The most terrifying thing for me was checking in with my 71 year old mother (just recovering from breast cancer) in Port Macquarie, only to be told she’s outside fighting a fire with her 78 year old husband & the local firies…WTF?!! She lived next to a huge reserve, the only thing between her & the fire was a small pond 🤦🏼♀️ She later told me she didn’t feel right leaving the firefighters to do all the work. God love that woman, she’s a bloody legend! 😅
Your mother sounds like a badass; 71, recovering from cancer and out there fighting against some of the biggest wildfires in recorded history. No wonder she's still alive; the grim reaper is too scared to go near her!
@@SH-qs7ee I can’t lie, she’s my hero. So strong & with a work ethic that puts most people to shame. She’s currently organising things so she can lay a concrete pad for her new garden shed! I’ve asked her to wait until I can get there to help but nope she’s going to do it herself! As you can tell I admire her greatly ❤️
@@Reneesillycar74 bloody legend 😂 I'm south of there and yeah everyone who had leg's was trying to help where possible. There's no stopping a good woman and your nan sounds awesome, bless her cotton socks ❤😂
I was in the bee's nest bushfire, the first of the fires that summer. We had absolutely no idea what was coming, and we foolishly prepared our property for a light grass fire, expecting it to come across the road in front of our farm, and we would put in out at the road with the help of the local fire brigade. At 6pm on the 6th of Sept, the sky went black and by 8pm it started raining sparks and burning sticks. Within 5 minutes, the world caught fire, I remember the forest behind the house literally exploding into flames because the air was so hot. My family was frantically carrying water around putting out fires that popped up next to house and the sheds. It's still a miracle we survived, and without any help from fire brigades until the fire was well over. They even brought the police with them as they expected us to be dead. The farm has slowly recovered over the years and by some miracle, no one, not even the cows were harmed
omg, I'm so glad that you and your family survived. I cannot even imagine the level of terror you must have felt at that time. I'm glad that your cows were unharmed, too.
It is hard to express how terrible those fires were. It went on for months down the east coast. The sky went black and everything around you appeared red. The smoke was horrible. Sydney was badly affected. Then the anxiety about the people you know near the fires who may lose their homes. Many people did lose their homes. My cousin’s farm caught fire but their house was luckily spared. Less fortunately, the nearby town lost many shops and houses. I’d never before seen fires like this in my life, but sadly I fear this will happen again.
We’ve just had a non stop rain winter.... so hopefully we will have a few years b4 fires start again.... although we can never be certain.... it’s always something ! But these were the worst.. !
Very well articulated. It truly was a living hell and I don't think I'll ever fully recover from it emotionally. My family and I lived just outside of Marysville in 2009 when the Black Saturday bushfires happened and my parents ended up moving to Mallacoota in 2010 to be closer to our extended family and came very close to losing their house in the 2020 bushfires. It was like the worst déjà vu imaginable, there really aren't words to describe it. Every time summer comes around I find myself in a constant state of fear yet I still consider myself and my family some of the lucky ones.
@@Emily-zp1jf WOW, they got a double whammy And so many people from Mallacoota evacuated up here in the Bega Valley to keep safe, then we copped the fires as well....
If I can remember correctly, I think it went as far as Chile. They were experiencing blood red sunsets due to the smoke haze and a dusting of ash everywhere.
Our ex-PM's response to the bushfires is one of the biggest reasons he was so hated. He literally snuck off to Hawaii for a secret holiday while all of Australia burned. He then had the PM's office LIE about his whereabouts until photos came out proving he was in Hawaii with his Qanon mates, said he'd return early - but didn't. Australian citizens were stranded on beaches surrounded by fires while he was holidaying on a Hawaii beach. And that was just when the fires were initially burning. He said super cringe shit like "I don't hold a hose, mate" when called out on it. The greatest thing to come out of this tragedy was footage of residents of burnt towns shouting at Morrison when he tried to turn up for a photoshoot. Highly recommend you check out "Australia fires: Morrison heckled by bushfire victims - BBC News" which shows it and explains a bit more.
So PM Morrison lit the fires himself? Is he not allowed to take his family for a short holiday during our summer break? He came back when he realised that he was needed. What was he supposed to do? There was an interim PM, there were fire services in place, there were our volunteer emergency service personnel on the ground and in the air. They are trained specifically for this type of emergency. All you have done is devalue their contribution to the communities. Nobody started these fires, they happen every year. 🥵🥵
@@felicitymoore7340 no he just did nothing and prior to the fires was warned this could happen so so cut the funding of the fire-fighters almost by half to funnel money into his rich corporate mates
You're overhyping it just like the leftist media did while tryinh to score cheap political points. Now you're spewing the same anti Scott Morisson nonsense. Fire response is a state issue. Not sure what you expected the PM to do? Was he not entitled to a holiday with his family? I guess not?
I work for the fire brigade in Victoria as a dispatcher. That was definitely a difficult summer. If you're interested in knowing more, look into Black Saturday and Ash Wednesday for some further insight.... 🇦🇺
I remember Black Saturday very well sadly. Lost many and have a few friends that barely managed to survive the Marysville fire front by literally the skin of their rear bumper bar. They were flying down the Marroondah HWY art 190 kph with the fire front licking their bumper. The entire back of their car was melted and charred, but they were alive. And i have neices and nephews who lost many many young little friends in the Marysville horror.
There is a great documentary about the black Saturday bushfire called inside the Firestorm. Very much worth a watch to give people an idea of what it is actually like. It is beyond harrowing.
Depends what metric you are using. 34 people died in 2019-2020, but 173 died on Black Saturday 2009, 14 million hectares of land burned in 2019-2020, the bushfires of 1974-75 burnt up 117 million hectares. It's more accurate to say the 2019-2020 bushfires are among the worst of which Australia has many.
@@TheZodiacz Emergency services learnt a LOT from 2009, those lessons are the only reason more people didn't die. As for the fires in the 70's - look at the locations involved compared 5o populationcentres, it will tell you WHY 2019-20 are considered worse.
My uncle and auntie from east gippsland lost their house, property and 3/4 of their livestock. The fire burnt so hot near their place that sand was turning to glass. Their still not allowed to return the surrounding forests because of dangers of falling trees. They've moved in with us in Canberra and plan to return when the land heals up a bit more. It was a terrible time mate.
I live in Melbourne. We were choking on the smoke in Ringwood. I remember driving home coughing my lungs out more than once but nothing compares to your relatives went through 😢
Terrible memories of that time. Even in the cities there was smoke everywhere for months, it was constantly on everyone’s minds the devastation that was happening around us.
@@sandsand5483 What got me were the sounds. I had experienced bushfires before, but not like that. It’s hard to describe - like being surrounded by the most ferocious wind. Then the trees would explode. I was thinking, “This is the end of us”. Didn’t like Morrison before the fires; loathed his guts during and after the fires. “Do you want me to get out a hose?” or some words to that effect. No, we wanted to get your arse home from Hawaii and do you bloody job as the PM!
@@sherrylovegood he said “I’m not a firey, I don’t carry a hose” he really disgusted me when he did bother to visit us in devastated communities and when people refused to shake his hand he tried to grab at them….. how he didn’t get punched in the face remains a mystery to me. Is security wasn’t THAT close at hand.
@@janedoe4471 I think I would have wanted to spit on the ground. Of course I would never, but I would feel that disgusted and outraged. If I don’t take your hand, you keep your hands off me. He’s such a git! Good riddance to him!
The sheer devastation brought by these fires was unmatched, to further grasp the carnage caused by the fires I recommend viewing actual footage of the fires and their aftermath. Billions of animals died across the country, 34 people lost their lives and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. I live in an area that was basically in the centre of a ring of fire, still years on you see reminders of the devastation daily. 3 American pilots who came over to help fight the fires died in a plane crash whilst on a water bombing mission. The whole community mourned their death, they died trying to save strangers. I believe that they were all parents to young children.
The initial studies are pointing to at least 500 different species of plants and animals that are now at least endangered because of the fires. Some are predicting up to 1400.
As a volunteer firey here in western aus this is pretty hard to watch. The majority of our firefighters are volunteers. Some brigades have to buy their own equipment. I put myself on the list to rotate with eastern states crews but we had too many fires of our own. The boys and girls of our emergency services are the purest embodiment of the Australian spirit. You need help, we come. Anywhere, anyone, any time. We give our all. It's the footage of the boys at the end of the shift that gets me, I've been there - totally physically and emotionally spent, muscles wrecked, lungs and eyes burning.. nothing left and she's still alight. I salute all those who perished, and the boys who answered the call and didn't come home. My greatest fear is burnover and being stuck inside a truck. My skin crawls thinking about it. That's not how I go. I won't be found burned up in a car, i won't. I won't.
Cheers lads. Someone's gotta do it, may as well be me. My heroes are the blokes in the brigades with wives and kids - I'm single no kids, they have a hell of a lot more to lose than I do.
Fire is a part of the Eucalyptus' life cycle. It is needed to open up their seed pods, as well as clearing out the brush to make way for trees to take hold. That said, those fires were burning way, way too hot for it to serve that purpose and instead just destroyed countless habitats
I’m from a region in Victoria called east Gippsland, we were impacted by the 2019/20 fires, and now we have flooded. It’s a cycle. We remain Gippsland strong. I remember the warnings to stay inside away from smoke and thinking “stuff that it’s hotter than hell and the power is out” I went outside, it felt suffocating, went back inside resumed melting.
