Some optimism for those missing after fires

[canetoad]

Black Saturday. Seventh of February 2009, possibly the worst bushfires ever in Victoria, Australia. Similar situation to California right now - hundreds missing.

In the confusion following a fire of this scale, there are a dozen reasons why people may not show up when expected.

The Age
25 February 2009 — 11:53am

Number of missing still unknown after Black Saturday fires

Eighteen days after the Black Saturday bushfires claimed at least 210 lives, Victorian police are uncertain how many people remain missing.

Many names are still unaccounted for, Victoria Police Superintendent Rod Collins said.

"In amongst that number there will be people that have left for reasons, or have been reported as missing, that may not have even been in that fire area,'' Supt Collins said today.

"We also have ... several people (who) will be in the database under different names.''

He said the process of identifying bodies found in the fire area was a lengthy one but progress was being made.

"My understanding from the last briefing is that it's getting to a smaller, manageable number,'' he said.

"We're getting to a stage where hopefully we're able to work out there might be a few unaccountable for.

"They might be unaccountable for a number of reasons - they may have left and not told family where they had gone.''

[Hortensis]

2. Officials said they were going to do a better job connecting

information received at various places to help identify evacuated survivors.