Black Saturday bushfires

Black Saturday Bushfires
MODIS Aqua satellite image of smoke plumes and a pyrocumulus cloud northeast of Melbourne during the morning of 7 February 2009.
Date(s)7 February – 14 March 2009
LocationVictoria, Australia
Statistics
Burned area450,000 hectares (1,100,000 acres)[1]
Land useUrban/Rural Fringe Areas, Farmland, and Forest Reserves/National Parks
Impacts
Deaths173[2][3][4]
Non-fatal injuries414[5]
Structures destroyed3,500+ (2,029 houses)
Ignition
CauseVarious confirmed sources including:

The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria. Saturday, 7 February 2009 was one of Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. The fires occurred during extreme bushfire weather conditions and resulted in Australia's highest-ever loss of human life from a bushfire,[10] with 173 fatalities.[11] Many people were left homeless and family-less as a result.

As many as 400 individual fires were recorded on Saturday 7 February; the day has become widely referred to in Australia as Black Saturday.

Then Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard described Black Saturday as "a tragedy beyond belief, beyond precedent and beyond words … one of the darkest days in Australia’s peacetime history."[12]

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, headed by Justice Bernard Teague, was held in response to the bushfires.

  1. ^ Collins, Pádraig (12 February 2009). "Rudd criticised over bush fire compensation". The Irish Times. Ireland. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
  2. ^ "About Black Saturday – Country Fire Authority". 27 September 2019. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  3. ^ "What has Australia learned from Black Saturday?". 16 April 2019. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  4. ^ "2009 Victorian Bushfires". 20 May 2019. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Australian Medical Journal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference VBRC-Vol.01-ch.5-p.075 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Rennie, Reko (1 April 2009). "Marysville fire deliberately lit: police". The Age. Melbourne. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
  8. ^ "Lightning starts new bushfires in Grampians". Australia: ABC News. 8 February 2009. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  9. ^ "Police track arsonists responsible for Victoria bushfires". The Australian. 10 February 2009. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
  10. ^ Huxley, John (11 February 2009). "Horrific, but not the worst we've suffered". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  11. ^ 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission – Final Report (PDF) (Report). Government Printer for the State of Victoria. July 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 February 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  12. ^ "Black Saturday bushfires". Lawson Crescent Acton Peninsula, Canberra: National Museum of Australia. 7 February 2023. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020. Retrieved 10 April 2024. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, 2009: A tragedy beyond belief, beyond precedent and beyond words … one of the darkest days in Australia's peacetime history.
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