This affected almost everyone here. My friends had to run for their lives and fled to the beach. They spent the night on the beach with so many people and their pets…dogs, horses, sheep, and the wildlife, of course. The airborne ash was really worrying. Many of our native plants rely on the heat of a bushfire to regenerate.
My property was wiped out on New Year’s Eve 2019 and my husband is our RFS captain and faced it. Worst day of my life besides our son had only just passed away before it. Awful times 😭
28 July 2020 - Nearly three billion animals - mammals, reptiles, birds, and frogs - were killed or displaced by Australia's devastating 2019-20 bushfires. Peace out.
We went for months without seeing the blue sky or sun, the days were orange tinted and the nights stank of smoke. Multiple times a day I'd check the bushfire service webpage 'fires near me' keeping track of fire locations and checking with friends if they needed a place to evacuate to. Office building where full of smoke a faint haze brought in by the Air conditioners and it went on for months. you drove with your lights on during the day just to make you more visible. You wondered if we'd loose whole suburbs again and you keep your ears open for the sound of rotors looking up at the sound to see if it was a water bombing chopper indicating the fires were near. There are some plants in Australia that need wild fire to germinate with seed pods that don't open until exposed to the heat of fire. many of our trees are adapted to fire having barks designed to char creating protective layers and special buds just below the surface of the bark that will burst forth.
I wish kangaroo islands fires were included in that video, the impacts on the land were crazy from what I’ve heard, my Aunty evacuated but had to eventually evacuate the whole island because of how big the fires were
Kangaroo island, WA, Queensland. The whole country was on fire. Even the NT was burning. That was a crazy start to a mind boggling next 2 years with covid and what not
@@frenchys_prospecting thie satellite video only covered 4 days so missed a lot. The fires on KI were horrendous. I hope that your Aunt is ok. It is hard to recover from something like that.
The wild fires actually started around the time of my 12th birthday. It was honestly horrible knowing the amount of wildlife and bushland that was being destroyed, along with the massive amount of people trapped in high risk areas. I live further up the coast of Queensland and that area was less affected from the bushfires, but even then the sky was red for days. I still commemorate all the firefighters and emergency personnel, or even anyone that risked their lives to save others.
I think every Ausrtalian - including me - was emotionally devastated by these bush fires . It was broadcast on every news channel daily. There's one image that still haunts me: the charred body of a kangaroo entangled in a barbed-wire fence. The poor creature was fleeing for it's life but the fire moved too fast. When I saw that image, I broke down and cried. I couldn't watch the news any more after that. We had bush fires all up and down the East Coast at that time, too. The fires even spread inland to our local rainforest. An estimated 3 billion animals were killed or harmed by the fires, including 60,000 koalas. Human lives and homes were lost as well. Every firefighter who battled the blaze is a hero in my book. Even among all the devastation, there were glimmers of hope: I saw a photo of a frightened koala clinging to a firefighter's leg, it's arm reaching up to hold his hand. I can only hope that our country doesn't have to go through such total devasatation again. But if it does, Aussies will do what we always do when faced with hardship: we'll pull together and support each other.
It was awful. The town closest to me went up in flames. I would wished someone “all the best” and someone got stuck into me. They said I should be calling for “action”. I could see the flames engulfing the next town and we were packing to evacuate. There was only 1 road into our town and it was blocked. I wanted to throttle that wanker as the embers fell on our house and we were trying to save it, or evacuate to the beach. They were our choices. It was Hell.
@@serenepeacefulrelaxingmusi3874 It’s fine 😀 I’ve been through far more worse things. Our house was saved. Unfortunately I lost it and everything I have ever owned in the divorce. When they tell women, “just leave him”, you lose everything. If you don’t get your things out, he has the right to dispose of everything. That’s our Family Law system. I found out on Friday. I’m still processing it. I’ve got my dog and 3 bags of clothes. Wow.
I went to work in Melbourne cbd, and the thick smoke permeated everything around me. It felt apocalyptic at the time, and 2 months later covid hit. It was scary
In New Zealand, where I live, it was like someone had dimmed the sun for days and everything smelled of smoke. Fine ash fell for ages. The sunsets were spectacular.
Was working in a bedding store at the time, all that smoke, dust & ash was a NIGHTMARE! Touching a leaf that had fallen from the breeze with my boot on a concrete train station platform while traveling home in the orange darkness....it just fell to ash & cinders...no wonder it spread so far, so fast!
It actually started way before Dec 30th, it was more like September through till February all told, when we ended up with so much rain that all the fires went out and we were left flooded....... through the summer you could hardly go outside, people with lung conditions, asthma etc where told to stay inside. You couldnt go bush walking ( fear of death ) you couldn't exercise outside ( lung damage ) .... I ended up in Ulladulla over New Years and we were cut off for 2 days, Highway in and out closed, fires closing in all around, lost electricity and phone signals ( some of us )..... the super market was gutted within a day, with no trucks able to come through, petrol ran dry... it was mayhem, like the end of the world.... a good rehearsal for what followed in March!!! They also said that the ash from Australia changed the colour of the glaciers in New Zealand. To this day, almost 2 years later, there are still natural parts of the south coast that have not recovered / grown / back.
2019 New Year Eve the fire came close to my house . I was on the roof with a hose watering the burtnt leaves falling from the sky. Bloody scary day and night that was. 😳
A friend and her family were among the people who had to be rescued by the Navy. The pictures of hunreds of people huddled on a beach, under a blood-red sky, with no way out except by sea are horrible. But she said the worst thing was the sound of koalas screaming in the trees as they burned to death.
I remember those pictures, they are forever imprinted on my memory. I cannot imagine the horrible PTSD that those sounds, sights and smells created for those who were stuck on that shoreline. We are in Canberra and had to leave our house as a fire was closing in, thankfully it never reached our suburb.
The smoke was so thick in metro Sydney that building fire alarms were going off from fires hundreds of miles away. An estimated 1 billion animals died. It burned an area around the size of Washington State/South Dakota. It was not a good time
Proud to say my Son was amongst the many fire-fighters that volunteered their services during that devastating period IN 2019 when more than half the country was on fire . Thank you all for your service. So Brave.
I live in Australia in the greater Sydney area. I can honestly say it was horrible. The air was thick with smoke. I live miles and miles away from the fires yet embers and ash along with fog filled the air. Quite literally very hard to breathe. It had actually reached 46•C. Even the freezer sections in the supermarket weren’t cold enough. The beach water was like a warm bath tub. We had water restrictions as well. We’d have to cover our faces to breathe and the air would sting your eyes. I’ll never forget it. Ever. It was worse than those sci fi movies.
Fires are sometime beneficial, we have trees that won't germinate unless there is a fire. And they can be scary. But as a side note most people here in Aus refer to them as bushfires, not wildfires.
In normal fires it can be beneficial for some trees to germinate, but not in this case. The temperatures were far too high and mostly destroyed all the trees.
I remember having to sit up all night so I could hit the smoke-alarm shutoff before it went off, every 10minutes or so. Hardwired into my Unit, turning the power off wasn't an option at 90°F. I'm in Canberra.
I live on the West Coast.. our hearts were broken with the fire then floods that ravaged the East coast states. We have had towns destroyed by fire here a few summers ago.. it was dreadful
As an Aussie what also worries me about these fires was that during that fire season of 2019 a fire began in TROPICAL RAINFOREST in far northern Queensland. That situation was unprecedented! The fire burnt in Japoon National Forest for ten days. That is scary!
Unprecedented means it never happened before. Well, in 1948 there was a string of bushfires 800 miles long between Cairns and Maryborough. Cairns had a few bushfires in the early 1950s. I'm sure there were many more.
A large percentage of our firefighters are volunteers, so to say they are brave is an understatement, they are heroes. It's just coming into fire season so time will tell how bad it will be this year.
I was in Moruya roads cut ,water contaminated , no food at Woolworths for 2 weeks . Our former PM thought it'd be a good time to take a holiday in Hawaii , im old enough to remember Ash Wednesday bushfire in 83 i thought that would be the biggest fire id ever see , Ash Wednesday was child's play compared to 2019 . 2019 was the apocalypse
I was living in Brussels when there were an exceptionally high number of fires burning across several states of Australia. My local work colleagues had no concept of their size. I then said “Think of multiple fires burning all the way from Sweden to Spain”! Then they understood…
The fierys... most of them complete volunteers are living hero's. My brother is 1 of them and to him and all Aussie fierys a huge heartfelt thanks for all you do. How u run into the depths of hell willingly is beyond my words
I had 3 firefronts that I could see from the hill behind my house, all within 10Km. You couldn't go outside and still be able to breathe. Was a crazy time. Checking the fire alerts every time you sat down, got up, made a coffee, anything. Checking on family and friends 10+ times a day.
Check out the 2009 Firestorms in Victoria, Over 1000 homes destroyed close to 2000 people burned to death. They were close to our home at the time. But we weren't burnt out. Terrified is an understatement.
The 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires destroyed 2,000 homes and killed nearly 180 people, not 2,000. Most died from smoke inhalation or lack of oxygen. It was bad but still, don’t exaggerate.
I've been in the NSW Rural Fire Service as a volunteer for 40 years and in a Govt fire research organisation. My work was developing a water spray crew protection system for the trucks. It is called the halo system and saved many firefighters in NSW and Victoria during these times. The pictures from inside the fire truck are in my brigade. We were crewing trucks for towards six months straight... Bush Fires, then covid, then repeated worst flooding on record.
