It's hard to believe it, but it's a year today since the devestating Black Saturday fires here in Victoria.
Nearly 200 people died, hundreds more injured, and thousands of people were left homeless. One year later, life is returning to the destroyed locales.
Inquests and enquiries are still ongoing, trying to discover why this fire was so much worse than others in the past, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.
In my opinion, there is really nothing that can be done, if a firestorm is going to happen, nothing is going to stop it. There have been changes to the evacuation procedures (previously people had the right to leave or to stay and fight), and we now also warnings for days of "catastrophic" fire danger that goes beyond the normal "total fire ban" days - on catastrophic days, people must prepare themselves to evacuate at any sign of danger.
Whatever the outcome, we must never forget the events of one year ago.
