The last fire of the season occurred in Lake Clifton, Western Australia, in early May. īy 4 March 2020 all fires in New South Wales had been extinguished completely (to the point where there were no fires in the state for the first time since July 2019), and the Victoria fires had all been contained. Two fire trucks were caught in fatal incidents caused directly by fire conditions, killing three fire fighters. ĭuring the ensuing crisis, an air tanker and two helicopters crashed during firefighting operations, the air tanker crash resulting in the deaths of the three crew. Firefighters, supplies and equipment from Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, among others, helped fight the fires, especially in New South Wales. The Australian Defence Force was mobilised to provide air support to the firefighting effort and to provide manpower and logistical support. Reinforcements from all over Australia were called in to assist fighting the fires and relieve exhausted local crews in New South Wales. Multiple states of emergency were declared across New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. In eastern and north-eastern Victoria large areas of forest burnt out of control for four weeks before the fires emerged from the forests in late December. įrom September 2019 to March 2020, fires heavily impacted various regions of the state of New South Wales. A September 2021 study using satellite data estimated the CO 2 emissions of the fires from November 2019 to January 2020 to be ~715 million tons, about twice as much as earlier estimates and surpassing Australia's normal annual bushfire and fossil fuel emissions by ~80%. By 7 January 2020, the smoke had moved approximately 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi) across the South Pacific Ocean to Chile and Argentina. Nearly 80 percent of Australians were affected either directly or indirectly by the bushfires. However, economists estimated that the Australian bushfires may cost over A$103 billion in property damage and economic losses, making the bushfires Australia's costliest natural disaster to date. The cost of dealing with the bushfires is expected to exceed the A$4.4 billion of the 2009 Black Saturday fires, and tourism sector revenues fell by more than A$1 billion. At its peak, air quality dropped to hazardous levels in all southern and eastern states.
![the forest 2019 the forest 2019](https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/fseprd644801.jpg)
It was claimed that three billion terrestrial vertebrates – the vast majority being reptiles – were affected and some endangered species were believed to be driven to extinction. The major fires peaked during December–January.Īs of 9 March 2020, the fires burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares (46 million acres 186,000 square kilometres 72,000 square miles), destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people. Throughout the summer, hundreds of fires burnt, mainly in the southeast of the country. The warning was based on the Northern Australia bushfire seasonal outlook noting exceptional dry conditions and a lack of soil moisture, combined with early fires in central Queensland. In June 2019 the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service acting director warned of the potential for an early start to the bushfire season which normally starts in August. Nationally, Australian National University described the 2019 fire year as "close to average" and the 2020 fire year as "unusually small". The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, colloquially known as the Black Summer, was a period of unusually intense bushfires in many parts of Australia.