Maria Petrakis

Feb 19, 2025 | thederrick.com | Max Kim |Maria Petrakis

MARYSVILLE, Australia — As fire raged several hillsides away from their house on the afternoon of Feb. 7, 2009, David Barton reassured his wife: “Don’t worry. Entire towns don’t burn down.”By that evening, as he watched a 150-foot-high wall of flames closing in, it was clear he had been very wrong. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.

Feb 19, 2025 | gazette.com | Max Kim |Maria Petrakis

MARYSVILLE, Australia — As fire raged several hillsides away from their house on the afternoon of Feb. 7, 2009, David Barton reassured his wife: “Don’t worry. Entire towns don’t burn down.”By that evening, as he watched a 150-foot-high wall of flames closing in, it was clear he had been very wrong. “Everything so very quickly turned so very ugly,” he recalled.

Feb 12, 2025 | latimes.com | Max Kim |Maria Petrakis

As fire raged several hillsides away from their house on the afternoon of Feb. 7, 2009, David Barton reassured his wife: “Don’t worry. Entire towns don’t burn down.”By that evening, as he watched a 150-foot-high wall of flames closing in, it was clear he had been very wrong. “Everything so very quickly turned so very ugly,” he recalled. Weeks of record heat had baked the region to a crisp, and the fire, sparked by a downed power line, had spread in the 80-mph winds before sharply veering into town.

Jan 23, 2025 | latimes.com | Max Kim |Maria Petrakis

In this photo released by the State Control Center, fire personnel are shown near a bushfire in Grampians National Park, in Australia’s Victoria state, on Dec. 20, 2024. As flames engulfed swaths of Los Angeles County this month and U.S. fire authorities scrambled to coordinate help from overseas, one longtime firefighting partner was left off their list: .

May 14, 2024 | abc.net.au | Ellen McCutchan |Maria Petrakis |Matt Martino

The tension created by the need to address cost-of-living pressures while not adding to them was front and centre in the Albanese government's third budget, handed down last night. And with an eye to the next election, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was eager to spruik the government's economic credentials, as he saw them, in his budget speech. But in doing so, did he stick to the facts?