This is just-- jaw-dropping scary. And I feel so ... so sad. I have so many friends and loved ones in and around Victoria. I know they're all safe and taken care of, but I know not everyone was as lucky. I'm going to be making this one of my biggest causes this year.

This is just crazy.

Is there anywhere those of us who are not in Australia can donate?

I'm not sure. They haven't said anything yet but you might be able to on the website.

I made a Red Cross donation. We're trying to organise a mass donation at my workplace too. To think that this was probably the result of arsonists. It's beyond understanding.

Tell me about it! They gave plenty of warnings and had local meetings telling people how to cope. Meanwhile there's this evil arsonist, rubbing his hands together at the news of an extreme fire danger and going into the bush to start and inferno. I know these people are sick in the head generally...but to do that in a place like Australia when you know the weather is at its worst is just evil. I was watching when the PM said it was mass murder and he's right. The problem is I wonder if the fire was so hot and out of control that it will hard to find hard evidence to catch someone even if they know it was arson. I'd be especially pissed if the arsonist managed to get out of the fires path and is now benefiting from the donations to save all the innocent people.

The Premier was in tears. I was in tears after I saw that. I was watching either a Today Tonight or Current Affair episode where they featured this arsonist who went traveling all over Australia durinng fire season just so he could light fires. And he said he was sick and couldn't help it. Give me a baseball bat and 30 mins in a room with him.

I'll help him.

I saw that too. He looked gutted. I couldn't sleep this morning and managed to see the PM's interview when I'd normally be at work. He almost broke down at one point too and I've never seen Rudd lose his cool in an interview like that. It was like he was struggling to focus on all the support he and the country was getting from NZ and the UK and trying to ignore the emotional upswell. Everytime they asked him a question about how people were coping emotionally, he tried to move the interview back to practical things the government was doing because he couldn't handle it. It's like he was trying to find a sense of control.

Seeing your leaders shaken up by what they've seen is a grounding experience.

I'm with you on arsonists. It's the most reckless kind of psychotic condition in my opinion. There are people who get off on devastation and are obsessed by death, but those obsessed by fire who start bushfires can kill so many and that's not even why they do it. It's just this 'fire pretty' mentality that I can't understand at all. The joy of watching a fire go out of control.

We had massive fires in SoFlo during the dry season, but nothing as terrifying as this. My heart goes out to the people living through this. Thanks for the updates.

That is terrible and scary. Sad for all those people that lost there lives.