BUXTON, Australia — The school, the post office, the pub, the grocery store, the bakery, the gas station. All gone. So are as many as one in five of Marysville’s 500 residents — killed when one of Australia’s deadly wildfires raced through the town a week ago.
About 200 of the town’s survivors — those who could bear to look — returned Saturday on a bus tour organized by the authorities to see their community for the first time since fleeing for their lives.
“It’s just ash. Ash and tin,” said Simon Hudson, 42, who ran a bed and breakfast in Marysville. Hudson said he felt sick to his stomach as he toured the town, which has been sealed off for almost a week. Authorities have been collecting bodies and sifting through the ruins for clues to the arson they suspect may be the cause of the blaze.
“We lost our friends, we lost our community, everything,” he said.
Marysville, the “Mystic Village” of tourist brochures, a haven for trekkers in the spring and a coffee stop on the way to Victoria state’s ski fields during the winter, is now a crime scene. A dozen buildings are left standing in Marysville, out of 250.
Harley Ronalds lost her 72-year-old grandfather in the fire. She gave a wry smile as she recalled how stubborn he was — he would not leave the house until the last minute, letting his wife leave but preferring to fight the fire as long as he could. His body was found next to his car, the burned carcass of his dog beside him.
“The only time I really fell apart was when I saw Grandpa’s house,” said Ronalds, 17. “I screamed and cried and couldn’t look at the house and his car sitting there. That destroyed me. I don’t know how to take it.”
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