[Tamtarn]

Yesterday was a day of devastation here in the Yarra Valley area.

Although we are 16Kms from the fires it was an unbelievable sight. The temp was approx 45degrees accompanied by a howling north wind.

The fires travelled so quickly that residents had no time to prepare and activate their fire plans.
The fire at Kilmore East swept 50Kms through Wandong the outskirts of Whittlesea on to Kinglake which turned into a hell fire. The town is basically destroyed and there have been some fatalities and many people badly burned.

The sky was filled with orange and black plumes of smoke which shortly blocked the red fireball which was the sun. Burnt leaves and bark were falling from the sky on to our property luckily they were not hot as they had probably blown 20-30kms.

The fire then spotted to Yarra Glen and Healesville. At approx 7.30pm the cool change arrived with even more horrific wind from the South West. We stood at the front of our property looking at the ranges across the valley. Dark orange and black smoke swirling kilometers into the sky thunder overhead lightning strikes at the back of the mountains we knew this meant more fires.

After approx half an hour the smoke had cleared and we could then see the huge red glow coming from behind the mountains.

We stayed up until about 3.30am and the temperature had dropped to 23degrees and things were calm once again.

This morning we hear that the townships of Taggerty and Narbethong are gone and 80% of Marysville. Reports that 25 people have been confirmed dead at this stage and over 100 homes have been destroyed across Victoria these figures are expected to rise.

As mentioned we were quit a distance from the fires and it was terrifying to watch we can't imagine what the people in the line of fire went through it must have been horrific.

This morning it is cool and calm but there are still fires out of control in the area. We hope the extraordinary firefighters can get things under control over the next few days.

Our thoughts go out to all who have lost loved ones and property.

Barb and David