I wish that I could be there to help everyone too, especially the animals that have been trapped or abandoned.

I know how you feel about being so close yet so far, as I was in exactly the same situation here over xmas when we had the biggest bushires in Australian history burn most of Australia down, but the worst of it was around my home town (where my 85yr old dad and brother are) where 3 bushfires all submerged into one mega fire, killed over 300 billion native, domestics and farming animals and destroyed so many thousands of homes- many of them my old school friends. These fires went on for months and they couldn't get them under control of put them out as it was in the middle of summer- 40-45 degree days, with high winds in a drought stricken land.

I wanted to be there to help rescue and care for the animals, but couldn't even get there as all of the roads were closed and my home town was blocked off for weeks, running out of food and fuel...and here I was all tucked up and safe in Melbourne with the slight smell of bush fire in the air. I'm 9 hours south of them...

And watching everyone walking around here, shopping, eating (wearing masks because of the very slight smoke in the air) with not a care in the world, it was such a weird feeling for me being so emotionally affected, but not physically impacted and I think feeling so impotent in my ability to help, that was the worst.

I just cross posted you post into the charity community here, but there's only 10 of us in there at the moment as we are just in the beginning stages of planning, but I'm also going to share it on my Facebook page if that's ok?