Black Saturday
Black Saturday
Black Saturday was a series of bushfires that ignited and burnt in Victoria from Saturday, 7th February 2009 - 14 March 2009. As many as 400 individual fires were recorded on 7 February. Following the events of 7 February 2009 and its aftermath, that day has become widely referred to as Black Saturday. The majority of the fires were said to be started by fallen or clashing power lines, lightning, cigarette butts, and sparks from a power tools. They burnt over 4,500 km² of land. Background temperatures reached 46 degrees and north-westerly winds were in excess of 100 km/h.
The short term effects of Black Saturday:
173 people lost their lives.
Whole towns were destroyed.
Over 1800 homes were destroyed.
Victoria lost the 5 trees measured in 2001 at over 90m tall and a further 35+ trees that were over 85m tall.
The fire had enough heat to burn down 99.9% of E.regnans forest.
The long term effects of Black Saturday:
Economic impacts from so much property loss.
After 2 years, only 41% of house had been rebuilt or in the process of being rebuilt.
The bushfires burned over 400,000 hectares of land, and thousands of native animals were killed.
The bushfires destroyed 11,800 head of livestock, 62,000 hectares of grazing land and 32,000 tonnes of hay silage.
The total cost, including insurance payouts is $4.4 Billion.
The premier of Victoria, John Brumby, accepted an offer from the Prime Minister at the time, Kevin Rudd to dispatch members of the Australian Defence Force to provide assistance in that state. Kevin Rudd described the bushfires as an "appalling tragedy for Victoria," saying "Hell and all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours. After the bush fires the Victorian government developed better bushfire preventing techniques.
More than 4,000 fire-fighters from the Country Fire Authority, which is primarily responsible for fires on private property and the Department of Sustainability
Black Saturday was a series of bushfires that ignited and burnt in Victoria from Saturday, 7th February 2009 - 14 March 2009. As many as 400 individual fires were recorded on 7 February. Following the events of 7 February 2009 and its aftermath, that day has become widely referred to as Black Saturday. The majority of the fires were said to be started by fallen or clashing power lines, lightning, cigarette butts, and sparks from a power tools. They burnt over 4,500 km² of land. Background temperatures reached 46 degrees and north-westerly winds were in excess of 100 km/h.
The short term effects of Black Saturday:
173 people lost their lives.
Whole towns were destroyed.
Over 1800 homes were destroyed.
Victoria lost the 5 trees measured in 2001 at over 90m tall and a further 35+ trees that were over 85m tall.
The fire had enough heat to burn down 99.9% of E.regnans forest.
The long term effects of Black Saturday:
Economic impacts from so much property loss.
After 2 years, only 41% of house had been rebuilt or in the process of being rebuilt.
The bushfires burned over 400,000 hectares of land, and thousands of native animals were killed.
The bushfires destroyed 11,800 head of livestock, 62,000 hectares of grazing land and 32,000 tonnes of hay silage.
The total cost, including insurance payouts is $4.4 Billion.
The premier of Victoria, John Brumby, accepted an offer from the Prime Minister at the time, Kevin Rudd to dispatch members of the Australian Defence Force to provide assistance in that state. Kevin Rudd described the bushfires as an "appalling tragedy for Victoria," saying "Hell and all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours. After the bush fires the Victorian government developed better bushfire preventing techniques.
More than 4,000 fire-fighters from the Country Fire Authority, which is primarily responsible for fires on private property and the Department of Sustainability