Credit: Greg Harvie, Author provided On the night of January 9 2020, my wife and I secured our Kangaroo Island home and anxiously monitored the South Australian Country Fire Service (CFS) website for bushfire advice. After many horrific weeks of bushfires, the winds had again shifted, and the fire front began a […]
Australia has seen dozens of inquests into the causes of bushfires and steps that could be taken to mitigate them, with mixed results Australia set up a national inquiry Thursday into its month-long bushfire crisis that affected three in four Australians and prompted widespread criticism of the government for its […]
This 2009 photo provided by Sebastian Pfautsch shows a eucalyptus forest that burned during a 2009 wildfire in Victoria, Australia. As of early 2020, fires have consumed some 40,000 square miles of Australia this fire season and scientists say the effects on the nation’s forests could be long-lasting (Sebastian Pfautsch […]
This December 2019 photo provided by Guy Ballard shows a male brush-tailed rock wallaby eating supplementary food researchers provided in the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park in New South Wales, Australia. Before this fire season, scientists estimated there were as few as 15,000 left in the wild. Now recent fires […]
Credit: Junior Libby/public domain It’s hard to comprehend why someone would deliberately light a bushfire. Yet this behavior regularly occurs in Australia and other countries. We would go a long way to preventing bushfires if we better understood this troubling phenomenon. Experts estimateabout 85% of bushfires are caused by humans. A person may […]
Thick palls of smoke stream from Australia’s sprawling bushfires in this view acquired by NASA’s Aqua satellite on Nov. 11, 2019. The image consists of a natural-color view with an infrared overlay revealing areas of burning. (Source: NASA Worldview image processed by Pierre Markuse) So far, Australia’s bushfires have scorched […]
In many countries including America, computer models are being used to predict how a fire will burn. Author provided Australia continues to experience unprecedented destruction from bushfires. Now is the time to harness our technological tools, and find innovative ways to help alleviate the problem, and also prevent future disaster. Predictive […]
A firestorm on Mirror Plateaun Yellowstone Park, 1988. Jim Peaco/US National Park Service As the east coast bushfire crisis unfolds, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Rural Fire Service operational officer Brett Taylor have each warned residents bushfires can create their own weather systems. This is not just a figure of […]
The materials used for cladding buildings can greatly affect a building’s overall vulnerability to fire. In Australia, buildings with flammable cladding continue to pose safety concerns. SHUTTERSTOCK Modern buildings have seen rapid development in recent decades, with a push towards sustainable practices and improved energy efficiency. But the advancement of […]
Existing blanket technology can protect an isolated building from a short wildfire attack, but technological advancements are needed for severe situations. Wrapping a building in a fire-protective blanket is a viable way of protecting it against wildfires, finds the first study to scientifically assess this method of defense. By rigorously […]