Actually nothing of the sort.
I was watching ABC's "The 7:30 Report" at seven thirty yesterday evening (the ABC are good like that.) On the show was a bushfire survivor. Out front of his still-standing house was a large area of tree-free land, cleared well before the fires started. Behind his house was a concrete, fire-proof bunker in which he rode out the fire. He was able to stay and defend his property until it got too hot, at which point he went into the bunker (which had cost a mere $3000 to build) from where he could, on and off, continue to defend his house. Which, as I said, is still standing.
All good stuff. If you are going to defend your property you must be able to do so with minimal potential for harm to yourself. This is exactly what he did. So please do not report this as some sort of extraordinary or miraculous tale of survival. If you are going to live in the Aussie bush then this should be the norm.
Once again, taking nothing away from the tragedy, I hope this news blows over. I am already sick of the media presentation and exploitation of the event, the political point scoring, the commercial exploitation. Yes, a lot of good people are collecting a lot of money...but some of the motives are questionable in the extreme. This is a real event, not a media event.
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