After reading todays paper about the fires in Australia, I thought I would share this from a friend of mine who lives there in Melburne.

"Thanks for everyone for sending your wishes and prayers. We are safe where we are, its been heavy with smoke in the air and its really freaky and scary! The sky is like a red colour with heavy smoke, your eyes water all the time...The death toll has hit 189 and their predicting it will go well over 200+. The devastation is widespread, people had less than 90 seconds to evacuate and didn't have time to go. The radiant heat from the fires was said to be so hot that homes, sheds, people and trees were exploding within a 200metre radius of the fires, it was so hot. The folks had no chance.....It was said that the fire was moving at 60mph and moving 100 meters a second...we sit everynight with tears rolling down our faces. You feel so helpless, you want to help but you don't know what to do. We have sent money to assist. Today the fires are said to be contained, but with wind and weather it could easily go up again."

Some of the pictures were taken by one of my staff near his home in Christmas Hills, an outer suburb of Melbourne, not 30 minutes from our home."

There is a couple of links here to look at. Keep the links so you can get the latest updates.

 We also lost a friend and fellow boat racer you can read his story here:

Also it not normal to see Koalas out and about like this since they are nocturnal animals.