We also had help from American and Canadian fire fighters, who sacrificed their Christmas with their families to come and help our own fire fighters and to give them some relief, which was a lovely and amazing thing to do
I lived almost right in the heart of where a lot of these fires were in Gippsland, Victoria and this was by far the scariest and most devastating thing I’ve ever seen. I recommend looking up, “We are Australian - Australia’s bushfires” it’s a slideshow video on YT which shows the massive devastation and is guaranteed to bring out the tears
Its no laughing matter. Hi from Australia- I live in a fire zone -along with most of the population. We've had fires just across from us and in 2019-all around everybody actually- even Sydney had a few spot fires. Plenty of smoke too- it wiped out whole Communities and people have lost lives, livestock and their homes. Love your reactions, Ryan. It's refreshing to see how you see Australia. Catch ya later mayte.
One of my sons who is in the CFA was in the firefighting efforts at Mallacoota. I've never been worried so much about one of my kids as I was then, and damn proud of him at the same time.
Before, during and after this fires shows the resilience of the Ozzie people. Our area north nsw had floods into drought into fires then floods again, but we survive. So proud to be Australian.
Hey Ryan!!! 7:00 I can see my house from here!! Adelaide is in the top left of the screen, the little green patch on the smaller jutty out bit, with coastline directly North to South haha.. Melbourne is the inverse V bay in the centre and Tasmania is due South (Mostly hidden by clouds).. We have major bushfires every few years.. But this got very close to populated areas.. 41c is 105.8 °F.. In South Australia, we have dry desert heat from the North West deserts. It can be over 31c/88f at MIDNIGHT during Summer. And EVERY ONE of those fire fighters is a volunteer.. Our Country Fire Service/Association in each State.. Absolute heroes..
Yeah we had drought from 2017-19 first then the 2019 Black Christmas bushfires then COVID and lockdown from March 2020 to approx Sept Oct 21 and then weve had back to back floods in various regions of NSW since March 2021. People have been in fire or flood recovery mode or unstable employment conditions for nearly 3 years. Its been a tough time for a lot of folk in the eastern states.
On 4 Jan 2020 I was on a flight from Melbourne to Canberra that flew through a cumulonimbus flammagenitus cloud. Apparently they create their own weather event that can’t be picked up on a planes radar. Utterly terrifying! We dropped several thousand feed in minutes. While I’m still terrified of flying to this day, It’s nothing compared to those living in small towns along the NSW South Coast. So many people lost everything, and it was estimated THREE BILLION animals died. We will always remember the Black Summer 😞
There was one documentary with what happened to pregnant woman's babies. They weren't reaching milestones. Midwives were asking if the mother was smoking during pregnancy as the placentas were grey and grainy rather than pink with babies being born tiny.
Ryan, living in a town in the upper Blue Mountains of NSW, we spent from the end of November 2019, to the beginning of March 2020, watching fires move towards us from both North , West and South.. It was emotionally exhausting for the whole community... and then COVID killed the tourism on which many of our businesses depended.. Still recovering ...
I live on the east coast of Australia. Our house is about 200 metres from the ocean. We were getting blacks raining on us from bush fires that were over 50km away from us. We also had to prepare to evacuate as the fires were creating their own weather patterns and sending fires balls kms ahead of itself, starting spot fire and making new bush fire. It was something I've never seen before at that scale.
It was harrowing. I was living in North East Victoria in the King Valley. My Boss said to me "no fuck off and go home, grab whatever shit you need and leave". People in the country tend to know someone who knows more than the authorities, always. I was about 15ks from work to home. I was throwing important stuff in my car and got the call to evacuate immediately. My brother and his family live in the Tallangatta Valley which is further north. They were also evacuated and for days we all stayed at Mum's house monitoring what was happening, and realising there was always someone worse off than ourselves. My brother and his family had bought our family home in the Tallangatta Valley. Dad's ashes were scattered and his plaque was there on his favourite tree. One wind shift and that home was gone. In true Aussie fashion we all got plastered and joked about how Dad would piss himself laughing if he got cremated twice. It's indescribable how to paint what those days were like. Day was like night with with an atomic orange hue. We all survived, as did our houses. So many didn't and it humbles you to think how close you came to losing everything.
I was on the freeway at Bulladelah on the day of the big Taree fire trying to get to my parents on the mid north coast. The coppers closed the freeway off right in front of me and I had to drive the 6 hours back home. It all worked out fine but I wish I’d managed to get to my folks. They were fine in the end but it was a nasty week of heavy smoke for them. Then we had the same thing in my city.
I was super lucky not to be directly caught in the fires, but I know people who were. I remember calling them and checking in with them all the time, asking if they needed a place to evacuate to or just asking if they were doing ok.
As an Australian it’s really hard to find the words to express the devastation and the fear of it happening again as we enter the new summer season here. It was like a movie apocalyptic world. Smoke, blood sky’s, heat, people losing everything, and the amount of wildlife that died was catastrophic. This is a global issue, it’s a global warming disaster, yes Australia definitely needs to change our fossil fuel industry but the government rarely listens to the people. There are many countries impacting these issues. For example the hole in the ozone layer is above the lower part of Australia and Antarctica which has caused huge issues with drought and skin cancer (a devastating disease here). As we have little protection from the suns UV radiation, and while it is healing the hole was caused by cfcs released into the atmosphere from many many countries, Australia and Antartica paid the price.
No one ever tells you how LOUD fires are. The noise is incredible and it really is a beast - it roars, it screams whole trees explode so it can be a bit worrying.
I've experienced a most of our big bush fires. I used to live in Melbourne when Ash Wendesday happened. That afternoon the smoke came over and late afternoon day went to night almost. I now live in Penrith dase of the Blue Mountains and had some bad fires around the area.
We were one of the worst areas hit, the mid nth coast of NSW. We got trapped in Queensland for 2 weeks due to the coast of NSW on fire only to be told my area was being evacuated by a neighbour until the phone cut out permanently. I sat and watched on TV In horror not knowing if I had a home, property or my animals to go back to. When the highway finally was declared safe enough to travel but at our own risk, I did a runner to get back, choking on the smoke...it was terrifying. Fires still burning either side of the car for 8 hrs. Our eyes were even burning and stops made where flames were jumping the highway. Finally I broke down in a bucket of tears driving down my driveway. Through all the smoke my farm was still standing. For weeks we had to watch flames licking the mountains that surround us. Helicopters filling up from dams wherever possible flying overhead constantly. We all had emergency bags packed permanently near the front door and water pumps at the dam fully ready to go if need be. A way out for everyone's cattle or animals was made. No sleep for the many was common during these fire's. Cow's were trying to swim frantically some washing up on beaches 6km down the river through our main town. Cattle walking dazed through streets and ppl's yards. Townsfolk even locked them in their house yards for safety. We were cut off from everything and were running out of food even. Water contamination became an issue due to animal faeces from wildlife jumping into water supplies to escape and soot. Then after it was over the army came in to help clean up. All we needed was a shoulder to cry on and support. Many lost everything and more. Wildlife devastated us all, millions burnt alive and those who made it were suffering. Messages and support from the world was phenomenal and gratitude plentiful. No one deserved more accolade than our Firefighters and Emergency Services. You had to see it, to believe it !
I've been through 2 heavy duty fires. When we lived in Yengo National Park outside Sydney. You can't fight a wildfire. Its best to get out and hope your house makes it. Yeah, well both times our house was lucky. Many around us wern't though. The sound of such a fire is like 100 jets taking off. Soles of my boots got melted
In 2009 there was a bushfire in Victoria and the firestorms where travelling at over 100 miles per hour. 172 people died and the fire storm travelled so fast that cars were unable to outrun it.
A bit late to this, but I’m an early childhood educator and during these fires, the children were obviously not allowed outside. I will never forget when the smoke got so bad and the sky was so red that one of the preschoolers looked me dead in the eyes and asked me if they were gonna die. We were no where near the fires but I nearly cried when he asked me and all I could do was laugh it off and say I’d never let that happen and give him a cuddle
This was the most concerned I, in New Zealand, ever was for Australia. The sky was red here for days. It was like a light red fog. And it was the smoke from wildfires in a country thousands of kilometres away. It'd be like the skies in southern Canada turning red from the smoke of fires in Mexico.
I live in Sydney & I remember the city & suburbs where covered in a cloud of smoke & there was an eerie black/red tint to the sky for a couple of weeks. There was ash covering all the cars & lawns, I remember seeing burnt leaves flying around the neighbourhood. We couldn't hang our clothes out (even inside) without them smelling of smoke. We had to roll up towels & put them under the doors to try to stop the smoke coming in because my nephew who lives with us has asthma. There were reports of people calling 000 (emergency services) because they could smell the smoke & thought their house or a neighbouring house was on fire. And all of this was just what affected us who weren't in direct danger of the fires coming to our house.
You will be pleased to know that Australia is forecast to have another La Nina spring/summer season for the third time in a row. La Niña events increase the chances of above-average rainfall for northern and eastern Australia during spring and summer. The severe drought which gripped much of the country at the time of the bush fires occurred during a very long period of weather dominated by El Nino. This came to an end a few years ago. The transformation from El Nino to La Nina has been profound and has changed the landscape, where heavy and regular rainfall has turned it green once again. This has been a Godsend not just to humans, in particula the agricultural sector, but it has helped vegetation and wildlife populations to recover. This cycle is a typical of weather in Australia but with climate change brought about by global warming, the cycles have changed as well. We rarely get three La Ninas in a row. In fact, it has only happened twice since 1900!
