Bushfires Scar New South Wales

Unseasonably early – some localities in the Blue Mountains had snow this time last year – the scourge of bushfire has struck New South Wales, with hundreds of homes already incinerated, and fears of still worse fire weather to come, as the bushfires rage on: of your charity, please pray:

Hear our prayers, O God, for the efforts to quench the fires that rage in our land; and, sustaining our spirits, keep us graciously from all harm and give success to the work of our hands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

— Roman Missal, Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions, 37/1 (in Australia)

Prayer in Time of Bushfires

Hear our prayers, O God, for the efforts to quench the fires that rage in our land; and, sustaining our spirits, keep us graciously from all harm and give success to the work of our hands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

— Roman Missal, Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions, 37/1 (in Australia)

Hobart recorded its hottest-ever day yesterday: 41.8°C (and the second-hottest temperature recorded at any place in Tasmania). But the worst bushfires struck east of Hobart, and have burnt out much of the townships of Dunalley (65 properties destroyed) and surrounds, and cut off all road access to the Tasman Peninsula – they are still burning out of control. 

Amazingly, the Dunalley weather station recorded the passage of the firestorm thus:

4:00pm: 38.5°C
4:22pm: 54.9°C
4:23pm: 49.9°C
4:26pm: 44.5°C
4:30pm: 44.8°C
4:37pm: 47.2°C
5:00pm: 44.1°C
5:30pm: 41.7°C

Presumably the terrific surge of heat at 4:22pm marks the fire coming into the township; officially, the highest temperature at Dunalley yesterday was 41.7°C, since all measurements between 4pm and 5:30pm are due to radiant heat from the blaze, and not "ambient conditions".  Otherwise, Dunalley has broken the Australian record, most unenviably.  The locals had to dive into the canal to avoid being roasted alive.

Pray Against Bushfires

Bushfires are burning in Western Australia and elsewhere, and around Margaret River many homes have been consumed in the blaze; the new Missal provides, for use in Australia, a Collect "in times of bushfires" (alongside prayers in time of drought, floods and cyclones):

Hear our prayers, O God, for the efforts 

to quench the fires that rage in our land; 

and, sustaining our spirits, 

keep us graciously from all harm 

and give success to the work of our hands. 

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 

one God, for ever and ever.

Black Saturday: First Anniversary

Day turned to hellish night – the firestorm at Steels Creek, seen out the kitchen window by the homeowner (Mr Cleaveley), at 6:11 pm 

Of your charity, pray for the souls of the 173 Victorians killed – 38 at Kinglake, 34 at Marysville, 27 at Strathewen, to say nothing of many other fatalities – in the Black Saturday bushfires of the 7th of February 2009, and pray also for those who survived, who continue to struggle to rebuild their lives and homes, mindful of their relatives, friends and neighbours who perished.

Pray also for the 62 who died during the 1967 Black Tuesday bushfires in southern Tasmania, whose anniversary also falls this day.  Having lived in Hobart for some years, I recall how all around the city the story was still told of "Here the fire came" – down the forested hills and gullies, to the university campus, to my old university college, to the homes of friends and to those of the dead...  

(Some stories from 1967: Jane, at home while the fire bore down, in a house backing on to a cliff above the beach below, thought, "I must save my children," and, paying out the neighbours' garden hose over the steep slope, snatched up all four of them at once and abseiled to safety like an opossum!  Many others nearby also found safety on the beach.  But one old couple, fearing the flames, fled their home and made for the beach down along a creek – alas! they were unable to outrun the bushfire and were burnt to death in the open, while by cruel contrast their house was left untouched – on whose souls the Lord have mercy.)

Pray that the ongoing Royal Commission into last year's tragedy will fearlessly report the truth about that day, uncovering mistakes and failings, forcefully pointing out what must be done if deaths are to be avoided in the future.  Pray that lessons learnt at such a price will not be neglected.

Unfortunately, the typical twenty-year gap between particularly savage, deadly bushfires feeds a culture of complacency that gradually grows up after each disaster recedes in memory...

