Since June 2019, there have been many large bushfires burning across Australia, especially in the south east where a state of emergency was declared in New South Wales. As of 14 January 2020, fires this season have burnt an estimated 18.6 millionhectares (46 million acres; 186,000 square kilometres; 72,000 square miles), destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including approximately 2,683 homes) and killed at least 30 people. An estimated one billion animals were also killed and some endangered species may be driven to extinction.
Whereas these bushfires are regarded by the NSW Rural Fire Service as the worst bushfire season in memory for that state, the 1974 bushfires were nationally much larger[a] consuming 117 million hectares (290 million acres; 1,170,000 square kilometres; 450,000 square miles). However, due to their lower intensity and remote location, the 1974 fires caused around $5 million (about $36.5 million in 2020) in damages. In December 2019 the New South Wales Government declared a state of emergency after record-breaking temperatures and prolonged drought exacerbated the bushfires.
From September 2019 fires heavily impacted various regions of the state of New South Wales, such as the North Coast, Mid North Coast, the Hunter Region, the Hawkesbury and the Wollondilly in Sydney’s far west, the Blue Mountains, Illawarra and the South Coast, Riverina and Snowy Mountains with more than 100 fires burnt across the state. In eastern and north-easternVictoria large areas of forest burnt out of control for four weeks before the fires emerged from the forests in late December, taking lives, threatening many towns and isolating Corryong and Mallacoota. A state of disaster was declared for East Gippsland. Significant fires occurred in the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island in South Australia. Moderately affected areas were south-eastern Queensland and areas of south-western Western Australia, with a few areas in Tasmania and the ACT being mildly impacted.
Reinforcements from all over Australia were called in to assist fighting the fires and relieve exhausted local crews in New South Wales. On 11 November it was reported that the Victorian Country Fire Authority (CFA) was sending in a large contingent of up to 300 firefighters and support staff to assist. By mid-November 2019, more than 100 firefighters were sent from Western Australia. Contingents were also sent from South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.
On 12 November the Australian Government announced that the Australian Defence Force would provide air support to the firefighting effort, as well as prepare to provide manpower and logistical support. Firefighters and equipment from New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and the United States, among others, helped fight the fires, especially in New South Wales.
Overview
On 12 November 2019, catastrophic fire danger was declared in the Greater Sydney region for the first time since the introduction of this level in 2009 and a total fire ban was in place for seven regions, including Greater Sydney. The Illawarra and Greater Hunter areas also experienced catastrophic fire dangers, and so did other parts of the state, including the already fire ravaged parts of northern New South Wales.[26] The political ramifications of the fire season have been significant. A decision by the New South Wales Government to cut funding to fire services based on budget estimates, as well as a holiday taken by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, during a period in which two volunteer firefighters died, and his perceived apathy towards the situation, resulted in controversy.
As of 14 January 2020, 18.626 million hectares (46.03 million acres) was burnt or is burning across all Australian states and territories. Ecologists from The University of Sydney estimated 480 million mammals, birds, and reptiles were lost since September with concerns entire species of plants and animals may have been wiped out by bushfire, later expanded to more than a billion.
Since the start of the season, the ongoing bushfires have destroyed 2,176 homes, as well as 48 facilities and more than 2,000 outbuildings in New South Wales alone. Twenty people were confirmed to have been killed in New South Wales since October. The latest fatality was reported on 5 January 2020 following the death of a man in Batlow. In New South Wales, the fires had burnt through more land than any other blazes in the past 25 years, in addition to be being the state’s worst bushfire season on record. NSW also experienced the longest continuously burning bushfire complex in Australia’s history, having burnt more than 4 million hectares (9,900,000 acres), with 70-metre-high (230 ft) flames being reported. In comparison, the 2018 California wildfires consumed 800,000 hectares (2,000,000 acres) and the 2019 Amazon rainforest wildfiresburnt 900,000 hectares (2,200,000 acres) of land.
Due to safety concerns and significant public pressure, New Year’s Eve fireworks displays were cancelled across New South Wales including highly popular events at Campbelltown, Liverpool, Parramatta, and across Sydney’s Northern Beaches, and as well in the nation’s capital of Canberra. As temperatures reached 49 °C (120 °F), the New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian called a fresh seven-day state of emergency with effect from 9am on 3 January 2020.
Environmental effects [Edit]
In mid-December 2019, a NASA analysis revealed that since 1 August, the New South Wales and Queensland bushfires had emitted 250 million tonnes (280 million short tons) ofcarbon dioxide (CO2). As of 2 January 2020, NASA estimated that 306 million tonnes (337 million short tons) of CO2 had been emitted. By comparison, in 2018, Australia’s total carbon emissions were equivalent to 535 million tonnes (590 million short tons) of CO2. While the carbon emitted by the fires would normally be reabsorbed by forest regrowth, this would take decades and might not happen at all if prolonged drought has damaged the ability of forests to fully regrow.