The sky in Auckland New Zealand was yellow. It was eerie and we could actually smell eucalyptus smoke for days. Some of our firefighters were over there helping out as they do when needed.
I was caught smack in the middle of the Ash Wednesday bushfires and on the cusp of the black Saturday bushfires (grew up where they started and lived just down the road) but I was lucky enough to not witness any part of the 2019/20 fires but my heart goes out to all that did.
I was on a train that had to drive through the middle of a bushfire last month. I knew it was a bush fire, but the train was full of city folk, and to help quell the panic, I brushed it off as the farmers doing a burn-off whilst on the inside having a bit of a panic because just after we got through and the southbound train also got through the train line was shut until the fire was out. We are now on restriction in New South Wales. We can not light fires without permits, and if you do, you can be fined and or sent to jail for it. We are in drought again, water is scarce, and the bush is just waiting for a fool to do something like through out a cigaret butt, an empty glass bottle to magnify the sun into a burn spot, or anything else and the bush will be off threatening live, homes, towns and livelihoods once again.
We were living in New Zealand in 2019, and flew home to Perth for Christmas, then flew back to Auckland in the first week of January, 2020. The smoke clouds actually looked black out of the window, all the way from our east coast to NZ. I took pictures from my window seat, but cannot obviously share here. It was a stinking hot Christmas 2019, with a high of 45C Christmas Day, in Perth, but our fire season was nowhere near as bad as the east coast. There are some native plants and trees that only release their seeds after fires, and that’s what the commentator meant by benefits of fire, plus the land can also become very fertile after a fire.
It was an honestly terrifying time. In 2 weeks of a fire burning mere hundreds of metres from our home, sleep was minimal with our house being under direct threat 6 times. We were lucky sustaining no damage to our property, however we know many people who lost everything. Most people forgot the fires even happened if they weren't affected due to the occurrence of COVID so soon after, however, almost 3 years on the mental and emotional impact is still being felt. Hearing that the upcoming summer is supposed to be another mild one was a massive weight lifted off the shoulders of all Australians who experienced the fires of 2019/2020.
Living in New Zealand there was a period of about half a week where the skies were just yellow / orange due to the amount of smoke coming from Australia. Unreal, can't imagine what it must've been like to actually be in Australia through that summer.
We live right on the edge of a large forested area. Everyone was obsessively watching the fire maps, and I remember the moment we saw a small spot fire start in the forest. I said to my parents "I hope they knock that on the head quick, because if they don't..." They didn't manage to put it out. Day by day, it spread up and up the forest, widening as it went. After a few days, we could see the smoke over the horizon. Then it started blanketing the entire area. The sky went dark and what light made it through was blood red. It felt like we were on Mars. Then the fireies held a town meeting. They told us that the fire was coming, and that if it crossed the gorge, there was nothing they could do. They wouldn't even attempt to save anything because it was just too dangerous. They told everyone that if they *could* leave, to do it right now. As in, go home, pack, and leave before the end of the day. This was right around Christmas. My brother and his fiancee were visiting from overseas. We had Christmas, then bundled them off to Canberra to wait for their flight back. We packed everything up and left. We had nowhere to go, so my parents bought an old second hand caravan from someone a few hundred kilometers away, and we spent New Year's parked up in a small town away from the fires. Watching the map, waiting to see if it would burn the house out. It took days. The fireies were holding it back, but couldn't put it out. So the fire line crept forward little by little. Even as far out as we were, the smoke still followed us. Some nights, it was so thick that you could only see a few meters ahead with a torch. We had to sit with wet dishtowels or shirts wrapped over our faces to keep from breathing it in. It got to the point where we were hoping it would just hurry up and burn the house down so we could get it over and done with and start to move on. I think we were up there for over two weeks before we could finally head back. We didn't lose anything, so we were very lucky. I remember driving down the road where the fire had been stopped, less than 5 minutes from where we live. Everything down one side of the road was black and charred. We spent the rest of the summer on pins and needles. There was another fire warning right inside the area we live, but it thankfully didn't take, and was put out in minutes. We all had the Fires Near Me app on our phones with a loud alarm sound set for any fires starting within 50km. It went off every few days, and every time it did we had to check to see if we needed to run. Then we had the rains that overwhelmed the gutters and leaked through the roof, doing some damage. In the end, water did more damage to the house than the fires did, which is a bit ironic. What really sucks is that the government was WARNED this was going to happen. They had time to prepare. They did nothing. Instead, the Prime Minister went on holiday and refused to come home even as the country burned until he was practically dragged kicking and screaming. I will never, ever forgive him or his party for that. He proved exactly what value he placed on human life: none whatsoever. All he was interested in was photo ops.
My sister and myself evacuated with the pets. The fires ended up not getting all the way to our house, but we stayed with a friend for the week that everyone lived in darkness.
During the fires was horrible, The entire East cost was on fire. From Queensland to Victoria. I'm about 3 hours North of Sydney. We had multiple fire surrounding, the smoke was that bad the skies was white haze. I lived near a national park. Myself include others along the road we lived lost their homes. However our house has only just been rebuilt in the last few months. After 3 years. My heart also goes out to all the firefighters we help during those times. And all the people who banned together after to donate food, clothing essentials etc, for people.
I live in Western Sydney, at the base of the Blue Mountains....the fires were horrific. You couldn't be outside because it was hard to breathe, it was so hot and it was just devastating. The animals we lost is heartbreaking and the people who suffered and lost their lives or home was also heartbreaking. I just we hope we never go through it again
I lived in Sydney during all of this, there was at least a full week of not seeing the sun, if you looked up, all you could see was orange. And on some nights, you could see the glow over the horizon
I live in the Greater Sydney region. It was bad, it was really quite scary. The heat was horrendous and the skies were dark from smoke every single day. I ended up joining up with people and we delivered things to the fire fighters in our area (food, water, masks etc). The south coast was worse. There are intense photos of people lined up on the beach and it's completely red around them. Honestly though, it's all crazy to think back on how bad and terrifying it was to see everything around us burning, and waking up to the smell of smoke and fire every single day. Now, we have to deal with all the flooding. which is almost as devastating tbh
We had the Gospers Mountain Fire (the Megafire in NSW) right near our backyard (Near Lithgow NSW). I remember being able to see the flames up on the mountains (from down in the valley) from my backyard. Thankfully by that point this was the most south that fire had travelled, and we only had a couple spot fires that the bucket brigade put out before the RFS came round.
Some people had to flee on to beaches just to get away and stand a chance of surviving. A town near me was under threat, but they thankfully were able to get it back under control and the trees and other plants are starting to heal which is nice to see
I was living in Melbourne CBD at the time of these bushfires. Keep in mind that this is about 300km away from the main fires in the Gippsland region. I have photos of that time where the Melbourne CBD was covered in a red cloud/smoke. You'd walk out the door and be hit with a 45 degree wall of solid heat. Walking to and from the shops at the time was hell, and I remind you that I was 300km away fro the actual fires.
Here in Aus about 15 years ago there was a huge fire in my area. Embers were raining on my house, I had to call my dad to get him home so we could both put out spot fires. The sky was red and black. It stank. In the morning things weren't better, the sky was orange and red all day, then again the embers came and the black clouds rolled in. Bloody nightmare.
The most terrifying thing for me was checking in with my 71 year old mother (just recovering from breast cancer) in Port Macquarie, only to be told she’s outside fighting a fire with her 78 year old husband & the local firies…WTF?!! She lived next to a huge reserve, the only thing between her & the fire was a small pond 🤦🏼♀️ She later told me she didn’t feel right leaving the firefighters to do all the work. God love that woman, she’s a bloody legend! 😅
Your mother sounds like a badass; 71, recovering from cancer and out there fighting against some of the biggest wildfires in recorded history.
No wonder she's still alive; the grim reaper is too scared to go near her!
@@SH-qs7ee I can’t lie, she’s my hero. So strong & with a work ethic that puts most people to shame. She’s currently organising things so she can lay a concrete pad for her new garden shed! I’ve asked her to wait until I can get there to help but nope she’s going to do it herself! As you can tell I admire her greatly ❤️
Legend
@@Reneesillycar74 bloody legend 😂 I'm south of there and yeah everyone who had leg's was trying to help where possible. There's no stopping a good woman and your nan sounds awesome, bless her cotton socks ❤😂
@@louisekindred0059 ❤️
I was in the bee's nest bushfire, the first of the fires that summer. We had absolutely no idea what was coming, and we foolishly prepared our property for a light grass fire, expecting it to come across the road in front of our farm, and we would put in out at the road with the help of the local fire brigade. At 6pm on the 6th of Sept, the sky went black and by 8pm it started raining sparks and burning sticks. Within 5 minutes, the world caught fire, I remember the forest behind the house literally exploding into flames because the air was so hot. My family was frantically carrying water around putting out fires that popped up next to house and the sheds. It's still a miracle we survived, and without any help from fire brigades until the fire was well over. They even brought the police with them as they expected us to be dead.
The farm has slowly recovered over the years and by some miracle, no one, not even the cows were harmed
omg, I'm so glad that you and your family survived. I cannot even imagine the level of terror you must have felt at that time. I'm glad that your cows were unharmed, too.
