The Day the “Bush Capital” Burned

BY AWAKE! WRITER IN AUSTRALIA

ON January 18, 2003, the residents of Australia’s capital city, Canberra, awoke to an eerie glow. A thick veil of smoke transformed the morning sun into a blood-red ball. The air was hot, dry, and oppressive. Australia was in the grip of drought, making trees, leaves, and undergrowth as dry as parchment. For weeks fire had ravaged the vast eucalypt forests surrounding this city, which is affectionately known as the Bush Capital.

During that afternoon, gusty, searing winds caused the unthinkable to happen. The fires broke containment lines and leapt onto the pine forests growing in and around the southwest side of Canberra.

The Forest Explodes

Elliot, a volunteer fire fighter, says: “The pine forests exploded at 3:00 p.m. with such ferocity that we and the nearby suburbs were showered with burning embers. It was terrifying to see a 40-meter-high [130-foot-high] wall of flame racing toward us.” The extreme heat and gusting winds formed their own weather patterns, creating a fireball that ripped through the suburb of Chapman at frightening speed, uprooting trees and destroying homes. Scores of electric poles burned and snapped, bringing down live wires. Within the first hour, 230 homes were destroyed.

Fire-fighting crews were overwhelmed by the fury of the phenomenon. Elliot says: “It was heartbreaking to see homes go up in flames, since we had to choose which homes to try to save and which to abandon to the fires. Worse still was seeing crying, distressed people returning to what used to be their homes.”

The Aftermath

Four people died in the fires, and hundreds more were injured. One victim, a 36-year-old woman, ran back into her home to save photographs. The roof of the house collapsed, trapping her inside. She could not be saved.

When the winds and flames died down, 530 homes had been destroyed, leaving 2,500 people homeless. Electricity, gas, and sewage services were badly damaged, causing health concerns. People with respiratory problems overloaded the emergency unit of the Canberra Hospital. Sadly, while the evacuation centers filled, heartless criminals began looting abandoned homes. But reports of heroism and human kindness also abounded. Neighbors helped one another, strangers rescued animals, schools opened their doors to the homeless, and fire-fighting volunteers protected the buildings of others, only to lose their own homes.

While the trees will eventually grow again and the houses will be rebuilt, Prime Minister John Howard said that the impact of the devastation is “not something that will disappear . . . from the psyche of Canberra.”

[Picture Credit Line on page 25]

AP Photo/Fairfax, Pat Scala