November Heatwave and Bushfires

So it begins... on the Mainland, first South Australia, then inland New South Wales has been sweltering in temperatures touching forty degrees, and high winds combined with dry lightning have brought about dangerous bushfires already threatening homes. Even Melbourne recorded 38°C the other day, and it's still spring, not summer yet. Never before has the fire season come so soon... yesterday, bushfires broke out here in Tasmania, and burnt down several homes on the East Coast in a sudden fury. Pray!

Bushfire Fears

(Canberra under bushfire attack in 2003)

Already in some parts of Australia there have been bushfires burning; and on the mainland of our continent, unseasonally early heatwaves have struck, presaging a frighteningly long, hot and dangerous summer.

For example, Justin told me that Melbourne's been sweltering - they've had five days in succession over 30°C - and in country Victoria the story is even worse. As for Adelaide, capital of the driest State of the Commonwealth, records have already been broken: in November, six days in a row over 35°C (with two more forecast), including four - soon to be six - over 38°C! What will January and February be like?

Here in Tasmania, as in Victoria and elsewhere, we've had a very cool and very wet winter: but this bodes ill, for the verdant vegetation everywhere apparent will brown off and dry to tinder and kindling by the height of summer. It was a set of seasons uncannily similar that led to the terrible 1967 bushfires in this island State...

I live in a comfortable house with a large garden on a hill overlooking Launceston below - a city ringed by treed hills. The bush begins at the end of my street, where land drops away into the Cataract Gorge, and trails just behind the row of houses on the upper side of our roadway. At night, one sees wallabies and pademelons jumping out of neighbours' gardens as they return from an evening snack; and ditto for the peacocks that live wild in the Gorge; walking home a few weeks ago I saw an echidna - we are on the edge of the wild.

Now, fires don't burn downhill as much as they do uphill, but still the thought of such a roasting cataclysm freezes my blood. This is a heavily vegetated suburb: God help us if a we have another recordbreaking summer's day, scorching dry with high wind, and a crown fire spreads through the State Recreation Area just over the brow of Trevallyn hill. I think of my elderly father, who is slowmoving, and easily disoriented and confused... as a family, we have already decided he must be taken somewhere safe if bushfire weather threatens.

Over in Victoria, particularly in the Dandenongs on Melbourne's northeastern outskirts, but also along the Great Ocean Road far to the southwest, there are now large numbers of "tree-changers", folks who have homes high in the hills among the stands of Eucalypts, which are notoriously fireprone, almost flammigerous. After Black Saturday's horrors in February this year, when 173 men, women and children perished, most people have abandoned plans to stay and defend their properties, and plan to evacuate if bushfires threaten. But the fear now is, as to-day's Herald Sun reports, that the winding roads in and out of so many small communities would be bottlenecks, and could be death-traps, if people leave leaving too late. Many places, like doomed Marysville, have only one road connecting them to safety.

Pray against bushfires - pray as the Spirit inspires; and take care, as seems good, to invoke the aid of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God: the wonderworking image of Our Lady of Good Counsel, kept at New Norcia, saved that monastery from fiery ruin back in 1847. Consider also the words of the prophet Joel (i, 19 - ii, 10), which seem grimly apposite.

And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face of his army: for his armies are exceeding great, for they are strong and execute his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who can stand it?

Joel ii, 11

Return

I think I've overdosed on public transport: buses, trams, trains, planes - this whole weekend I've barely seemed to stop moving.  But I must record my thanks to the Rowlands and the Pearces who had me to visit and to stay respectively, and I'm glad to have had the chance to go to the Missa cantata at Caulfield.

Probably the most striking part of the trip was when, en route to Seymour in country Victoria where I was to meet up with Pastor Pearce, the bus turned off the Hume Highway toward Kilmore, and drove past a large band of scorched country - surely the very patch, including the pine plantation, where the terrible blaze that destroyed Marysville and Kingslake arose (or at least which later joined up with that firestorm).  The busdriver drew my attention to at least one house that had been burnt down: only the chimney was still standing.  And the hills!  Streaked with grey and black, the ground seared bare, yet with pockets of unburnt trees right beside their luckless fellows charred from root to crown.  It was a grim sight, and yet was only on the edge of the bushfire-affected lands.