It is hard to express how terrible those fires were. It went on for months down the east coast. The sky went black and everything around you appeared red. The smoke was horrible. Sydney was badly affected. Then the anxiety about the people you know near the fires who may lose their homes. Many people did lose their homes. My cousin’s farm caught fire but their house was luckily spared. Less fortunately, the nearby town lost many shops and houses. I’d never before seen fires like this in my life, but sadly I fear this will happen again.
We’ve just had a non stop rain winter.... so hopefully we will have a few years b4 fires start again.... although we can never be certain.... it’s always something !
But these were the worst.. !
Yeah was alot of smoke, I live near Newcastle.
With a name like Tyrrell you sound like a Bega boy
Very well articulated. It truly was a living hell and I don't think I'll ever fully recover from it emotionally. My family and I lived just outside of Marysville in 2009 when the Black Saturday bushfires happened and my parents ended up moving to Mallacoota in 2010 to be closer to our extended family and came very close to losing their house in the 2020 bushfires. It was like the worst déjà vu imaginable, there really aren't words to describe it. Every time summer comes around I find myself in a constant state of fear yet I still consider myself and my family some of the lucky ones.
@@Emily-zp1jf WOW, they got a double whammy
And so many people from Mallacoota evacuated up here in the Bega Valley to keep safe, then we copped the fires as well....
ryan people in new zealand had ash within that smoke falling on their cars and homes thats how bad it was
Poor bloody kiwis. They didn't even cause it but they have to suffer.
If I can remember correctly, I think it went as far as Chile. They were experiencing blood red sunsets due to the smoke haze and a dusting of ash everywhere.
@@illusionalquestions Yes and also having floods, while we had drought and heatwaves. El Nino/La Nina is opposite for them.
And plus it was soo bad that it managed to be seen from the Northern Atlantic side of the world
Our ex-PM's response to the bushfires is one of the biggest reasons he was so hated. He literally snuck off to Hawaii for a secret holiday while all of Australia burned. He then had the PM's office LIE about his whereabouts until photos came out proving he was in Hawaii with his Qanon mates, said he'd return early - but didn't. Australian citizens were stranded on beaches surrounded by fires while he was holidaying on a Hawaii beach.
And that was just when the fires were initially burning. He said super cringe shit like "I don't hold a hose, mate" when called out on it.
The greatest thing to come out of this tragedy was footage of residents of burnt towns shouting at Morrison when he tried to turn up for a photoshoot. Highly recommend you check out "Australia fires: Morrison heckled by bushfire victims - BBC News" which shows it and explains a bit more.
So PM Morrison lit the fires himself? Is he not allowed to take his family for a short holiday during our summer break? He came back when he realised that he was needed. What was he supposed to do? There was an interim PM, there were fire services in place, there were our volunteer emergency service personnel on the ground and in the air. They are trained specifically for this type of emergency. All you have done is devalue their contribution to the communities. Nobody started these fires, they happen every year. 🥵🥵
@@felicitymoore7340 no one is saying that
@@Reddzion 😂😂
@@felicitymoore7340 no he just did nothing and prior to the fires was warned this could happen so so cut the funding of the fire-fighters almost by half to funnel money into his rich corporate mates
You're overhyping it just like the leftist media did while tryinh to score cheap political points. Now you're spewing the same anti Scott Morisson nonsense. Fire response is a state issue. Not sure what you expected the PM to do? Was he not entitled to a holiday with his family? I guess not?
I work for the fire brigade in Victoria as a dispatcher. That was definitely a difficult summer. If you're interested in knowing more, look into Black Saturday and Ash Wednesday for some further insight.... 🇦🇺
I remember Black Saturday very well sadly. Lost many and have a few friends that barely managed to survive the Marysville fire front by literally the skin of their rear bumper bar. They were flying down the Marroondah HWY art 190 kph with the fire front licking their bumper.
The entire back of their car was melted and charred, but they were alive. And i have neices and nephews who lost many many young little friends in the Marysville horror.
Thank you! Thank you!Thank you for all you do!
@@hayleydavis1449 I am grateful for having a job I love that makes a difference ❤️
@@missqiqilamour 💕
There is a great documentary about the black Saturday bushfire called inside the Firestorm. Very much worth a watch to give people an idea of what it is actually like. It is beyond harrowing.
January 2020 we had the worst bush fires in history. February we had massive floods and March COVID.
Depends what metric you are using. 34 people died in 2019-2020, but 173 died on Black Saturday 2009, 14 million hectares of land burned in 2019-2020, the bushfires of 1974-75 burnt up 117 million hectares. It's more accurate to say the 2019-2020 bushfires are among the worst of which Australia has many.
@@TheZodiacz Emergency services learnt a LOT from 2009, those lessons are the only reason more people didn't die. As for the fires in the 70's - look at the locations involved compared 5o populationcentres, it will tell you WHY 2019-20 are considered worse.
@@TheZodiacz Estimates put smoke-related deaths to 445
January 2021 2022 had floods Again
yeah 2020 didn't really go well for Australia from the start.
My uncle and auntie from east gippsland lost their house, property and 3/4 of their livestock. The fire burnt so hot near their place that sand was turning to glass. Their still not allowed to return the surrounding forests because of dangers of falling trees. They've moved in with us in Canberra and plan to return when the land heals up a bit more. It was a terrible time mate.
Yeah I go to east Gippsland every year and damn it was smokey
But east Gippsland is a very beautiful place
When we went there during the fires we supported the local shops because everything was very horrible
I live in Melbourne. We were choking on the smoke in Ringwood. I remember driving home coughing my lungs out more than once but nothing compares to your relatives went through 😢
How horrible! I am very sorry for your loss.
Im from Australia and when i saw the title i was scared but then i saw the video i was like oh
Yeah same
Terrible memories of that time. Even in the cities there was smoke everywhere for months, it was constantly on everyone’s minds the devastation that was happening around us.
Hah... felt like the end of the world... I remember saying "well, whatever happens next can't be worse"
Covid was like: hold my beer
@@sandsand5483 What got me were the sounds. I had experienced bushfires before, but not like that. It’s hard to describe - like being surrounded by the most ferocious wind. Then the trees would explode.
I was thinking, “This is the end of us”. Didn’t like Morrison before the fires; loathed his guts during and after the fires. “Do you want me to get out a hose?” or some words to that effect.
No, we wanted to get your arse home from Hawaii and do you bloody job as the PM!
I was lucky enough to not be directly effected by the fires but it was still horrifyingly close glad that time is mostly behind us
@@sherrylovegood he said “I’m not a firey, I don’t carry a hose” he really disgusted me when he did bother to visit us in devastated communities and when people refused to shake his hand he tried to grab at them….. how he didn’t get punched in the face remains a mystery to me. Is security wasn’t THAT close at hand.
@@janedoe4471 I think I would have wanted to spit on the ground. Of course I would never, but I would feel that disgusted and outraged. If I don’t take your hand, you keep your hands off me. He’s such a git! Good riddance to him!
The sheer devastation brought by these fires was unmatched, to further grasp the carnage caused by the fires I recommend viewing actual footage of the fires and their aftermath. Billions of animals died across the country, 34 people lost their lives and thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. I live in an area that was basically in the centre of a ring of fire, still years on you see reminders of the devastation daily. 3 American pilots who came over to help fight the fires died in a plane crash whilst on a water bombing mission. The whole community mourned their death, they died trying to save strangers. I believe that they were all parents to young children.
The initial studies are pointing to at least 500 different species of plants and animals that are now at least endangered because of the fires. Some are predicting up to 1400.
We also had floods after the fires, then Covid hit! We’re pretty tough & look after each other but some folks homes have not yet been replaced!
As a volunteer firey here in western aus this is pretty hard to watch. The majority of our firefighters are volunteers. Some brigades have to buy their own equipment. I put myself on the list to rotate with eastern states crews but we had too many fires of our own.
The boys and girls of our emergency services are the purest embodiment of the Australian spirit. You need help, we come. Anywhere, anyone, any time. We give our all.
It's the footage of the boys at the end of the shift that gets me, I've been there - totally physically and emotionally spent, muscles wrecked, lungs and eyes burning.. nothing left and she's still alight.
I salute all those who perished, and the boys who answered the call and didn't come home.
My greatest fear is burnover and being stuck inside a truck. My skin crawls thinking about it. That's not how I go. I won't be found burned up in a car, i won't. I won't.
💙
Thank you for your service mate. You guys are the unsung heroes
West Aussie here. Thanks for your service.
@@mattp5843 Absolutely.
Cheers lads. Someone's gotta do it, may as well be me. My heroes are the blokes in the brigades with wives and kids - I'm single no kids, they have a hell of a lot more to lose than I do.
Fire is a part of the Eucalyptus' life cycle. It is needed to open up their seed pods, as well as clearing out the brush to make way for trees to take hold.
That said, those fires were burning way, way too hot for it to serve that purpose and instead just destroyed countless habitats
The white “smoke” rising into the atmosphere, is also the moisture coming from the live trees burning.
I’m from a region in Victoria called east Gippsland, we were impacted by the 2019/20 fires, and now we have flooded. It’s a cycle. We remain Gippsland strong. I remember the warnings to stay inside away from smoke and thinking “stuff that it’s hotter than hell and the power is out” I went outside, it felt suffocating, went back inside resumed melting.
This affected almost everyone here. My friends had to run for their lives and fled to the beach. They spent the night on the beach with so many people and their pets…dogs, horses, sheep, and the wildlife, of course. The airborne ash was really worrying.
Many of our native plants rely on the heat of a bushfire to regenerate.
