For safety down under - updated (3x)

Via OCICBW:

Just a quick ask if the team could pray for us: it’s bushfire season here in Oz and the national park our place backs onto is currently in flames. I’ve been out in the yard hosing down the cinders raining on us (sky is dark with smoke), with dogs & baby packed in the car ready for us to escape – we’ve just been told to get ready to evacuate, and a few kind thoughts from everyone would be much appreciated!

Thanks heaps!!!

Alcibiades Caliban

Updated to correct typo in headline.

UPDATE 2 via OCICBW:

From THE BBC:

Fourteen people have been killed in savage wildfires burning in southern Australia, and police fear as many as 40 people may have perished. The deaths occurred at four towns in Victoria state, state deputy police commissioner Kieran Walsh said.

Firefighters are battling dozens of fires in parks and bush land, amid a heatwave, with temperatures set to reach 47 C (117F) this weekend. Aircraft are dropping water bombs and thousands of firemen are on standby.

More than 100 homes have been destroyed in nine major blazes in Victoria.

UPDATE (3) - Sunday, 8 February:

HEALESVILLE, Australia (AP) — A government official says the death toll from Australia's worst wildfire disaster has risen to 108.

Authorities counted more victims overnight Monday as they reached further into a huge zone scorched by blazes that ripped across Victoria state at the weekend.
At least 700 homes had been destroyed in the fires that in some cases have razed entire towns.

State Department of Sustainability and Environment spokesman Geoff Russell said Monday that 108 deaths had been confirmed.

Australia's previous deadliest fires were in 1983, when blazes killed 75 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes in Victoria and South Australia.

--the BB