Bushfires Effects On Society

What are the effects of bushfires? As they rage through the bush, they can burn houses to the ground, ruin crops, farmland, destroy whole communities and businesses. Large fires can often take many lives, be it those of people who are trapped in burning buildings, from breathing in too much smoke, or animals, from loss of habitat or being unable to withstand such high temperatures. Not only are many lives claimed to the fire, but many of those who survive the disasters suffer bad or permanent injuries, loss of homes and personal possessions, loved ones, and can even suffer from mental illnesses such as depression from being unable to cope with the situation.

Aside from the personal impacts, fires also largely impact Australia economically. Depending on the size of the fire and the amount of damage dealt, Bushfires can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars of property damage, sometimes even millions. Insurance companies pay out massive amounts of money to help people rebuild homes. Sometimes, if the fire is particularly large and the impacts are too great, extra taxes will be added to those who were not affected, to help rebuild the communities. Because the
families affected have no homes and no source of income, and a house and/or business to rebuild. This is usually a very costly feat.

Environmentally, Bushfires have both good and bad impacts. The fire in some ways is beneficial to the environment. The blaze can help some plants to germinate, and some plants have adapted to survive the flames, alongside the animals that inhabit them.
In other ways, the bushfire can have extreme consequences on the environment, such as loss of plant life, wildlife, and atmospheric changes for example increased levels of carbon dioxide, large amounts of smoke and ash and changes to the local weather patterns in the microclimate.
In the Black Saturday fires of 2009 in Victoria, we can really see some of these impacts. The RSPCA have estimated that well over a million animals were killed by the fires, and many of the animals that managed to survive ended up with bad burns. The catchment areas in Melbourne that carry water to 5 of the major dams were polluted with ash and other fire related material, contaminating the water. In March 2009, it was found that some of the smoke from bushfires had leaked into the atmosphere at high altitudes over
Antarctica.

Another huge impact of bushfires is on the people that live in the area. The social impacts can be some of the most devastating of all. Some of the obvious impacts are injury, death, health problems and loss of property, home, business, and income. Aside from the direct affects, bushfires can also affect citizens indirectly, by means such as loss of power, which means no communication. Because of the fact that lots of people do not know about the risks of bushfires, they can be completely traumatized if such an event takes place.