We friends down in Mallacoota doing that too. Was so thankful when I heard they were ok
My property was wiped out on New Year’s Eve 2019 and my husband is our RFS captain and faced it. Worst day of my life besides our son had only just passed away before it. Awful times 😭
So sorry for all your loss
Sending love to you xx
Bless you love. Sending peace and healing. I thank your husband for answering the call - WA BFB
Aww thank you all so much I wasn’t expecting all your beautiful reply’s 😘
I'm so sorry to hear that you lost your son. Sending love and hugs. xoxo xoxo
28 July 2020 - Nearly three billion animals - mammals, reptiles, birds, and frogs - were killed or displaced by Australia's devastating 2019-20 bushfires. Peace out.
A very sad time for all our pets & wildlife 😥
We went for months without seeing the blue sky or sun, the days were orange tinted and the nights stank of smoke. Multiple times a day I'd check the bushfire service webpage 'fires near me' keeping track of fire locations and checking with friends if they needed a place to evacuate to. Office building where full of smoke a faint haze brought in by the Air conditioners and it went on for months. you drove with your lights on during the day just to make you more visible. You wondered if we'd loose whole suburbs again and you keep your ears open for the sound of rotors looking up at the sound to see if it was a water bombing chopper indicating the fires were near.
There are some plants in Australia that need wild fire to germinate with seed pods that don't open until exposed to the heat of fire. many of our trees are adapted to fire having barks designed to char creating protective layers and special buds just below the surface of the bark that will burst forth.
And it was in your clothes washing on the line
I wish kangaroo islands fires were included in that video, the impacts on the land were crazy from what I’ve heard, my Aunty evacuated but had to eventually evacuate the whole island because of how big the fires were
Kangaroo island, WA, Queensland. The whole country was on fire.
Even the NT was burning. That was a crazy start to a mind boggling next 2 years with covid and what not
@@frenchys_prospecting agreed
I wish more people would react to specific areas of Australia like people learn about states of the US, this is already so cool
@@frenchys_prospecting thie satellite video only covered 4 days so missed a lot. The fires on KI were horrendous. I hope that your Aunt is ok. It is hard to recover from something like that.
@@frenchys_prospecting My Workmate lost his Brother and Dad on the KI fires
It was terrifying Ryan but the rescues, civilian, defence and fire fighters were amazing.
Amen
I was not caught in the fires directly, but I know enough people that were. It still makes me cry because of all the animals that died
So glad you mentioned the animals, i found that so distressing...
Me too :(
The wild fires actually started around the time of my 12th birthday. It was honestly horrible knowing the amount of wildlife and bushland that was being destroyed, along with the massive amount of people trapped in high risk areas. I live further up the coast of Queensland and that area was less affected from the bushfires, but even then the sky was red for days. I still commemorate all the firefighters and emergency personnel, or even anyone that risked their lives to save others.
I think every Ausrtalian - including me - was emotionally devastated by these bush fires . It was broadcast on every news channel daily. There's one image that still haunts me: the charred body of a kangaroo entangled in a barbed-wire fence. The poor creature was fleeing for it's life but the fire moved too fast. When I saw that image, I broke down and cried. I couldn't watch the news any more after that. We had bush fires all up and down the East Coast at that time, too. The fires even spread inland to our local rainforest. An estimated 3 billion animals were killed or harmed by the fires, including 60,000 koalas. Human lives and homes were lost as well. Every firefighter who battled the blaze is a hero in my book. Even among all the devastation, there were glimmers of hope: I saw a photo of a frightened koala clinging to a firefighter's leg, it's arm reaching up to hold his hand. I can only hope that our country doesn't have to go through such total devasatation again. But if it does, Aussies will do what we always do when faced with hardship: we'll pull together and support each other.
Summers coming up here I'm not looking forward to the heat🙏🇦🇺
Yeah, apart from flood season, summer is an absolute nightmare
It was awful. The town closest to me went up in flames. I would wished someone “all the best” and someone got stuck into me.
They said I should be calling for “action”. I could see the flames engulfing the next town and we were packing to evacuate. There was only 1 road into our town and it was blocked.
I wanted to throttle that wanker as the embers fell on our house and we were trying to save it, or evacuate to the beach. They were our choices. It was Hell.
@@serenepeacefulrelaxingmusi3874 It’s fine 😀 I’ve been through far more worse things. Our house was saved. Unfortunately I lost it and everything I have ever owned in the divorce. When they tell women, “just leave him”, you lose everything. If you don’t get your things out, he has the right to dispose of everything. That’s our Family Law system. I found out on Friday. I’m still processing it. I’ve got my dog and 3 bags of clothes. Wow.
@@sherrylovegood oh wow. You poor thing. I'm really hoping you will be alright.
I went to work in Melbourne cbd, and the thick smoke permeated everything around me. It felt apocalyptic at the time, and 2 months later covid hit. It was scary
In New Zealand, where I live, it was like someone had dimmed the sun for days and everything smelled of smoke. Fine ash fell for ages. The sunsets were spectacular.
it was quite sad casue my grandmas house burnt down in them
Happy arvo!!!!
Was working in a bedding store at the time, all that smoke, dust & ash was a NIGHTMARE!
Touching a leaf that had fallen from the breeze with my boot on a concrete train station platform while traveling home in the orange darkness....it just fell to ash & cinders...no wonder it spread so far, so fast!
It actually started way before Dec 30th, it was more like September through till February all told, when we ended up with so much rain that all the fires went out and we were left flooded....... through the summer you could hardly go outside, people with lung conditions, asthma etc where told to stay inside. You couldnt go bush walking ( fear of death ) you couldn't exercise outside ( lung damage ) .... I ended up in Ulladulla over New Years and we were cut off for 2 days, Highway in and out closed, fires closing in all around, lost electricity and phone signals ( some of us )..... the super market was gutted within a day, with no trucks able to come through, petrol ran dry... it was mayhem, like the end of the world.... a good rehearsal for what followed in March!!! They also said that the ash from Australia changed the colour of the glaciers in New Zealand. To this day, almost 2 years later, there are still natural parts of the south coast that have not recovered / grown / back.
2019 New Year Eve the fire came close to my house . I was on the roof with a hose watering the burtnt leaves falling from the sky. Bloody scary day and night that was. 😳
A friend and her family were among the people who had to be rescued by the Navy. The pictures of hunreds of people huddled on a beach, under a blood-red sky, with no way out except by sea are horrible. But she said the worst thing was the sound of koalas screaming in the trees as they burned to death.
I remember those pictures, they are forever imprinted on my memory. I cannot imagine the horrible PTSD that those sounds, sights and smells created for those who were stuck on that shoreline. We are in Canberra and had to leave our house as a fire was closing in, thankfully it never reached our suburb.
I'm a real softie when it comes to animals. That last sentence had me in tears. How horrific. Those poor little creatures. 😢
😫😫😫
Yep... We went from drought into bushfire season into COVID into floods 😅
That year started off with fires and then floods and then covid . Twas a great year :/
The fires got quite close to my house in the end of December2019-start of 2020
The smoke was so thick in metro Sydney that building fire alarms were going off from fires hundreds of miles away. An estimated 1 billion animals died. It burned an area around the size of Washington State/South Dakota. It was not a good time
We had firefighters come and help from the US and Canada 😁 God love em!
Proud to say my Son was amongst the many fire-fighters that volunteered their services during that devastating period IN 2019 when more than half the country was on fire . Thank you all for your service. So Brave.
I live in Australia in the greater Sydney area. I can honestly say it was horrible. The air was thick with smoke. I live miles and miles away from the fires yet embers and ash along with fog filled the air. Quite literally very hard to breathe. It had actually reached 46•C. Even the freezer sections in the supermarket weren’t cold enough. The beach water was like a warm bath tub. We had water restrictions as well. We’d have to cover our faces to breathe and the air would sting your eyes. I’ll never forget it. Ever. It was worse than those sci fi movies.
Fires are sometime beneficial, we have trees that won't germinate unless there is a fire. And they can be scary. But as a side note most people here in Aus refer to them as bushfires, not wildfires.
In normal fires it can be beneficial for some trees to germinate, but not in this case. The temperatures were far too high and mostly destroyed all the trees.
I remember having to sit up all night so I could hit the smoke-alarm shutoff before it went off, every 10minutes or so. Hardwired into my Unit, turning the power off wasn't an option at 90°F. I'm in Canberra.
I live on the West Coast.. our hearts were broken with the fire then floods that ravaged the East coast states. We have had towns destroyed by fire here a few summers ago.. it was dreadful
As an Aussie what also worries me about these fires was that during that fire season of 2019 a fire began in TROPICAL RAINFOREST in far northern Queensland. That situation was unprecedented! The fire burnt in Japoon National Forest for ten days. That is scary!
Unprecedented means it never happened before. Well, in 1948 there was a string of bushfires 800 miles long between Cairns and Maryborough. Cairns had a few bushfires in the early 1950s. I'm sure there were many more.
@@TheZodiacz OK. I am quoting the newspapers and that is the word and information that they gave so perhaps you could take it up with them
A large percentage of our firefighters are volunteers, so to say they are brave is an understatement, they are heroes. It's just coming into fire season so time will tell how bad it will be this year.
