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The Word 'Bushfire' Hits a Nerve in Every Australian. Bushfires Can

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The Word 'Bushfire' Hits a Nerve in Every Australian. Bushfires Can NATURAL DISASTERS 1BUSHFIRE The word ‘bushfire’ hits a nerve in every Australian. Bushfires can strike with terrible ferocity and astonishing speed. And Australia has suffered some of the worst. FIRE DANGER RATING Two or three deck headline here please A case study … Through the flames, the dreadful cost in Fact file n The chance of an urban house energy used to power Victoria for a please The warnings were many that Saturday, February 7, 2009 could bring lives and dollars located near a forest being burned year. in any year is, on average, about 1 n Fires need three things – oxygen, disaster to Victoria. in 6500. heat and fuel. If one element is n Half of Victoria’s native forests and removed, fire cannot exist. UCH of Australia is fire prone. Whether or not a blaze HE day was windy and hot, HE costs of disastrous woodlands have burned since late n Oxygen content must be about DEATH TOLLS AROUnd THE WORLD escalates into a natural disaster depends on how intense with record temperatures bushfires are counted in 2002. 16 per cent to support a fire: the air Mthe fire is and who and what are caught in its path. But did Tin many areas, including in Tmany ways, including by Top 10 most important wildfire disasters 1900 to 2011; numbers killed at n Fires burn faster uphill, with the around us is usually about 21 per you know that uncontrolled burning in forests, scrub, grasses and Melbourne which reached 46.4 human deaths and injuries, the country level speed of a front doubling for every cent oxygen. even peat are a normal feature of every continent except Antarctica? degrees. The conditions followed 12 loss of houses, stock and wildlife, Country Date No. Killed 10-degree increase in slope. n A forest fire on the scenic Greek years of drought and a heat wave at food crops, valuable forests, n Pyromania, where people have island of Diaporos was started by Bushfires, or wildfires as they are known overseas, are essential United States, Forest fire October 15, 1918 1,000 for healthy ecologies and are often useful for agriculture. They are the end of January. vehicles, bridges, schools and intense impulses and fascination intoxicated ‘yachties’ who fired their caused by complex interactions of climate, weather, vegetation and The Bureau of Meteorology railways, habitat, and the shattering Indonesia, Forest fire September 1997 240 to start fires, is a rare psychiatric rocket flares as they sailed past in humans. In some regions, during hot, dry summers, bushfires flare issued warnings six days earlier, of communities. All of this does China P Rep, Forest fire May 1987 191 disorder. the night. and the Premier spoke on TV and not include firefighting, business n A study in New South Wales into raging infernos. radio of a “tinder dry” state in closures or the delayed health Australia, Bush/Brush fire February 2, 2009 180 found that 90 per cent Africa is ‘fire central’, with satellite images showing 70 per cent extreme fire danger. The Country effects of smoke haze. One United United States, Forest fire October 20, 1944 121 of arsonists who came of the world’s wildfires happen on this vast continent, but often Fire Authority described forests and States report says the cost of France, -- August 1949 80 through the courts were for agricultural reasons such as land clearing. However, in parts of grasslands as being the driest since fighting a big fire in the US has male, with an average Australia, North America, Mediterranean Europe, Turkey and Russia Ash Wednesday, 1983. Australia jumped by 15 per cent in the past Australia, Scrub/grassland fire February 16, 1983 75 age of 27. bushfires are more likely to develop into roaring natural disasters, is a knowledgeable, well-prepared decade to $US1 billion. Canada, Forest fire July 11, 1911 73 n Fire started by and experienced bushfire country. It is difficult to calculate numbers, a honey harvester killing people and wildlife, ruining habitat and destroying property. Australia, Scrub/grassland fire 1939 71 There are many ways of looking at the impacts of bushfires. But for some reason, perhaps but here are some estimates and smoking bee hives in Since records began, more than 800 people have been killed by because no-one really understood examples: Greece, Forest fire August 24, 2007 67 Rwanda quickly spread bushfires in Australia. Over a 100-year period, bushfires in Australia how intense or fast moving these Emergency Management Source: EM-DAT: OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database. Université catholique de to the Congo next door, Louvain – Belgium. are likely to destroy houses in 60 of those years, according to a extreme fires could become, Australia lists 847 people dead endangering invaluable neither the warnings nor heroic and 6951 injured from bushfires in habitat of mountain risk assessment research group. In an average year, 50 million firefighting efforts could prevent an Australia, from the earliest records deaths and injuries than floods, requirements. gorillas. hectares are burnt but this can vary by up to four times more or unprecedented number of deaths at more than $4 billion. trees. until now. severe storms or earthquakes, but Wildfire in the US, in the past n The ‘Black Saturday’ less, depending on seasons. And there is not an even spread of and wide-scale destruction. Conditions were so extreme that One of the most dangerous The 173 people killed by the not as much in property damage. 