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This fire is one more dramatic reminder that the effects of climate change are upon us.
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Transcript
The wind is really picking up. I'm in Australia, a land of extremes. Extreme heat, floods, and fires. The fire is crossing the road just right ahead of us. Wow. Climate change is making it all more intense. This year's fire season has come early and it's shaping up to be one of the worst in history. That could get seriously big. Oh, she's got to get seriously. We know life in Australia is becoming unbearably hot, but could climate change make the country uninhabitable? That's what I'm here to find out.
Australia is vast and diverse with coasts that meet five different seas. Being down under usually conjures images of an idyllic life of surf and sand. But a more realistic portrait of the country is emerging. That of a hostile desert. The central Australian outback. This place is inhospitable on a good day. Droughts and heat waves are commonplace here. Last summer they experienced the hottest day on record, the hottest month on record, and the hottest summer on record. In fact, Australia had to add two new colors to its weather maps for temperatures hotter than 122° F.
Sun is something we escape here. Sun is something you avoid here. The sun will kill you here. Quite literally, you're outside with no shelter. 3 days is all you got.
I came to Australia on a mission of discovery to find out if climate change was causing this place to become uninhabitable. Flooding, droughts, and heat waves are nothing new here. But records show they're increasing in intensity and frequency. Deaths from heat waves have doubled in the last decade. Drought has drained reservoirs and driven families off the land they've farmed for generations. But what's fueling all these extremes? Without a doubt, this stuff's being driven up by the fact we've got more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The climate's warming.
It's shifting to a hotter state.
Australia is part of a global problem.
Countries around the world are pumping more carbon into the atmosphere than ever before, mostly by burning coal, oil, and gas. The resulting extremes in weather, prolonged heat, and bone dry conditions lead to vicious bush fires. Lightning is most often the spark.
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Victoria ablaze.
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Year after year, the fire season is starting earlier, lasting longer, and fires are burning more intensely. These things aren't just fires creeping along. These are fire storms. These are roaring, burning masses of gas that can just jump across grassy areas and start burning. They're huge phenomena that can move quickly, develop quickly, and fires are only going to get worse. Bush fires are almost 20 times more deadly and 80 times more destructive than a century ago.
This morning in the Adelaide Hills, it's already a scorching 100° F. The danger has been elevated last night up to catastrophic for today. And it doesn't really get any more dangerous than catastrophic. A decade ago, the worst fire weather conditions were called extreme. They've since had to add a level beyond that catastrophic.
So, what the firefighters are demonstrating right now is their protection system. They have shields that come down on the inside of the glass and a water spray that surrounds the entire truck. So, if the fire overtakes the truck, keeps these guys safe. That is impressive. And the risks for those on the front line are very real. Since 1980, 83 firefighters have been killed.
I hope you guys never have to use it. Yeah, so do we. Thanks, guys. On a catastrophic fire day, access to burn areas is highly restricted. I reckon that's pretty good. The only way in is with the fire crews themselves. Go. Ian Tanner, a veteran with the Country Fire Service, is going to show me what they're up against.
[overlapping] we've got a conservation park on both sides. So it's mostly vegetation. Fuel. Fuel. That's exactly right. Fuel. What the locals call vegetation. You call fuel.
We're traveling along a ridge through the Mount Lofty Ranges. On both sides are steep hills and valleys covered in dense bush. You get a real sense now of what we're up against. And fire typically goes up. It's the one thing that can go uphill faster than downhill. All those houses up on that ridge line are almost undefendable on a day like today. So people are evacuating their houses on the speculation that maybe a fire might form. That's correct. So how many people are we talking about here? You could be talking about 100,000 people or more. That's a major evacuation. Obviously not everyone does it and there's a house down there that's probably relatively safe. They would probably choose to stay home. The Morcraftofts are incredibly wellarmed in their fight to protect their home from fire. What I would really love is to see your sprinkler system in action. Okay. So, what have you got going on? Their elaborate sprinkler system can create a wall of water approximately 130 ft around the house.
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Australia had to add two new colors to weather maps for temperatures hotter than 122° F [50° C].
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We've lived here for 20 years and we haven't actually had a fire that's um come within well few hundred meters of the house. The water comes from a 5,000galon tank that's dedicated solely to firefighting. And so you got your personal bush fire kit kit radio.
This is the channel that gets all the fire warnings. A head lampamp and this is all in the name of home protection. That's right. Just never know when it could happen. So you always need to to be prepared. So if you live in the bush in Australia, the very bare minimum that you need to protect your property is this type of equipment.
So, we've got a report that just came in of a grass fire not too far away and there's some other units that are being deployed. Okay. At the moment, it's probably in grassland quickly. Oh, yeah. I see some smoke. Yeah. Yeah.
