Black Saturday

The Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria were the deadliest in Australia's history. They came on the heels of a record heat wave — with scorching temperatures reaching the mid-40s Celsius (around 113 degrees Fahrenheit) for several days before the blazes started. In the dry heat, all it took was a spark to ignite an apocalyptic firestorm.

As many as 400 individual fires broke out on February 7, 2009. When it was all over, they had killed 173 people and razed 2,133 homes in addition to hundreds of other buildings. Whole towns had been annihilated. In many cases, people who had lost everything did not return to rebuild.

David Barton's home in Marysville, Victoria, burned down during the Black Saturday bushfires. He and his then-wife survived but the traumatic experience still haunts him and contributed to the eventual failure of his marriage. He wasn't alone. Many other couples who lived through the events split up. Eventually, he returned to Marysville alone.

Fanned by strong winds, the firefronts of bushfires can grow to more than 100 meters (328 feet) high. In such extreme situations, flight is the only option. Some of those who tried to defend their homes using their garden hoses during the Black Saturday fires were later found dead in their yards, some with melted garden hoses still in their hands.

Bushfire weather in Australia has become more frequent over the past 30 years, and Australia's climate commission has concluded that: "The intensity and seasonality of large bushfires in southeast Australia appears to be changing, with climate change a possible contributing factor."

But fires as such are not a new phenomenon on the world's driest inhabited continent. And since they have always been a fact of life, Australia's fauna and flora have adapted to these conditions. Species that can deal with fires and their aftermath have thrived.

Eucalyptus is one such species. The trees are true survivors when it comes to bushfires. But they don't just survive; they even promote fires. In fact, eucalyptus leaves contain an oil with such a high degree of octane that it can be used as fuel. The eucalyptus fares better in blazes than other trees, so fires help it eliminate competition.

Several birds of prey, including the black kite, take this a step further. They pick up burning branches from existing fires and drop them elsewhere to start new ones. As the flames spread, they drive small rodents and birds out of hiding, making it easy for the "firehawks" to catch them.

Many fire-resistant plants, including some eucalyptus, posess a lignotuber. This thick woody section at their base contains buds from which new stems can sprout. They also store starch, which provides fuel for the plants to grow when they cannot photosynthesize. This allows them to rebound quickly after a fire.