25 years, is estimated to have cost bushfires in February fires across the continent. Why are most fires north of the Tropic of Firefighters attended 316 grass some fires developed their own meteorological conditions that day Black Saturday fires in Victoria Arson of all types costs Australia $US10 billion in insured property 2009 generated the Capricorn, yet the worst blazes are in the south-east? What makes and forest blazes that day, with 15 ‘storms’ overhead, with lightning. is typical of hot summer weather in 2009 was Australia’s biggest $1.62 billion a year, with much of it losses ($2005 dollar values). equivalent amount of Victoria the deadliest state? becoming worse and five claiming These are called pyro-cumulonimbus in south-east Australia. A sudden, bushfire tragedy. bushfire arson. Recently, wildfires in the US have Costs in deaths, injury, property loss and firefighting are huge; lives. The Royal Commission storms and are a sign of very hot cool, wind change came late in the “Disaster level’’ bushfires cost The total cost of the Black burned up to 3.6 million hectares a the estimate for the deadly Black Saturday disaster in 2009 is more investigating the blazes found that fires in an unstable environment. On afternoon, and the winds moved Australia an average of $77 million a Saturday fires is estimated at $4 year. than $4 billion. Are bushfires more damaging than cyclones, floods nine of the 15 that became worse Black Saturday, lightning strikes in from fierce north-westerlies to gusty year. The fires that destroyed more billion, according to the Royal The 2010 wildfires in Russia cost Learn more at: and other natural disasters? And can they always be called ‘natural’ were started as a direct or indirect these ‘storms’ caused small fires south-westerlies. Cool changes turn than 500 homes and claimed four Commission that investigated the about $US15 billion, a figure that disasters when 13,000 to 18,000 bushfires in Australia every year are result of human activity, (five through in Melbourne’s water catchments. fires at right angles, extending the lives in Canberra in 2003 caused disaster. included crop losses and the loss of n www.bushfirecrc.com the failure of electricity assets such Flames shot up 100 metres, fire front and greatly intensifying damage worth more than $300 In Australia, $40 million to entire towns and forests. More than n www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/levelthree/c20thc/fire.htm suspicious or malicious? as power lines, while four were crowning in forests and spotting up damage. Many people died after this million. Between 1967 and 1999, $100 million is spent annually on 60 people died directly, but 56,000 n www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/ People enjoy living close to forests but in some places it may suspicious). In all, 173 people died, to 35 kilometres ahead. Fireballs, wind change. Firefighters, who did bushfires in Australia caused 223 aircraft for firefighting, with costs are thought to have died indirectly n www.cfa.vic.gov.au/ not be worth the risk. What makes some fires more intense and many trying to defend their homes. spheres of burning gases, barrelled not receive warnings in time, were deaths and 4185 injuries at a total varying according to the severity of from toxic smoke and heat waves. n www.dse.vic.gov.au/fire-and-other-emergencies/major-bushfires-in-victoria dangerous and why do more men than women die in bushfires? Are About 272,360 hectares were out from flaming forests across bare caught in dangerous “burnovers”. cost of $654 million. This was 48.7 the season. In the 2010 Victorian Between 1998 and 2009, overall n www.disasters.ema.gov.au/ bushfires becoming worse with climate change? How can we learn burned and entire towns such as paddocks which otherwise might One expert says that typically, 80 per cent of the total death and injury summer, more than 50 specialised cost of bushfires in Europe was n www.nifc.gov/ from the tragedies of one disaster to prevent widespread destruction Marysville were obliterated. The have stopped the spread of flames. per cent of the total area burned is costs of all natural disasters during aircraft were contracted during the $9,293 billion.
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