"This past fortnight has been shocking here. We lost a close work colleague and her family; have had two Relay towns burnt to the ground and are hearing so many stories of hardship and horror. Melbourne has been blanketed in smoke for the past week - many of the fires are burning in a one hour radius to the city - so it's very close and a reason why so many deaths - commuter distance to the city. and, unfortunately they are still burning (although now mainly in forests, away from communities),) and the toll will go higher as they only now are sifting through some of the smaller communities impacted by this.