The Forest Fire Situation in Australia: 10 Million People Trapped in Fire

Source: abc net

"10 million people were caught in fire, hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes, 24 people died in flames, 500 million animals died in flames."

"More than 8,000 koalas burned, 5.7 million hectares burned and will continue to grow, 1,500 more homes burned, fires are estimated to have released 350 million metric tons of carbon dioxide."

Thus one of the posts circulating on social media in Indonesia regarding bush fires in Australia.

"Some friends in Australia tonight are asking for prayer, because they can't get out of there, the fire has surrounded them." continued the post.

With a post like that, I who lived in Melbourne in the last few days got a variety of questions, both about personal news whether being a victim of a forest fire, to the question whether the overall situation is safe to live in Australia at this time.

Not only that, as in Indonesia, the problem of forest fires and semaki is associated with political problems. There are also those who ask 'is it true to see various posts, it seems the government (Australia) is not ready to anticipate fires?

Here are some explanations that are expected to help those outside Australia to find out about the situation of forest fires here.

How does the Australian government handle fires?

As a federal state, affairs dealing with bush fires are handled by the authorities in each state.

Forest fires, called 'bushfires' have become a part of life in Australia so every year the authorities have prepared themselves.

Source: abc net

The forest fires that occurred last week occurred when many Australians were on vacation. (Supplied: James Dyer)

Is it safe to visit Australia?

The location of bush fires mostly occurs in rural Australia, which is indeed very broad.

So far more than 5 million hectares of land have been burned. In terms of numbers it may look large, but the area of ​​Australia is 769 million hectares.

Compared to the island of Borneo, Australia is 10 times wider.

There are many areas in Australia that are not inhabited by people, so when a fire breaks out the fire will be left by the officer.

Only when a fire threatens a residential area, the authorities will give a warning and order an evacuation if the situation is considered very dangerous.

So far in 2019 until now, this forest fire has not affected or occurred near major cities in Australia such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and others.

Haze from fires has also reached Melbourne, so for two days the city's air quality is at dangerous or unhealthy levels.

Other cities, such as Sydney and the capital city of Australia, Canberra are also covered in haze for some time.

So far, life in major Australian cities has proceeded normally with the quality of life not changing much.

One of the biggest sporting activities to be held is the Australian Open tennis tournament which will start on 20 January.

There is already an opinion that the possibility of the tournament being postponed, if the situation worsens, especially the possibility of smog affecting the player's appearance. But now the warm-up tournaments in various cities are still being held and are not subject to disruption.

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