Bush fires in Australia

Bushfires

Introduction - Bush fires are wildfires that are caused naturally or by humans. Bush fires usually burn out of control sometimes taking down homes and properties. Australia is a very common place for bushfires to start, since warm air is drawn into Southern and Northern Australia a lot. Many animals get killed by almost every bushfire that is ignited.

Animal (Kangaroo) - Kangaroos could get affected by bushfires when the bushfire runs into their area. Over the last couple of years bushfires have taken away many kangaroos and their homes. If the mother dies, this will have an impact on the young kangaroos. When kangaroos are trying to get away from a fire ground they have to hop along the burnt ground, this may result in them burning their feet, which will make it hard for them to hop around and hard for them to escape. Since bushfires have just become fiercer in the past few years, many kangaroos have disappeared and they are still disappearing. The most devastating bushfires that claimed many lives of kangaroos was in 2008 and 2009, including the Black Saturday bushfires, when many dead corpses of animals were seen lying around everywhere and everything had been burnt.

How Bushfires have an Impact on Towns or Areas Around - Australia is frequently ravaged by many bushfires and they are a huge threat to towns or communities around the continent. Many bushfire attacks from the past few years have taken away hundreds. Bushfires are most common around South-eastern Australia, since the area is filled with forest. The aftermath of bushfires is devastating, especially after everything has burned down. When eucalypts catch fire, they spread very quickly and destroy all the vegetation in their paths, but after a few years have passed trees and plants start to grow back. If my street got attacked by a bushfire, I reckon that by the end of the bushfire, some of the houses would be burned down since the street is around by bush and by the time people had their houses rebuilt, it would have probably been next year.

 

What is a Bushfire? - A bushfire is a wildfire that burns out of control and spreads quickly across bushland or vegetated areas. Most bushfires start when the temperature is very high, especially during the summer months. The conditions also have to be very dry, low humidity and high winds for most bushfires to be present. The most common place for bushfires to start is around South-eastern Australia. Not many bushfires start when heading toward Central Australia since the area isn’t as vegetated as South-eastern Australia. Trees such as eucalypts ignite quickly to bushfires, since the leaves have highly-flammable oil.

How do Bushfires Start? - Bushfires can be caused in many different ways. There are two causes: ‘natural’ and ‘human influence’. The main way that bushfires are ignited naturally is lightning strikes. 26% of bushfire ignition is from lightning strikes. However, a large amount of bushfires are started by humans. Sometimes, a campfire can turn into a bushfire when it is unattended. Some farmers burn land to get rid of crop debris and weeds, but these fires can be pushed by the wind to the nearest trees and then a bushfire starts. Unfortunately, some fires are not accidently started, they are deliberately lit. These fires can destroy thousands of square kilometres of land. Amazingly, fires that are lit deliberately are the second most common way that bushfires are ignited, which is 25%.

An Invention to Slow down Bushfires - Firefighting foam is an invention that can completely slow down areas of a bushfire. It was invented by a Russian teacher named Aleksandr Loran in 1902. His full name is: Aleksandr Grigoryevich Loran. Using hoses, firefighters spray the foam onto the flames to help put the fire out. The foam looks white and bubbly. Firefighters usually spray water, foam, dry chemicals or other substances. The foam usually contains Carbon Dioxide (CO₂ ). Firefighters also use helicopter water buckets to stop or slow down bushfires. The helicopter fills its bucket with water then releases the water over the flames, while fire trucks spray foam from the ground. These days firefighters do planned burns to lower the risks of bushfires during the summer months.

Safest Place to Stay During a Bushfire if You Get Stuck in it –  If you get stuck during a bushfire, the safest place to stay is on a ‘lee-facing slope’ (a slope that is facing away from hot northerly winds), since bushfires slow down as they get to the crest of the slope on the other side. Sometimes the lee-slope can be ignited. This happens when the hot winds have nowhere to go, so they turn back, which ignites the slope (which is called an eddy). The safest thing to do though is to find out whether there is a bushfire coming or not, before it is too late.

Australian History of Bushfires -

Black Saturday (7-8 Feb 2009 VIC) - Black Saturday recorded some of worst fire conditions that have ever been recorded. Record-high temperatures after one of the worst droughts ever recorded in Australia since settlement, easily set the bush alight. Some places reached around 49 degrees Celsius, while the average across the region was about 46 degrees Celsius. These conditions were accompanied by high winds and very low humidity. The fires spread very quickly across the region. 173 deaths were recorded and over 2000 homes were destructed during the fires.

Ash Wednesday (16-18 Feb 1983 VIC and SA) - About 180 bushfires started across South Australia and Victoria. The largest bushfires started near Warrnambool and in the Macedon Ranges. 159,000 hectares of land was burnt in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Before the drought there was a severe drought between April 1982 and January 1983 across Victoria, this impacted on the bushfires starting. The temperature was about 43 degrees Celsius on Ash Wednesday. Accidents and arsonists started most of the fires, which spread very quickly across areas near Melbourne. The Ash Wednesday fires killed 75 people, 48 people in Victoria and 27 people in South Australia. The Victorian fires burnt around 200,000 hectares in total and destroyed almost 1900 homes.

Black Friday (VIC 13-20 Jan 1939) - High drought conditions and high winds also helped start Black Friday bushfires, but the unusual thing was that the conditions were extremely hot, very windy and low humidity. Temperatures reached around 46 degrees Celsius in Melbourne, making it the hottest day in Melbourne for many years. The problems were mainly caused by the conditions itself and planned burns which got out of control when the high winds struck. Altogether 71 people were killed and about 650 houses were destroyed during the bushfires. Around 2 million hectares were burned during the fires and the worst fires came during a firestorm on the day known as ‘Black Friday.’