Now there is Black Saturday to add to the awful Black Friday disaster in Australia.
This time there are, however, at least 60 more deaths, so the disaster is worse, though, according to Paul Collins, author of Burn, the fires have followed approximately the same trajectory as the 1939 fires.
No recriminations yet, but, after awhile maybe a re-look at some of the Stretton Royal Commission recommendations, least for personal protection a simple cheap one.
I think the 2 or 3 guys that survived the Mann Gulch fire, which came up on the fire crew fast, did so by getting into a very hastily dug trench, though I can't, right now, find any specific reference to it in Norman MacLean's book, on that incident, Young Men and Fire. [In the movie, made about the incident, Richard Widmark playing the role of the fire foreman, dug a very shallow trench and survived, so that's maybe what I'm remembering]
Anyway an awful situation for Victoria and a terrifing way to go for those killed.