Stop the Fires
Everyone knows that hot sun, cool drinks and fun
in the pool means summer is coming. And
summer means bushfire season. Fire safety is
important to everyone. But have you done
enough?
A bushfire is an uncontrolled fire that rages
anywhere where there is wind and heat. Australia
is the perfect place for bushfires to ignite. This
year with drought, unprecedented heatwaves
and hot, dry winds making a deadly recipe, fires
have burnt 12.35 million acres of land which is
twice the size of Belgium. That is more that
California’s 1.9-million-acre fire and the
Amazon’s 2.24-million-acre fire combined! Fires
have been reported at 70m high. That is higher
than the Sydney Opera House, which is only 65m
high. Even worse, the smoke from these fires are
forming thunderstorms, and the lightning and
strong winds from them is sparking even more
fires. 500 million animals have died, some of
them including koalas, kangaroos, bandicoots,
bilbies and other native Australian animals. After
Europeans introduced cats and foxes, some of
these animals became endangered. With
bushfires threatening these animals even further,
some of them might die out and become extinct.
19 people have been killed and 1400 homes
destroyed.
Australia is the perfect place for bushfires to
start. It has exactly the right conditions; hot, dry
and windy. It has large expanses of bush towards
the centre of Australia and this gives the fires
fuel so they can burn for a long time. Firefighters
are trying to put out the bushfire crisis by doing
‘burn-offs’. They are burning twigs, branches and
leaf litter in controlled conditions, so fires have
no fuel to burn. This means they cannot burn as
high or as quickly. Fire is made up of three
things; oxygen, fuel and heat. These three things
make up the ‘fire triangle’. If you remove one
thing from it, the triangle collapses and you can’t
have fire. By taking away the fuel, fire-fighters
are slowing down or in some cases, stopping fires
in the area entirely.
The CFS and VFS (Cadet Fire Service and
Volunteer Fire Service) are helping by evacuating
tourists, setting up camps for people who lost
their homes to the fires and doing burn-offs. They
have to postpone burn-offs when it is hot, dry
and windy because in2019, fire-fighters did a
burn-off in these conditions and it went out of
control, contributing to 30% of the fires. Because
of this it is illegal to do burn-offs when under hot,
dry and windy conditions.
With bushfire season advancing, I have created a
list of things you can do to prepare for summer.
Clear away all debris around your house
(e.g.; twigs, branches and leaf litter in your
gutter, fabric in your house or in your
backyard.)
Make sure you have a fire plan
Be sure to have at least one fire extinguisher
in your home
Indulge in the wonder of machines of the
future-behold… the smoke alarm!
Make sure you, your family and your friends
are educated about bushfires thoroughly.
If you are in a fire-
Crawl low under smoke
Use a fire extinguisher/fire blanket
Follow fire plan
If you use this list and stay safe in bushfire
season, you will have a great summer. Have
fun swimming in the ocean and drinking cold
lemonade by the pool!
