Australia recently experienced the worst bushfires in recent history. A massive firestorm swept through Victoria during the last week, leading to a confirmed death toll of at least 180, with the final total expected to be closer to 300 once emergency services have been able to sweep all the affected areas.

Many people lost absolutely everything. Homes, personal belongings and loved ones. Whole communities are currently living on the streets after the fires, hot enough to melt aluminium (660 degrees Celsius), left absolutely nothing but ashes where homes used to stand.

Given Australia’s propensity for mateship, many have already chipped in and donated well over $15 million dollars to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal to help those affected by the bushfire, however, the more the better.

I introduce you to the Hire for the Fire appeal, established by Pixel Hunt, Xbox World Australia and Vooks.net. The central idea is simple, instead of buying a new game (or DVD or CD) this week, head to the local video store and rent it instead, then donate the left over funds to the Red Cross bushfire appeal.

Donate what you can, every little bit helps.

Details on how to donate in the full press release below.

From Pixel Hunt:

The recent bushfires throughout Victoria have hit thousands of Aussies hard and taken the greatest cost of all, the lives of neighbours, friends and family. With CFA, Police, Ambulance staff and the Army still working around the clock to help reduce further loss of life and property, we’re all left in complete awe at their bravery.

As a gaming site, we’re fully aware of our general unimportance when it comes to the ‘real world’, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t look outside the window or turn on the news. The disaster in Victoria is… just that, a disaster, and these people are in real need of help right now.

So we put the collective minds of Xbox World Australia, Pixel Hunt and Vooks together and came up with this little idea – Hire for the Fires.

While we’re not normally one for gratuitous plugs there’s no doubt that organisations like Red Cross and the staff and volunteers that work there are needed more than ever in times like these. Their dedication to assisting the people of Kinglake, Marysville, Strathewen and the other bushfire areas cannot be overlooked.

So how about it? Instead of spending $100 on a game this weekend, rent it instead and donate the other $95 to helping out fellow Australians. If you can’t afford it, don’t feel bad as there’s other ways to contribute.

Whilst the main need at the moment is money, burns victims will require blood for surgery. If you can’t afford to donate the cost of a game, perhaps head down to your local blood bank and give blood. At the moment the initial need for burns victims is plasma, but in 4-6 weeks time when many of these people will need surgery, blood will be needed.

To donate money to the Red Cross, please head to the Red Cross (credit card), or the Commonwealth Bank has an appeal for those without a credit card.

For information on how to donate blood, please head to www.donateblood.com.au/

Every little bit helps. If even a few dozen XBW, Pixel Hunt and Vooks readers do this, that’s a few thousand dollars to go towards helping these people rebuild their lives.

Our best wishes go out to everyone involved in this horrific tragedy.

Dylan Burns – Pixel Hunt, Shane Bryan – Xbox World Australia, Daniel Vuckovic – Vooks.net

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.