Firefighters and volunteers arrive at the scene very quickly. Where's the access? There's a low inensity fire in a predominantly grassy area. It's roughly 40 acres in size.
Here comes the crime. It's crucial firefighters act quickly. They know from experience they only have 15 minutes to get this fire out cuz on a catastrophic fire day, conditions can change in a second. If you have a look at the leaves in the trees, you can see that the leaves are still there. So the fire hasn't got up into the trees, right? So it's come through here fairly quickly. It's not really high flames. Here's an area where you can see the fire is just in this very low lying fuel. So just the grass and the leaf litter incoming. Fire retardants. In no time, the fire is pretty much out.
These guys are really on the ball. They're so fast at what they do. Ground crews are backed by highly trained professionals and volunteers who dispatch crews and analyze fire behavior. As climate change increases the intensity of bush fires, operations have had to grow larger and more sophisticated. Very fluky wind at the moment. Can you feel that wind now picking up? That doesn't bode well for the rest of the afternoon. No.
This steep topography can funnel the wind, making fire behavior very unpredictable. You can see how these hot spots can easily flare up again. It doesn't take much. You get a little ember from something like this and you got a whole new fire. And just as the fire is almost completely put out, Ian gets bad news. It's jumped, right? Jumped across this little valley. Crews have to act fast. They know that one ember in this thick brush with poor access could turn this small grass fire into a monster. And the fire is just right ahead of us. Wow.
As climate change raises temperatures across Australia, it's fueling unprecedented bush fires. Okay, fire behind us. What started as a small grass fire that was nearly put out has jumped into the thicker brush and is growing very quickly. It's coming up through the grass here. Water bomber overhead. You can see it's getting very, very close and it's going to jump this. This is no fire break. It's going to go. We're getting called back. Yep, we're going. It's spotted over the creek. Now, if it does that again and again, it gets very hard.
Australian bush fires are notorious for jumping huge distances. This is largely because of the eucalyptus trees. Firefighters call them gasoline trees because fire moves incredibly fast up the trunk along the string of bark to the canopy of the tree. up there. Broad leaves that are filled with combustible eucalyptus oil don't just burn, they explode, shooting flaming bark and leaves in all directions. Add a good wind and fire can be thrown as far as 20 m away.
The situation is changing very, very dynamically. I've been given the two-minute warning here. We have to get out because the wind is starting to change direction. I can see the smoke now blowing this way. So, we got to pull together. The fire has fully taken in the scrub. Heavier fuels mean the fire burns more intensely and is much harder to put out. Air bombers attack the head of the fire, but it rekindles in minutes. I think that's an interesting thing. This one piece will make 52 layers….
10.30The fire is moving fast and is headed straight for the town of Kursbrook where residents are scrambling to evacuate. It's on one of the access roads here and the fire is just coming up over the ridge and crossing the road just right ahead of us and it's just making its way up on these branches. We've got a safe escape route down this way. We got to really keep a close eye on the fire behavior. This tree here is already up. The wind is predominantly blowing in this direction. So, the fire is going to spread this way. Here it comes. Wow. In just a few hours, the fire has left a path of destruction through the hills, 10 mi long and a half mile wide. Water bomber blizzard running from the fire. That's what happens.
The fire just pushes all these animals out ahead and they're just running for their lives. So, I'm going to bring them over to a safe spot and let them free. fire continues down the ridge, leaving total destruction in its wake. So, you'll see it's not much left now. So, all this fire damage is just moments old. Still hot. Topography drew it to the top of the hill and and now it's heading south again at a fair rate of knots.
The fire burns through the forest, heating the ground 40 ft in front of it, making it impossible for crews to get close. We're able to follow the tail of the fire. That is until shifting winds change everything. Wow. Until now, this fire was spreading with a narrow front. An extreme 90° windshift has now turned the flank fire into a head fire, going from a half mile wide front to a 10m wide front in the blink of an eye. Is there any chance we're going to be able to stop it getting through there? No, we're not. That could get seriously big. Oh, she's going to get seriously big. Support is called in from fire services in the neighboring states. But will they have the resources to stop the fire before it sweeps into the populated hillside towns right now.
There's basically nothing that the firefighters can do. They're trying to protect some of the assets, homes, farms in the area, but that's all they can do. Try and slow it down. Goes to show how capricious fire actually can be. All it takes is a little ember from a fire that we thought was out to just light up the whole area. And the bigger the fire, the more erratically it can behave. Smoke devil. On rare occasions, fire whirls can develop and throw burning debris miles away.
Whoa. This bunch of trees is basically exploding right here.