I was in Moruya roads cut ,water contaminated , no food at Woolworths for 2 weeks . Our former PM thought it'd be a good time to take a holiday in Hawaii , im old enough to remember Ash Wednesday bushfire in 83 i thought that would be the biggest fire id ever see , Ash Wednesday was child's play compared to 2019 . 2019 was the apocalypse
I was in the Bay,it was like midnight at lunchtime
I was living in Brussels when there were an exceptionally high number of fires burning across several states of Australia. My local work colleagues had no concept of their size. I then said “Think of multiple fires burning all the way from Sweden to Spain”! Then they understood…
We had these bush fires along with a really bad drought, then a few months later we had huge floods, then Covid jumped in.
The fierys... most of them complete volunteers are living hero's. My brother is 1 of them and to him and all Aussie fierys a huge heartfelt thanks for all you do. How u run into the depths of hell willingly is beyond my words
I had 3 firefronts that I could see from the hill behind my house, all within 10Km. You couldn't go outside and still be able to breathe. Was a crazy time. Checking the fire alerts every time you sat down, got up, made a coffee, anything. Checking on family and friends 10+ times a day.
Check out the 2009 Firestorms in Victoria, Over 1000 homes destroyed close to 2000 people burned to death. They were close to our home at the time. But we weren't burnt out. Terrified is an understatement.
The 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires destroyed 2,000 homes and killed nearly 180 people, not 2,000. Most died from smoke inhalation or lack of oxygen. It was bad but still, don’t exaggerate.
I've been in the NSW Rural Fire Service as a volunteer for 40 years and in a Govt fire research organisation. My work was developing a water spray crew protection system for the trucks. It is called the halo system and saved many firefighters in NSW and Victoria during these times.
The pictures from inside the fire truck are in my brigade. We were crewing trucks for towards six months straight... Bush Fires, then covid, then repeated worst flooding on record.
We also had help from American and Canadian fire fighters, who sacrificed their Christmas with their families to come and help our own fire fighters and to give them some relief, which was a lovely and amazing thing to do
I lived almost right in the heart of where a lot of these fires were in Gippsland, Victoria and this was by far the scariest and most devastating thing I’ve ever seen.
I recommend looking up, “We are Australian - Australia’s bushfires” it’s a slideshow video on YT which shows the massive devastation and is guaranteed to bring out the tears
th-cam.com/video/mIVI6wCQPrk/w-d-xo.html
Its no laughing matter. Hi from Australia- I live in a fire zone -along with most of the population. We've had fires just across from us and in 2019-all around everybody actually- even Sydney had a few spot fires. Plenty of smoke too- it wiped out whole Communities and people have lost lives, livestock and their homes. Love your reactions, Ryan. It's refreshing to see how you see Australia. Catch ya later mayte.
One of my sons who is in the CFA was in the firefighting efforts at Mallacoota. I've never been worried so much about one of my kids as I was then, and damn proud of him at the same time.
Before, during and after this fires shows the resilience of the Ozzie people. Our area north nsw had floods into drought into fires then floods again, but we survive. So proud to be Australian.
Hi from Lismore
Hey Ryan!!!
7:00 I can see my house from here!! Adelaide is in the top left of the screen, the little green patch on the smaller jutty out bit, with coastline directly North to South haha..
Melbourne is the inverse V bay in the centre and Tasmania is due South (Mostly hidden by clouds)..
We have major bushfires every few years.. But this got very close to populated areas..
41c is 105.8 °F.. In South Australia, we have dry desert heat from the North West deserts. It can be over 31c/88f at MIDNIGHT during Summer.
And EVERY ONE of those fire fighters is a volunteer.. Our Country Fire Service/Association in each State.. Absolute heroes..
Yeah we had drought from 2017-19 first then the 2019 Black Christmas bushfires then COVID and lockdown from March 2020 to approx Sept Oct 21 and then weve had back to back floods in various regions of NSW since March 2021. People have been in fire or flood recovery mode or unstable employment conditions for nearly 3 years. Its been a tough time for a lot of folk in the eastern states.
On 4 Jan 2020 I was on a flight from Melbourne to Canberra that flew through a cumulonimbus flammagenitus cloud. Apparently they create their own weather event that can’t be picked up on a planes radar. Utterly terrifying! We dropped several thousand feed in minutes. While I’m still terrified of flying to this day, It’s nothing compared to those living in small towns along the NSW South Coast. So many people lost everything, and it was estimated THREE BILLION animals died. We will always remember the Black Summer 😞
There was one documentary with what happened to pregnant woman's babies. They weren't reaching milestones. Midwives were asking if the mother was smoking during pregnancy as the placentas were grey and grainy rather than pink with babies being born tiny.
Ryan, living in a town in the upper Blue Mountains of NSW, we spent from the end of November 2019, to the beginning of March 2020, watching fires move towards us from both North , West and South.. It was emotionally exhausting for the whole community... and then COVID killed the tourism on which many of our businesses depended.. Still recovering ...
I live on the east coast of Australia. Our house is about 200 metres from the ocean. We were getting blacks raining on us from bush fires that were over 50km away from us. We also had to prepare to evacuate as the fires were creating their own weather patterns and sending fires balls kms ahead of itself, starting spot fire and making new bush fire. It was something I've never seen before at that scale.
It was harrowing. I was living in North East Victoria in the King Valley. My Boss said to me "no fuck off and go home, grab whatever shit you need and leave". People in the country tend to know someone who knows more than the authorities, always. I was about 15ks from work to home. I was throwing important stuff in my car and got the call to evacuate immediately. My brother and his family live in the Tallangatta Valley which is further north. They were also evacuated and for days we all stayed at Mum's house monitoring what was happening, and realising there was always someone worse off than ourselves. My brother and his family had bought our family home in the Tallangatta Valley. Dad's ashes were scattered and his plaque was there on his favourite tree. One wind shift and that home was gone. In true Aussie fashion we all got plastered and joked about how Dad would piss himself laughing if he got cremated twice. It's indescribable how to paint what those days were like. Day was like night with with an atomic orange hue. We all survived, as did our houses. So many didn't and it humbles you to think how close you came to losing everything.
I was on the freeway at Bulladelah on the day of the big Taree fire trying to get to my parents on the mid north coast. The coppers closed the freeway off right in front of me and I had to drive the 6 hours back home. It all worked out fine but I wish I’d managed to get to my folks. They were fine in the end but it was a nasty week of heavy smoke for them. Then we had the same thing in my city.
2 Americans loved there life help fight those fire we had a lot of help from american and Canadian fire fighters whose help was and always appreciated
I was super lucky not to be directly caught in the fires, but I know people who were. I remember calling them and checking in with them all the time, asking if they needed a place to evacuate to or just asking if they were doing ok.
As an Australian it’s really hard to find the words to express the devastation and the fear of it happening again as we enter the new summer season here. It was like a movie apocalyptic world. Smoke, blood sky’s, heat, people losing everything, and the amount of wildlife that died was catastrophic. This is a global issue, it’s a global warming disaster, yes Australia definitely needs to change our fossil fuel industry but the government rarely listens to the people. There are many countries impacting these issues. For example the hole in the ozone layer is above the lower part of Australia and Antarctica which has caused huge issues with drought and skin cancer (a devastating disease here). As we have little protection from the suns UV radiation, and while it is healing the hole was caused by cfcs released into the atmosphere from many many countries, Australia and Antartica paid the price.
No one ever tells you how LOUD fires are. The noise is incredible and it really is a beast - it roars, it screams whole trees explode so it can be a bit worrying.
I've experienced a most of our big bush fires. I used to live in Melbourne when Ash Wendesday happened. That afternoon the smoke came over and late afternoon day went to night almost.
I now live in Penrith dase of the Blue Mountains and had some bad fires around the area.
We were one of the worst areas hit, the mid nth coast of NSW. We got trapped in Queensland for 2 weeks due to the coast of NSW on fire only to be told my area was being evacuated by a neighbour until the phone cut out permanently. I sat and watched on TV In horror not knowing if I had a home, property or my animals to go back to. When the highway finally was declared safe enough to travel but at our own risk, I did a runner to get back, choking on the smoke...it was terrifying. Fires still burning either side of the car for 8 hrs. Our eyes were even burning and stops made where flames were jumping the highway. Finally I broke down in a bucket of tears driving down my driveway. Through all the smoke my farm was still standing.
For weeks we had to watch flames licking the mountains that surround us. Helicopters filling up from dams wherever possible flying overhead constantly. We all had emergency bags packed permanently near the front door and water pumps at the dam fully ready to go if need be. A way out for everyone's cattle or animals was made. No sleep for the many was common during these fire's. Cow's were trying to swim frantically some washing up on beaches 6km down the river through our main town. Cattle walking dazed through streets and ppl's yards. Townsfolk even locked them in their house yards for safety. We were cut off from everything and were running out of food even. Water contamination became an issue due to animal faeces from wildlife jumping into water supplies to escape and soot. Then after it was over the army came in to help clean up. All we needed was a shoulder to cry on and support. Many lost everything and more. Wildlife devastated us all, millions burnt alive and those who made it were suffering. Messages and support from the world was phenomenal and gratitude plentiful. No one deserved more accolade than our Firefighters and Emergency Services. You had to see it, to believe it !
I've been through 2 heavy duty fires. When we lived in Yengo National Park outside Sydney. You can't fight a wildfire. Its best to get out and hope your house makes it. Yeah, well both times our house was lucky. Many around us wern't though. The sound of such a fire is like 100 jets taking off. Soles of my boots got melted
In 2009 there was a bushfire in Victoria and the firestorms where travelling at over 100 miles per hour. 172 people died and the fire storm travelled so fast that cars were unable to outrun it.
I remember the sky going bright orange one day, it felt really eerie. The closest fire to me at that time was about 10-15kms away.
