mr. fitzsimmons: curiously, the plans were not entirely complete. [laughter] mr. fitzsimmons: in any event, the u.s. government decided to lop off the top stories of the building and constructed a more secure access area to the embassy was cleared -- with cleared american labor this time instead of russians, which was indeed a success. it opened in 2000. i do want to say one thing, that despite the fall of the soviet union, there was certainly -- at the time, there was a school of thought that the russians are our friends. this very building, in 1999, the russians implanted a listening device. we in diplomatic security need to be ever vigilant. last, i really would like to thank the partner in supply dynamics general information technology, who recognized the opportunity, because they were the ones who did the slicing and the casting of this. thank you very much. i appreciate it. [applause] mr. fitzsimmons: thank you. this is the first time any of these artifacts have been displayed in public. it is a testament to all the men and women that worked tirelessly throug

as you heard there from mr fitzsimmons, but also ultimately it is the speed of the wind.onger the wind gets, the more uncontrollable these fires are. we're getting updates now almost on an hourly if you look at the map that fire officials have put on their website, itjust shows you all of these areas turning red, which means they are turning into an emergency situation that are uncontrollable fires. it is very, very fluid, and i think the most important thing to realise is the fa ct important thing to realise is the fact that this is at an unprecedented scale for so many people, even though they will tell you they have seen fires before, nothing at this scale, and also quite unpredictable about how the day is going to turn out, with the weather conditions becoming even worse. as you said, the authorities are saying that this is the most dangerous bushfire the nation has ever seen. dangerous bushfire the nation has ever seen. three people have died, 150 properties have been destroyed. is that a tribute to how well this is being handled, that those figures aren't worse? abs