The “Fire Triangle” illustrates the three essential components of a bush fire: heat, oxygen and fuel. If any of these three is missing, fires cannot start or keep burning.
Fires are an inescapable part of life in Australia; they have been occurring for millennia, and regardless of our actions, they will continue. Much of the vegetation in Australia has evolved to be tolerant…
Fire dramatically changes the abundance of resources critical to animals in semi-arid ecosystems, such as spinifex hummocks and tree hollows. This doesn’t just occur in the immediate aftermath of a fire; the impacts continue for a century after burning.
Before Aboriginal people populated the Australian continent some 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, the major cause of fires would have been lightning. Aboriginal people learnt to harness the naturally recurring fire caused by lightning and other sources to their advantage, which resulted in skilful burning of landscapes for many different purposes.
What's the science behind how a bushfire begins and spreads, and what happens to the environment once one has moved through?
Chemical fire retardants help delay or prevent combustion, but there are potential health and environmental issues around the use and production of the chemicals, and the cost or possible harms of chemical fire retardants need to be weighed up against the benefits.
Bushfires claim lives, raze homes and destroying farmland, but they also have a devastating impact on household and government budgets. See snapshots of costs involved in preventing, fighting and dealing with fires.
Bushfires are a part of life in Victoria. Our changing climate means our bushfire threat is constantly increasing. We need to take action to build safer communities, a thriving economy and a healthy environment – for current and future generations.
Our bushfire research is improving the understanding of fire, and improving technologies and strategies to save lives and limit damage.
CSIRO's research is used to respond to bushfires in many ways, from weather warnings to fire-fighter training to predicting fire behaviour.
The Bureau of Meteorology information about weather & bushfires, anatomy of a fire danger day and high risk weather patterns.
A new software system that uses simulation to both predict and track fires in real time will offer more efficiency for emergency authorities, says a scientist involved with the software. CSIRO
Keeping your home and family safe from bushfire involves many things. This includes choosing where to build your home on your property, the materials you use to build, the design of your house and landscaping can all be factors in defending your home during a bushfire.
Prescribed burn-offs have little impact on reducing the extent and intensity of bushfires, a study in Tasmania has found.
The McArthur Mk5 Forest Fire Danger Meter is used by rural fire authorities to forecast fire danger in Australian forests.
The Blue Mountains economy is expected to take a $71 million hit from the October bushfires, even though its tourist attractions were untouched by fire.
Great Ocean Road towns are forcast to lose almost 40 million tourism dollars in their busiest period of the year due to a bushfire driving holidaymakers away.
In recent days, we’ve seen dramatic pictures of thick smoke from bushfires hanging over Sydney. Our first thoughts are with people living in the immediate vicinity of the fires, and the threat to their…
Exposure to smoke from fires can worsen asthma and other respiratory conditions, cause coughing and shortness of breath and irritate the eyes, nose and throat.
Lisa Neville says ‘intensity of this fire was enormous’ after blazes destroyed 11 properties in state’s east