A bit late to this, but I’m an early childhood educator and during these fires, the children were obviously not allowed outside. I will never forget when the smoke got so bad and the sky was so red that one of the preschoolers looked me dead in the eyes and asked me if they were gonna die. We were no where near the fires but I nearly cried when he asked me and all I could do was laugh it off and say I’d never let that happen and give him a cuddle
This was the most concerned I, in New Zealand, ever was for Australia. The sky was red here for days. It was like a light red fog. And it was the smoke from wildfires in a country thousands of kilometres away. It'd be like the skies in southern Canada turning red from the smoke of fires in Mexico.
The fire that was at my house in NSW traveled 50 kilometres in 3hrs
I live in Sydney & I remember the city & suburbs where covered in a cloud of smoke & there was an eerie black/red tint to the sky for a couple of weeks. There was ash covering all the cars & lawns, I remember seeing burnt leaves flying around the neighbourhood. We couldn't hang our clothes out (even inside) without them smelling of smoke. We had to roll up towels & put them under the doors to try to stop the smoke coming in because my nephew who lives with us has asthma. There were reports of people calling 000 (emergency services) because they could smell the smoke & thought their house or a neighbouring house was on fire. And all of this was just what affected us who weren't in direct danger of the fires coming to our house.
You will be pleased to know that Australia is forecast to have another La Nina spring/summer season for the third time in a row. La Niña events increase the chances of above-average rainfall for northern and eastern Australia during spring and summer. The severe drought which gripped much of the country at the time of the bush fires occurred during a very long period of weather dominated by El Nino. This came to an end a few years ago. The transformation from El Nino to La Nina has been profound and has changed the landscape, where heavy and regular rainfall has turned it green once again. This has been a Godsend not just to humans, in particula the agricultural sector, but it has helped vegetation and wildlife populations to recover. This cycle is a typical of weather in Australia but with climate change brought about by global warming, the cycles have changed as well. We rarely get three La Ninas in a row. In fact, it has only happened twice since 1900!
The sky in Auckland New Zealand was yellow. It was eerie and we could actually smell eucalyptus smoke for days. Some of our firefighters were over there helping out as they do when needed.
I was caught smack in the middle of the Ash Wednesday bushfires and on the cusp of the black Saturday bushfires (grew up where they started and lived just down the road) but I was lucky enough to not witness any part of the 2019/20 fires but my heart goes out to all that did.
I was on a train that had to drive through the middle of a bushfire last month. I knew it was a bush fire, but the train was full of city folk, and to help quell the panic, I brushed it off as the farmers doing a burn-off whilst on the inside having a bit of a panic because just after we got through and the southbound train also got through the train line was shut until the fire was out. We are now on restriction in New South Wales. We can not light fires without permits, and if you do, you can be fined and or sent to jail for it. We are in drought again, water is scarce, and the bush is just waiting for a fool to do something like through out a cigaret butt, an empty glass bottle to magnify the sun into a burn spot, or anything else and the bush will be off threatening live, homes, towns and livelihoods once again.
We were living in New Zealand in 2019, and flew home to Perth for Christmas, then flew back to Auckland in the first week of January, 2020. The smoke clouds actually looked black out of the window, all the way from our east coast to NZ. I took pictures from my window seat, but cannot obviously share here. It was a stinking hot Christmas 2019, with a high of 45C Christmas Day, in Perth, but our fire season was nowhere near as bad as the east coast. There are some native plants and trees that only release their seeds after fires, and that’s what the commentator meant by benefits of fire, plus the land can also become very fertile after a fire.
It was an honestly terrifying time. In 2 weeks of a fire burning mere hundreds of metres from our home, sleep was minimal with our house being under direct threat 6 times. We were lucky sustaining no damage to our property, however we know many people who lost everything. Most people forgot the fires even happened if they weren't affected due to the occurrence of COVID so soon after, however, almost 3 years on the mental and emotional impact is still being felt. Hearing that the upcoming summer is supposed to be another mild one was a massive weight lifted off the shoulders of all Australians who experienced the fires of 2019/2020.
I will never forget the smell. And watching the smoke pall roll on for weeks each evening. My friend lost loved ones.
I was in Canberra , couldn’t open a window for 6 months. That’s not an exaggeration ….
Living in New Zealand there was a period of about half a week where the skies were just yellow / orange due to the amount of smoke coming from Australia. Unreal, can't imagine what it must've been like to actually be in Australia through that summer.
We live right on the edge of a large forested area. Everyone was obsessively watching the fire maps, and I remember the moment we saw a small spot fire start in the forest. I said to my parents "I hope they knock that on the head quick, because if they don't..."
They didn't manage to put it out.
Day by day, it spread up and up the forest, widening as it went. After a few days, we could see the smoke over the horizon. Then it started blanketing the entire area. The sky went dark and what light made it through was blood red. It felt like we were on Mars.
Then the fireies held a town meeting. They told us that the fire was coming, and that if it crossed the gorge, there was nothing they could do. They wouldn't even attempt to save anything because it was just too dangerous. They told everyone that if they *could* leave, to do it right now. As in, go home, pack, and leave before the end of the day.
This was right around Christmas. My brother and his fiancee were visiting from overseas. We had Christmas, then bundled them off to Canberra to wait for their flight back. We packed everything up and left. We had nowhere to go, so my parents bought an old second hand caravan from someone a few hundred kilometers away, and we spent New Year's parked up in a small town away from the fires. Watching the map, waiting to see if it would burn the house out.
It took days. The fireies were holding it back, but couldn't put it out. So the fire line crept forward little by little. Even as far out as we were, the smoke still followed us. Some nights, it was so thick that you could only see a few meters ahead with a torch. We had to sit with wet dishtowels or shirts wrapped over our faces to keep from breathing it in. It got to the point where we were hoping it would just hurry up and burn the house down so we could get it over and done with and start to move on.
I think we were up there for over two weeks before we could finally head back. We didn't lose anything, so we were very lucky.
I remember driving down the road where the fire had been stopped, less than 5 minutes from where we live. Everything down one side of the road was black and charred.
We spent the rest of the summer on pins and needles. There was another fire warning right inside the area we live, but it thankfully didn't take, and was put out in minutes. We all had the Fires Near Me app on our phones with a loud alarm sound set for any fires starting within 50km. It went off every few days, and every time it did we had to check to see if we needed to run.
Then we had the rains that overwhelmed the gutters and leaked through the roof, doing some damage. In the end, water did more damage to the house than the fires did, which is a bit ironic.
What really sucks is that the government was WARNED this was going to happen. They had time to prepare. They did nothing. Instead, the Prime Minister went on holiday and refused to come home even as the country burned until he was practically dragged kicking and screaming. I will never, ever forgive him or his party for that. He proved exactly what value he placed on human life: none whatsoever. All he was interested in was photo ops.
My sister and myself evacuated with the pets. The fires ended up not getting all the way to our house, but we stayed with a friend for the week that everyone lived in darkness.
During the fires was horrible, The entire East cost was on fire. From Queensland to Victoria. I'm about 3 hours North of Sydney. We had multiple fire surrounding, the smoke was that bad the skies was white haze. I lived near a national park. Myself include others along the road we lived lost their homes. However our house has only just been rebuilt in the last few months. After 3 years.
My heart also goes out to all the firefighters we help during those times. And all the people who banned together after to donate food, clothing essentials etc, for people.
It was all fire 🔥
I live in Western Sydney, at the base of the Blue Mountains....the fires were horrific. You couldn't be outside because it was hard to breathe, it was so hot and it was just devastating. The animals we lost is heartbreaking and the people who suffered and lost their lives or home was also heartbreaking. I just we hope we never go through it again
I lived in Sydney during all of this, there was at least a full week of not seeing the sun, if you looked up, all you could see was orange. And on some nights, you could see the glow over the horizon
I live in the Greater Sydney region. It was bad, it was really quite scary. The heat was horrendous and the skies were dark from smoke every single day. I ended up joining up with people and we delivered things to the fire fighters in our area (food, water, masks etc). The south coast was worse. There are intense photos of people lined up on the beach and it's completely red around them.
Honestly though, it's all crazy to think back on how bad and terrifying it was to see everything around us burning, and waking up to the smell of smoke and fire every single day.
Now, we have to deal with all the flooding. which is almost as devastating tbh
We had the Gospers Mountain Fire (the Megafire in NSW) right near our backyard (Near Lithgow NSW). I remember being able to see the flames up on the mountains (from down in the valley) from my backyard. Thankfully by that point this was the most south that fire had travelled, and we only had a couple spot fires that the bucket brigade put out before the RFS came round.
Some people had to flee on to beaches just to get away and stand a chance of surviving. A town near me was under threat, but they thankfully were able to get it back under control and the trees and other plants are starting to heal which is nice to see
I was living in Melbourne CBD at the time of these bushfires. Keep in mind that this is about 300km away from the main fires in the Gippsland region. I have photos of that time where the Melbourne CBD was covered in a red cloud/smoke. You'd walk out the door and be hit with a 45 degree wall of solid heat. Walking to and from the shops at the time was hell, and I remind you that I was 300km away fro the actual fires.
Here in Aus about 15 years ago there was a huge fire in my area. Embers were raining on my house, I had to call my dad to get him home so we could both put out spot fires. The sky was red and black. It stank. In the morning things weren't better, the sky was orange and red all day, then again the embers came and the black clouds rolled in.
Bloody nightmare.