The highest recorded bushfire death toll in Australia occurred in 1983. The terrible fires that blazed from 16 February (Ash Wednesday) to 18 February throughout Victoria and South Australia killed 72 people, including 15 firefighters, and destroyed more than 2000 homes and huge areas of forest and farmland. The courage and skill of hundreds of firefighters saved many other lives. In some areas of south-east Australia there had been no rain for four years – the whole area was dry. Some of the fires were started deliberately. With temperatures as high as 43°C and winds gusting up to 100 km/hour, eight major fires raced through the Adelaide Hills and much of the south-east area of South Australia. Victoria faced 54 major fires in an arc around Melbourne, the worst being in the Otway Ranges and in the Dandenongs. Eucalyptus trees exploded with flame as the heat reached them, and huge fireballs roared through towns. Some entire townships, such as Cockatoo, were completely destroyed. In other places there were stories of miraculous survival – 83 people at McMahon’s Creek near Melbourne survived the fires by spending 24 hours in a floodwater tunnel at the Yarra Dam that was only about a metre wide and less than two metres high.