My house wasn't too far from the stuff happening in Adelaide (about a 20 minute drive through the hills) - I saw some of the devastation yesterday when driving through the hills enroute to another location.
It's not pretty, and its an idictment not just on federal governments, but local governments that allow land to be released, built, and habitated upon when there is significant and ongoing environmental risk.
That's a really good point too. These days they know the risks - unlike the past, so it's clear that as usual money drives most decisions.Here, new builds in bush have quite stringent building regs though I dont think that makes a helluva difference. Glad you are safe and hope you remain so. We choose to live outside the most forested areas (only 5 or 10 minutes to closest national park) because as tempting as a bush block is, the fire risk is just too scary!