In Remembrance of the Bushfires

A friend drew my attention to this passage from the prophet Joel (i, 19 - ii, 10), which is rather appropriate when thinking on the recent bushfires, coming in the heat and drought, with terrifying flames and billowing blackness of ash and smoke - pray for the dead, and the survivors; pray and give thanks for the firefighters, and the relief workers:

To thee, O Lord, will I cry: because fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness, and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the country.

Yea and the beasts of the field have looked up to thee, as a garden bed that thirsteth after rain, for the springs of waters are dried up, and fire hath devoured the beautiful places of the wilderness.

Blow ye the trumpet in Sion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: because the day of the Lord cometh, because it is nigh at hand,

A day of darkness, and of gloominess, a day of clouds and whirlwinds: a numerous and strong people as the morning spread upon the mountains: the like to it hath not been from the beginning, nor shall be after it even to the years of generation and generation. 

Before the face thereof a devouring fire, and behind it a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and they shall run like horsemen.

They shall leap like the noise of chariots upon the tops of mountains, like the noise of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, as a strong people prepared to battle.

At their presence the people shall be in grievous pains: all faces shall be made like a kettle.

They shall run like valiant men: like men of war they shall scale the wall: the men shall march every one on his way, and they shall not turn aside from their ranks.

No one shall press upon his brother: they shall walk every one in his path: yea, and they shall fall through the windows, and shall take no harm.

They shall enter into the city: they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up the houses, they shall come in at the windows as a thief.

At their presence the earth hath trembled, the heavens are moved: the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.

 I hesitate – though it completes the passage – to add Joel ii, 11:

And the Lord hath uttered his voice before the face of his army: for his armies are exceeding great, for they are strong and execute his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who can stand it?

Relatively Good News

It appears that the death toll from the recent Victorian bushfires will not much exceed two hundred - the numbers of those feared dead at Marysville being sharply reduced, some misidentified remains being determined to be animal not human, it being realized that some remains were counted twice, and some listed as missing feared dead being found alive and well after all.  It is still a dreadful tragedy, and the numbers who perished at Strathewen and Kinglake now surpass those at Marysville, marking the Kinglake fire (which merged with the one that swept through Marysville) as the most costly to human life.  

At least there were not many more victims - the five police who persuaded 200 at Marysville to flee before the impending holocaust are acclaimed as heroes, since if they had not got them out those people would most probably have died there also.

UPDATE:  The final death toll was 173.

Grim News: Fire Update

Over 181* dead plus over 50 missing presumed dead in Victoria and more than 1830 homes destroyed due to the terrible bushfires still burning there, with 7,000 now homeless... 

[*when I first posted this yesterday, the number given was 50]

Marysville and Kinglake, among other towns, have been all but destroyed in firestorms; many who stayed to defend their homes were killed, overwhelmed by the roaring blasts that raced in, igniting everything, so fast there was virtually no warning.

It is feared that a hundred died in Marysville alone, one in five of those who lived there; 85% of all buildings in that doomed town were destroyed.

(The disaster struck 42 years to the day since the 1967 Tasmanian bushfires, and has cost more lives already than any previous bushfire, more destructive even than the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983.)

Apparently many bodies have been found in burnt-out cars, since the poor people fled their houses too late, and were engulfed by the flames: on whose souls may the Lord have mercy.

Goodbye Alleluia

What a sombre start to Septuagesima: death and destruction.

Since Adam's fall, sin has sundered us from God, and misery has been man's lot in this dark world: the original state of harmony and justice being broken, nature is armed against us, as the Magnificat antiphon at 1st Vespers puts before us:

Dixit Dominus ad Adam: De ligno quod est in medio paradisi, ne comedas: in qua hora comederis, morte morieris.

The Lord said to Adam: Of the tree that is in the midst of paradise, thou shalt not eat: in what hour thou shalt have eaten (of it), by death shalt thou die.

(Genesis ii, 17 & cf. 9)

How sadly appropriate then to sing at Mass to-morrow:

Circumdederunt me gemitus mortis, dolores inferni circumdederunt me: et in tribulatione mea invocavi Dominum, et exaudivit de templo sancto suo vocem meam.

(They have surrounded me the sorrows of death, the dolours of hell surrounded me: and in my tribulation I called upon the Lord, and He heard from His holy temple my voice.)

