The stories coming out of the burned areas of chance survival are quite harrowing. Death toll is over 180 today and expected to reach 220 to 250 before they've finished counting. One difficulty is actually recognising a body after it has effectively been cremated. After that, there will be a problem of identification - many people took shelter in a neighbour's house or ran blindly into paddocks or down tracks. Trying to decide who was where may be difficult, but certainly many are gone.

22 people died in a picturesque village 20 km north of me, 30 in the next village, 35 in the next, and so it goes on. I have friends whose family members have lost houses, or had hairs-breadth escapes. So far, I haven't heard of anyone I directly know who is missing, but then maybe I wouldn't hear, would I?

The only parallel would be a firestorm like Dresden, or Tokyo in the war, or even an atomic attack. An area 40 to 50 km across has been devastated in the space of 12-18 hours. Fortunately, it was lightly populated. With a slightly different wind vector and timing, the fire would have rampaged into the edge of the city of Melbourne and would probably have been unstoppable.

Those who worry about Tunguska events can either use this as a calibration point, or wonder whether their worries are of any materiality when other natural disasters like this one do regularly occur...