but still my own cherished and private domain, lovingly bought and decorated and maintained over just these few short years. These are of course just things, and not to be compared to the priceless nature of human life, but they are precious nonetheless.

Sadly, the inferno has destroyed not just human life but the lives of animals, birds, reptiles, fish - both wild and domestic - any living thing in fact which happened to be in the path of the fire's ferocious assault. Those creatures that have survived in the burnt out areas are largely homeless now too and as their food source has gone, many more of them will die in coming days and weeks. My heart breaks for those people too who had to flee their homes and weren't able to save their loved pets. One can only guess at the terror that must have gripped those helpless little creatures before death took them.

While we try and come to terms with the devastation wrought by this latest very Australian natural disaster and many of us are actively involved in doing what we can to help the survivors, perhaps the worst aspect of it is knowing that in some cases, this was not a natural disaster. Although definitive proof has yet to be confirmed, it is believed some of the fires were the work of arsonists. If the people who deliberately wreak such havoc on the world around them, for no reason other than their own entertainment or twisted sense of gratification, had to experience the level of pain they have inflicted on others, besides representing at least a little justice, it might just possibly make them think twice next time they are thinking about unleashing an inferno. I'm not usually an advocate of a primitive "eye for an eye" solution to crime, as often it's just not that simple, but in this case I'm afraid I could be converted.