– Introit antiphon (Ps 17:5-7), Septuagesima Sunday.

Preces populi tui, quæsumus, Domine, clementer exaudi: ut, qui juste pro peccatis nostris affligimur, pro tui nominis gloria misericorditer liberemur.  Per...

O Lord, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people: that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.  Amen. *

– Collect, Septuagesima Sunday 

(English from the B.C.P.)

[* The words "by thy goodness" are not in the Latin, but are implied; and the long ending is a little idiosyncratic, as the Latin would be better rendered "through Our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who with thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end."]

Adjutor in opportunitatibus, in tribulatione: sperent in te, qui noverunt te: quoniam non derelinquis quærentes te, Domine.

(A helper in due time in tribulation: let them hope in Thee, who know Thee: for Thou dost not forsake them that seek thee, Lord.)

– Response of the Gradual (Ps 9:10-11), Septuagesima Sunday

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine: Domine, exaudi vocem meam.  V/.  Fiant aures tuæ intendentes in orationem servi tui.  V/.  Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine: Domine, quis sustinebit?  V/.  Quia apud te propitiatio est, et propter legem tuam sustinui te, Domine.

Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, Lord: Lord, hear my voice.  V/.  Let Thine ears be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant.  V/.  If Thou, Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall abide it?  V/.  For with Thee there is merciful forgiveness, and by reason of Thy law I have waited for Thee, Lord.)

– Tract (Ps 129:1-4), Septuagesima Sunday.

Pray against Bushfires

I invite all to pray against the bushfires now raging especially in Victoria, where high winds and roasting temperatures (Melbourne's just broken its all-time record, having reached 46.4°C) have lead to many houses being lost to fire in sundry country towns - as of late to-night, at least 14 are confirmed killed (God rest their souls), and a hundred homes lost.  [For updates, see this link.]

******

What to do when helpless to help? Pray.  For what it's worth, I've been saying Ave's in honour of Our Lady of Good Counsel - a sacred image of Our Lady under this title (itself a copy of the miraculous original venerated at Gennazzano) was given to Bishop Salvado, founder of New Norcia in Western Australia, by St Vincent Pallotti; when the nascent monastery was threatened by destruction by a bushfire, the monks brought out this painting and prayed for aid before the impending flames, which were averted, it is piously believed, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin.  

(During my trips to New Norcia, I've always been careful to go to the Abbey Church and there kneel before the her image above and behind her altar, to commend myself and my cares to her care: the Mother of God does not make manifest her maternal mediation with her Son in such wondrous wise for nothing.) 

If I had my way (watch out, world!), I'd appoint the feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel (26th April) to be kept throughout Australia, and a Votive Mass of the same to be prescribed to be said against bushfires.  At the very least, a new set of Votive Prayers need to be inserted in the Missal: for there are already prayers for rain, for fine weather, against storms, even for use in time of earthquakes - and Australia is plagued by bushfires each long hot summer.  Really, how long have we Catholics been in this country, and there isn't even some official prayer for this?

Recordare, Virgo Mater, in conspectu Dei, ut loquaris pro nobis bona, et ut avertat indignationem suam a nobis (alleluia).

(Remember, Virgin Mother, in the sight of God, that thou ask for us good things, and that he turn away His indignation from us (alleluia).)

– Offertory, Mass of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

To-day I learnt that the brother of David Schütz is a seasoned firefighter, who has been awarded for his sterling work; thinking of the fireys battling bushfire in hot and dangerous conditions makes one think of the difference between purgatory (in this life or the next) and hell - the former is hot and unpleasant, the latter far worse and far hotter, being the second death which is eternal.

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The Anglicans in Australia pray in their Litany "From earthquake and tempest, from drought, fire, and flood... Good Lord, deliver us", and have:

A Prayer in Time of Drought, Flood, or Bushfire

All things look to you, O Lord, to give them their food in due season: look in mercy on your people, and hear our prayer for those whose lives and livelihood are threatened by drought (or flood, or fire).  In your mercy save both man and beast.  Guide and bless the labours of your people, that we may enjoy the fruits of the earth and give you thanks with grateful hearts.  We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

– n. 5, "Prayers for Various Occasions", 

An Australian Prayer Book (1978).