Black Saturday bushfires
The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009, and were 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, with 173 fatalities. Many people were left homeless as a result.
| 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 |
| Location | Victoria, Australia |
| Statistics | |
| Burned area | 450,000 hectares (1,100,000 acres) |
| Land use | Urban/Rural Fringe Areas, Farmland, and Forest Reserves/National Parks |
| Impacts | |
| Deaths | 173 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 414 |
| Structures destroyed | 3,500+ (2,029 houses) |
| Ignition | |
| Cause | Various confirmed sources including:
|
As many as 400 individual fires were recorded on Saturday 7 February; the day has become widely referred to in Australia as Black Saturday
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."
The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, headed by Justice Bernard Teague, was held in response to the bushfires.