WORLDWIDE PHOTOS LTD The Religious Media Agency MEDIA RELEASE January 20, 2003 CHURCH AMONGST DESTROYED BUILDINGS IN CANBERRA When the fire storm hit Canberra on Saturday, January 18, over 368 buildings were destroyed, including the New Creative Ministries Centre in Dixon Drive, Holder. On Saturday afternoon the church centre, associated with the Apostolic Church of Australia was burnt to the ground, but that did not stop Senior Pastor John McNAMARA from conducting their Sunday morning service in a nearby park. The fires that have gutted a third of the nation's capital, Canberra, located in the Australian Capital Territory, is thought to have started when lightning flashes struck forest areas ten days before, on January 8. At first, there was nothing fire fighters could do, as the fires were in inaccessible mountainous areas. When they came closer, teams of Rural Fire Service personnel went out to try to control the fires. Sudden wind gusts of 100km per hour soon took the ability to control the blazes out of the hands of the fire fighters, who had been reinforced with 200 extra personnel from interstate. On Saturday, January 18, the fires quickly spread from a front 5km wide to an onslaught 30km wide, within an hour. By Sunday night, reports from the local ABC radio station and the Emergency Services Bureau described a scene of utter devastation. Over 368 houses had been destroyed. Four people were dead - a 61-year-old man; a 73-year-old man and a 37-year-old lady died in the suburb of Duffy, with an 83-year-old lady in the Mt Stromlo settlement. The Mt Stromlo Observatory, the local High School and a Rural Fire Service building were left as smoking, gutted ruins. Two hospitals had 600 patients attend their Emergency Wards, with three critical cases being flown to Sydney Hospitals with burns units. Over 2,300 evacuees were cared for in four Evacuation centres, where Red Cross, The Salvation Army and ADRAcare helped them with food, clothing and temporary accommodation. At one stage it was requested that people offering clothing and food please take them to St Vincent de Paul centres as the Evacuation centres could not cope with the deluge of gifts. Peter Ellis, the Chairman of the Christian Media Association ACT Inc., issued regular updates and described the situation as far as churches were concerned. "The siting of Canberra's churches is planned like the city as a whole. They are dispersed among the suburbs, usually near suburban or suburb-group nodes that also have small shopping centres and petrol stations. "It also means that Canberra's congregations are broadly dispersed. For instance, in the Belconnen area of approximately 80,000 inhabitants, there are two Uniting Churches, on the Western and Northern margins of the 10km x 8km suburban area." Congregations come from far and wide. "The Anglican, Catholic and other churches are similarly distributed. Their people come from an area well beyond what churches in other cities would consider to be 'local'." The Station Manager of Radio 1 Way FM, Sue Mitchell, stated that the sudden and catastrophic situation had "pulled the community together but we know the worst is yet to come." Mobile phones cannot be used, so as to free the channels for emergency services. The sewerage plants have been affected and within a day or so, all water will have to be boiled. Wild life has come out of the forests and is scampering across busy suburban roads. Horses and cows are being cared for in people's backyards, as the owners do not even have closed-in properties any more. People are "rampaging", buying up take away meals, as they can no longer cook their own. There is a rush on electric batteries for portable radios so as to keep in touch. One report claimed some shop keepers had tripled the prices! There is no local TV station, so people are dependent on local radio stations, such as 1 Way FM for the latest information, but there is no organised flow of news and information to the radio stations. Ms Mitchell has had to phone various offices and contacts for the latest road closures and instructions from Emergency services. In an interview on the TCN9 Today Show, Steve Liebmann asked The Prime Minister, The Hon John Howard MP the question: "Ever seen anything like this?". The Prime Minister answered: "Not in what you would describe as an ordinary suburban scene in Australia. This damage is by far the worst bushfire damage I have seen. The fact that up to 400 homes may have been lost or seriously damaged, the speed with which it occurred, the reality that it invaded a normal, peaceful, suburban part of Australia brings home to all of us, because we are very much an urban population as far as where people live, just how devastating an event it has been in the lives of many of our fellow Australians." QANTAS Airways has offered to fly anyone who has lost their properties, free of charge, if they wish to leave the area. Charities and mainstream denominations are preparing to receive designated donations to assist the less fortunate in Canberra, the "bush capital" of Australia, in a spirit of mateship, which again has become very evident at this time. -30-
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