In December 2019, the air quality index (AQI) around Rozelle, a west suburb of Sydney, hit 2,552 or more than 12 times the hazardous level of 200. The level of fine particle matters, known and measured globally as PM2.5, around Sydney was also measured at 734 micrograms (0.01133 gr) or the equivalent of 37 cigarettes. On 1 January 2020, the AQI around Monash, a suburb of Canberra, was measured at 4,650, or more than 23 times hazardous level and peaked at 7,700.
On New Year’s Day 2020 in New Zealand, a blanket of smoke from the Australian fires covered the whole South Island, giving the sky an orange-yellow haze. People in Dunedinreported smelling smoke in the air.[196] The MetService stated that the smoke would not have any adverse affects on the weather or temperature in the country. The smoke moved over the North Island the following day, but began breaking up and was not as intense as it was over the South Island the previous day; meanwhile, wind from the South Pacific Ocean dissipated the smoke over the South Island.[198] The smoke affected glaciers in the country, giving a brown tint to the snow. On 5 January 2020, more smoke wafted over the North Island, turning the sky in Auckland orange. By 7 January 2020, the smoke was carried approximately 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi) across the South Pacific Ocean to Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
Ecological effects
Ecologists feared some endangered species were driven to extinction by the fires. Though bushfires are not uncommon in Australia, they are usually of lower scale and intensity that only affect small parts of the overall distribution of where species live. Animals that survived a bushfire could still find suitable habitats in the immediate vicinity, which was not the case when an entire distribution is decimated in an intense event. Besides immediate mortality from the fires, there were on-going mortalities after the fires from starvation, lack of shelters, and attacks from predators such as foxes and cats that are attracted to fire affected areas to hunt.
On Kangaroo Island, Australia’s third largest island and known as Australia’s “Galapagos Island”, a third of the island was burnt. Large parts of the island are designated as protected areas and host animals such as sea lions, penguins, kangaroos, koalas, pygmy possums, southern brown bandicoots, Ligurian bees, Kangaroo Island dunnarts and various birds including glossy black cockatoos.
NASA estimated that the number of dead koalas could be as high as 25,000 or about half the total population of the species on the island. A quarter of the beehives of the Ligurian honey bees that inhabited the Island were believed to have been destroyed. Both the Kangaroo Island dunnart and glossy black cockatoo are endangered and only found on Kangaroo Island. Before the fires, there were only less than 500 Kangaroo Island dunnarts and about 380 glossy black cockatoos.
Australian magpies, which are known to have the ability to mimic the calls of other birds and animals, were so frequently exposed to the sirens from fire trucks and ambulances caused by the bushfires that a magpie in Newcastle was captured on video mimicking the sound of emergency sirens.
Australia fires: The thousands of volunteers fighting the flames
“We’re doing it because it’s a passion. It’s a brotherhood,” says Daniel Knox. “When that photo was taken of me, I had done a 15-hour shift out there.” He is one of thousands of Australians who’ve dropped their ordinary lives to battle the nation’s raging fire crisis. For weeks, the 22-year-old landscaper has lived around his phone, springing into action when called upon.
He is part of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) which calls itself “the world’s largest volunteer firefighting organisation”. Its 70,000 members are extensively trained and, except for a few senior staff, mostly unpaid. Mr Knox joined his local brigade in Sydney’s south-west five years ago, when he was 17. He bonded with a senior member – Andrew O’Dwyer – over football and photography.
“He took me under his wing, looked after me and helped me out so much. The respect he gave me, a young bloke, even when I made mistakes… he was my brother,” he told the BBC.
Last Thursday, Mr O’Dwyer and Geoffrey Keaton, the deputy captain at the Horsley Park Fire Brigade, were sent out late at night to a massive firefront.
En route their truck was hit by a falling tree, which caused it to roll. Three firefighters in the back seat were injured but were able to escape.
Mr O’Dwyer and Mr Keaton – both fathers to young children – were killed at the scene. They died five days before Christmas.
Earlier, bigger, more dangerous fires
Since September, close to 3,000 firefighters have been out every day in NSW battling blazes the size of small European countries.
Close to 90% of those people on the ground are unpaid volunteers, says the NSW RFS, the government-funded organisation leading the fight.
This century-old model is common across Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia – Australian states which have traditionally had bushfires each summer. In recent years, fires have also flared up in Tasmania and sub-tropical Queensland.