The oil in the eucalyptus is picking up all that heat. And there was just this big surge. The wind is really picking up. The heat I'm feeling on my face right now is almost indescribable. Yeah. Got to back away from that. Let's make sure the wildlife here has an exit. The fire spreads erratically and is fanned in some places by 65 mph winds. It's burning in what is Australia's third hottest year ever recorded. The hottest was just 2 years earlier. Looks like there's possibly another fire out here. See the smoke on the horizon.
As night falls, firefighters do everything they can to contain this out of control bush fire. Crews will start to get on top of it tonight. Um, tomorrow could be a whole another interesting story with some more bad weather forecast. Time will tell. Time will tell. Fire crews work all through the night, but the mark of a heat wave is that nighttime temperatures aren't much lower than in the daytime. On day two, the fire is declared a major emergency. So far, it's burned through 27,000 acres. It's hit four towns and 13 firefighters have been injured and they have to deal with more catastrophic fire weather.
It is a scorching hot day with very low relative humidity. Of course, as these temperatures continue to stay hot year after year after year, we're just going to see more and more fires just like this one.
We know this because we can see that all of Australia's weather is changing. Because of climate change, Australian winters are now dumping more rainfall in big bursts, causing flooding, which results in more vegetation growth and so denser bush. But in the summer, the heat is on. More hot, dry days lead to drought, and all that dense bush turns into kindling. All you need is a spark to start a raging wildfire.
We're briefed that two new major fires have broken out and are threatening the towns of Tantanula and Glen Cove. Has the Has the asking to go in and check. This family got out safely, but nothing could be done to save their farm. This is the reality of living in South Australia. It's inhabitable, but just it's really astounding to see the power of these wildfires.
Just the tremendous speed at which they can spread, how hot they can burn, and how much of an effect they can have on the people that live here. Over the next 4 days, 20 homes are destroyed, and considerable livestock and crops are lost. But luckily, no one has died. That's not been the case in the past. The country's worst ever natural disaster was a bushfire. We're finding more bodies as we gain access. In 2009, 173 people died in the Black Saturday fire. Will firefighters in South Australia be able to stop this fire from turning into a similar disaster?
By day five, fire crews in South Australia are exhausted, but they continue to do everything they can to protect surrounding communities. We might need edges right along this other side if we can. What really impresses me is the response that you guys have. So many trucks, so many volunteers. The people around here really do seem to listen to the warnings. And obviously some places all you can do is stand back and watch. There's nothing you can do in a lot of situations. Yeah. These firefighters are on the front lines dealing with some of the worst effects of climate change in Australia.
Ultimately, it takes them 6 days to bring this bush fire under control. It burned through almost 32,000 acres. 27 homes were destroyed and 134 people, mainly firefighters, were injured. The total cost was nearly $40 million. This fire is one more dramatic reminder that the effects of climate change are upon us. It's a lesson that's hitting home from one end of Australia to the other. Australians are being forced to find unique remedies to their superheated climate. and they've come up with some creative solutions to the problem.
In the heart of the Australian Outback, the town of Coobery has already found a drastic way to deal with the searing heat. Well, come on down and I'll give you an idea of how we live. You're 10 m underground here. This place looks amazing. It's certainly not cavelike. You even have a window. Yep. And that's just a bore hole to the surface. Cool in the summer, warmer in the winter. Yeah. No heating or air conditioning cost whatsoever. Not ideal for those days under 30°. The resourceful adaptations of Coober Pey continue outside. So this is the Coober Piti golf course. I see you're missing something rather important. Grass. Yes. So we got blacks instead of greens. And you have 18 holes here. 18 holes. This is the worst golf course I've ever seen. Yep. And it's probably the worst in the world. Your ball will always end up in the rough here. Someone's just gone ahead and built an 18 hole golf course in the middle of Central Australia as an act of defiance. It's like, you tell me I can't. Well, here it is.
And that sort of defines the Australian personality of Yes. That pioneering mentality. The people of Coobery have found a unique way to beat the heat. But this is just one community. If temperatures keep rising the way they have been, the entire country may soon look like this. But will it become uninhabitable? Well, not to Australians. The one thing that I've learned about these people is that they are strong. They are resilient. They take pride in being able to adapt and survive in these types of environments, as harsh as they might be. There may not be a need to adapt if Australia's climate becomes more hospitable. That could happen if countries around the world reduce the amount of greenhouse gas they're putting into the atmosphere. As Australians confront the most dire effects of climate change, they're turning to alternative energy sources to fight the problem. Australia is giving the rest of the world a glimpse of the future if climate change goes unchecked. Maybe they can also show the world what could be done to fight it.***Watch at source: 122°F Inferno: Racing to Stop Australia’s Exploding “Gasoline Trees” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBxhHUJ8H9A
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