Did anyone see Lewis the koala rescued from the bushfire last night

[Dowser]

Don’t google and watch if you’re really upset like me.
A brave , no an extremely brave woman saw this poor koala surrounded by flames.
She took off her shirt and wrapped him in it and got him to safety.
It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.
He’d burnt his little feet and nose and when he cried so did I.
He’s on the road to recovery thank to that brave lady who could’ve perished herself

It doesn’t bare thinking about what other animals ( and people) have suffered

Yes I saw it too. Poor little thing’s cries were piteous . She was wearing sandals too .

Oh dear it’s worse than I thought, four people have died and lewis has only a 50 per cent chance of survival

My heart goes out to everyone in the midst of this,

Weren’t they just Majorca 😢

I have see this on animal programmes before where they go out and rescue the poor animals when there is a bush fire. Sad for humans and animals both.

It was heartbreaking to watch. That lady was amazing.

An area larger than Wales has burnt in NSW, since September. Over 600 homes have been destroyed in NSW over the past 10 days, tragically 4 people have been killed, over 450 koalas are thought to have died and they’re now functionally extinct.

Over the past 72 hours there have been bushfires in every state of the country, most of which have been attended to by volunteers. Over 95% of NSW is protected by 70,000 volunteer firefighters, rather than paid 7,000 firefighters who stick to the cities and larger towns.

It’s terrifying, we’re in the midst of an awful drought and now this. If Spring is this bad, what is Summer going to be like??

This photo shows just how many fires there are around Australia.

Oh the poor little guy. I can’t deal with suffering animals at all. Hopefully he’ll pull through.

I saw it Dowser
The way she winced when she bathed him...
My kind of woman.

(I had something in my eye too)

We’re in NSW. The moon was red this evening, throwing an eery red glow over everything. Apparently it’s because we are seeing it though the smoke.

Australia is witnessing the worst bushfires and drought in history. This is climate change folks.

By the way, there are lots of animal charities working with these poor animals that people can donate to.

...and according to plenty of Australian politicians, this is the Green's fault. Because apparently, the best way of avoiding bush firs is to get rid of the bush.

@aurynne the best way to avoid the massive, out of control bush fires that are currently raging is to have controlled annual burn offs during winter. The fires are burning so intensely at the moment as there’s years and years of dead bushland out there.

Something the indigenous Australians have been telling us for years, but people don’t listen.

They do have burn-offs during Winter.

...which the Greens support, and the places where the fires are at their worst had applied religiously. They still burned. But the Conservatives will let their own children burn before admitting that man-made climate change has had anything to do with the fires.

A friend and I used to joke that, if the molecule involved in global warming was helium2 instead of CO2, Conservative politicians would all be screaming "No, it's not true! helium is not increasing in the atmosphere!" in Donald Duck voices.

Not within 500kms of where I live they don’t. There haven’t been any regular burn offs near Taree or Port Macquarie, or up at Drake - all places where people have died over the past few weeks.

Things have to change.

I wonder why Australia did not burn to the ground when it was all bush and there were no people around... All that dead bushland around!

But there were people around, one of the oldest civilisations in the world, and apparently they did burn the land in order for it to regenerate.

Thank you for putting us in the picture From down under. Sounds terrifying
We once had to drive along a road in Spain that had fires burning on either side in Spain..and Florida ...nothing at all on the scale you are experiencing..but it was pretty nerve wracking all the same.
We have had more dreadful flooding in the uk.
Some of it ( not all) because developers ignored advice and built on the flood plains.

Sad for everyone and the animals. Koalas extinct now 😢

I saw this, that poor poor animal, i sobbed my way through it. Its utterly heartbreaking.

Am I right in thinking the Australian government have questionable feelings over climate change?

I wish we could send you Aussies our flood, the news footage with the attempts to quell the fire is heartbreaking.

I know... we’ve had a couple of rain free days today .just cold and grey....tomorrow rain expected
Anyone know if Lewis is pulling through
( I darent look)

I also had something in my eye yesterday morning when Lewis was making those noises, he was clearly in so much pain.

Did anyone see the dogs who are trained to sniff out injured marsupials in bush fires? Such bravery from Australians both human and canine.

Right, I've braved a google. Lewis was reunited with the lady who saved him (as reported on BBC breakfast this morning) and while his condition is considered critical, he is doing well.

Vets have estimated his age at 14, which for a wild koala makes him a distinguished older gentleman.

It was so heartbreaking to see, even typing it now I start crying! What a good woman. The story this morning on BBC was really nice to see, hope Lewis makes a full recovery.

I never saw that canoe
He’s been on my mind all day.