In NSW, most of the 2,000 or so brigades are found in country towns and rural centres dotted among eucalyptus bushland. Members are almost always locals, stepping in to save their own communities.
Historically, the work has tended to be patchy, which has been a key factor behind the volunteerism. Fires don’t rage all year round, and there have been years when many areas aren’t affected at all.
But this year, the situation has changed. Intense blazes typically seen in later summer have flared in spring, forcing authorities to wage full-blown campaigns earlier than ever before.
They’re also dealing with hundreds more fires, burning simultaneously in hotter and drier conditions. NSW has been in drought for years, and fires are ripping through the state.
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The monstrous Gospers Mountain blaze, an hour’s drive north-west of Sydney, has spread to more than 450,000 hectares in size in less than a month. Officials now consider it to be potentially one of the largest fires ever recorded in Australia.
‘Everyone’s working so hard’
For weeks, Lucy Baranowski has been among the crews fighting that blaze, and others closer to her home in Kurrajong Heights. She and her partner took leave from their day jobs a few weeks ago – and are currently skating by on savings, credit cards and support from family and friends.
She misses her children – she evacuated them to her parents’ home over a week ago. On Saturday, her crew helped save a friend’s property – a success. But then the wind changed, and the crew could only watch on as the blaze tore through the neighbouring village of Bilpin.
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The situation is extreme, but she has been buoyed by the “bubble of love” from her community, she tells the BBC.
Her friends have organised her children’s Christmas presents. Others have manned shifts cooking and cleaning for crews at the station. A prolific blogger, her latest posts about her fireground days have gone viral on social media. “So many people aren’t making an income but are putting every part of their passion and blood into this campaign – it’s really, really rough on a lot of people,” she says.
She describes the RFS as her family – and in her case this is a literal statement. Out on the fireground she’s standing alongside her father and her younger brother, as well her friends, her neighbours, all of them communicating via radio.
They’ve been running on adrenalin, but the prospect of a drawn-out summer and a seemingly endless fire front is weighing on all of them. “You can just hear the fatigue in their voices and almost imagine their dirty, sweaty, ash-covered faces,” she says.
“Everyone’s working so hard to keep everything together but there’s no rain forecast, and there’s really nothing we can do to stop this fire.”
“Do we start to give up hope now that this isn’t going to stop?”
News of the firefighters’ deaths at Horsley Park, only a 40-minute drive away, “shattered my heart” she says.
“I didn’t know them – but that could have been my husband, my father, my uncle, my friend,” she said. “After all this is over, we’re probably going to fall down in a heap.”
‘What am I doing here?’
The mammoth, ongoing task has spurred a national conversation about support for firefighters. The Labor opposition, town mayors, and a firefighters’ union have called for them to be compensated. “They volunteer as much as they can afford, sometimes even more than they can afford. It is not sustainable,” says Mick Holton, president of the Volunteer Fire Fighters Association.
It often involves long hours, weeks away from paid work, and accruing expenses along the way. Earlier this year, Mr Knox travelled to the town of Tenterfield to help fight blazes there. It was an eight-hour drive from Sydney – he paid for his own petrol.
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Public support for the “firies” is at an all-time high. In the swing of the Christmas season, shops and restaurants are donating profits to the NSW RFS. Online, there have been fundraisers to buy masks, food, and other supplies for the crews.
However, Australia’s government has so far rejected the calls for compensation.
“Now is not the time to go into it. Let’s get through this [bushfire crisis] first,” said Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday.
A day later he announced the government, as a “model employer”, would grant a minimum 20 days leave entitlement for public servants who went to the fires.
“When people join these organisations, they do it to protect their community and do it out of a sense of great service,” he has said.
That sentiment is what you hear from many firefighters. They’re not motivated by money. They’re reticent to speak up for any sort of handout. They’ve also been consumed with fighting the fires.
“People don’t get it, people think how do you risk your life and not get paid for this stuff?” Mr Knox says.
“And yeah, there have been times when I’ve been in the thick of it, and it’s so fierce you can’t breathe. And I’m thinking to myself, what am I doing here?”
“But when you’re on the truck, you’re with your brothers,” he said.
He took care of Mr O’Dwyer’s young daughter when the prime minister visited the station on Sunday, to meet with her grieving mother.
He’s proud of the photo he shared last week, which was taken in a controlled setting. That image of him standing in the middle of a flaming forest has gone viral. Mr O’Dwyer had helped him put the finishing touches on the edit. “Everyone has a choice in life, in what they want to do when they wake up in the morning,” says Mr Knox.
“I’d rather be out there firefighting – doing our part for the community. Making those two boys proud of us for getting back out there.”
