Bushfires

Bushfires are one of the common issues faced throughout Australia with its dry and hot climate especially
during the summer seasons typically between December and March, as they are natural part of Australias
environment. They can start in sudden, spread quickly and have a larger output of heat. Approximately, 75
Million to 170 Million acres of land in Australia are affected by bushfires every year.
What causes the incident to happen? The causes of bushfires can be divided into two groups, natural
occurrence and the influence of humans. A fire requires three basic components to ignite, which includes
oxygen from air, fuel and heat. So, it is understood that all the causes are associated with the presence of the
three components. First of all, let us begin with the natural causes. Lightning strikes are the primary source
accounting for most of the ignitions in Australia. When lightning strikes a particular place in a very high speed
and with high load of heat, the trees can dry out and provide fuel for ignition. Additionally, with the presence of
oxygen from the air, and massive load of heat, bushfires start. Other than that, period of high rainfall can
cause rapid vegetation growth. When the rain period ends and droughts occurs, the growths can dry out and
acts as fuel for bushfires. To summarize natural causes, higher fuel load, higher temperature in the form of
heat and strong wind can start bushfires and causes it to spread rapidly.
Furthermore, human activity also widely leads to bushfires. For example, a campfire, which is not properly
extinguished at the camping site can start bushfires. Moreover, irresponsible acts such as discarding
cigarettes and matches in an improper way can cause ignitions too. Agricultural activities can be another
reason. Machineries and equipment used for farming may generate lots of heat or sparks and causes
bushfires. For example, the grinder machine produces too much heat when being operated. Besides that,
when extreme vehicle accidents happens chances of the fire causing bushfires are also high. Bushfires
caused by human activity are also due to people who purposely start fires whose intention is to destroy large
area of land.
What are the impacts of bushfires on the environment? All this while, bushfires has been causing loss of fauna
due to food chain or food web being disturbed, habitat of animals being destroyed and ultimately might leads
to ecosystem being disturbed. Due to high temperature, smoke and suffocation, some animals are killed. For
example, the Koala is most vulnerable to bushfires as they spend most of their times up on the tree. However,
animals such as, Kangaroos has chances of escaping the fire by avoiding that area and Wombats may burrow
underground. Next, loss of plant life is another impact of bushfires as vegetation is destructed. Again, due to
frequent bushfires, some species have built features to defend from the fire, which includes protected tissue
and plant shoots, thick bark and many more. Besides the negative effects, bushfires can benefit the
environment too. Plants are able to regenerate, reproduce and start a new life. The Eucalypt species can be a
good example to this. Some fire tolerant plants need heat and smoke to germinate as heat is needed to crack
the coats of their seeds.
For a clear picture of bushfires, the Black Saturday 2009 Case Study by Weather Research and Consulting
Services, LLC can be a good example. On the 7th of February 2009, 173 people killed and more than 2000
homes and 421,000 hectares of land were destroyed by the bushfires incident happened in Victoria the
Southeast part of Australia. The objective of this report is to identify weather conditions whether a critical fire
weather pattern caused the incident to happen. From the study, it can be concluded that, low atmospheric
moisture, strong wind, unstable air and drought were the 4 critical weather elements that were present during
the Victoria bushfires.
To overcome bushfires, there are some solutions to the problem. To avoid bushfires from spreading,
backburning can be done. It is a way to reduce amount of flammable material during a bushfire by setting a
small fire in front of the main fire source. This is because a burnt material is unable to burn again. Most
importantly, firefighters successfully used this method with lots of planning. Other than that, to reduce the
severity of bushfires, Firebreaks are practiced. Firebreaks are cleared trails on a land property to enable
vehicle access to fight fires and can inhibit the fire itself in low intensity. So far, this method is a success
because, land owner who did not set up firebreaks will be fined up to A$25,000. Moreover, campaign to
educate people about the importance of fire action plan can be a good idea too. These campaigns should be
organized more in bushfire-prone areas. Creating awareness among people can reduce bushfires, which are
caused by human activity. For example, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service run campaigns to educate
people from all ages. It has been a success that the amount of bushfires identified to be sourced from human
activity has been reduced. However, there are some challenges faced as some residents would not give their
commitment to attend the campaigns organized. As a conclusion, bushfires caused by natural factors can be
reduced, but, bushfires caused by human activity can be prevented if every single people change.

References
1. Geoscience Australia. (n.d.). Bushfire Basics. Retrieved from
http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/hazards/bushfire/basics
2. Department of Land Resource Management Northern Territory Government of Australia. (n.d.).
Bushfire Prevention. Retrieved from
http://www.lrm.nt.gov.au/bushfires/prevention
3. (2014, January 21). Smarter Solutions Are Needed To Counter The Bushfire Threat.
The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/smarter-solutions-are-needed-to-counter-the-bushfirethreat-20140120-314pm.html
4. Backburning In Controlling Bushfires To Prevent Spreading. Retrieved from
http://clearlyexplained.com/bushfires/backburning-in-controlling.html
5. Bushfires in Australia. (2014). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=c3544989-383e-4139-a3522e48833da85b@sessionmgr115&hid=122&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ==
#db=funk&AN=BU212775
6. Werth, P. (n.d.). Fire Weather Case Study Of Victoria Australia Bushfires. Retrieved from
http://www.fireweather.com/res/29201250744PMAustralia%20Fire%20Siege.pdf