Natural disasters are horrible things but I think there is a part of all of us that are quite impressed by them. After all, Mother Nature can put on a pretty spectacular show.
Disasters have all the elements for great TV. There are visuals that no amount of Hollywood CGI could match. There are heroes. There are human interest dramas. There are lots of nerdy statistics.
This bushfire has gone on for five days, making it pretty much like a game of test match cricket. Like test match cricket there have been days where not much has happened. When there is a lull in the action, the statistics come out. We know the wind speed, we know the number of hectares burnt out, we know how many sausage sandwiches have been served to the firefighters, we know this is the worst bushfire since 1956.
Bored of this increasingly dull 24 hour news coverage we start going for the fire. We love it when things break records and surely this one can do better than the 1956 fire. Our inner pyromaniacs feel the need to see lots of big flames and cars on fire. Plus we think that when the big fire comes through in 2048 we can be the old codger being interviewed on the TV going "nah she's bad, but she's not as bad 2013. That one was bloody 'orrific".
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