Case Study on Bushfire in Australia

Running head: CASE STUDY ON BUSHFIRE IN AUSTRALIA
CASE STUDY ON BUSHFIRE IN AUSTRALIA
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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Disaster Description:.......................................................................................................................2
Impact of Disaster:...........................................................................................................................4
Social Framework:...........................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................7
References:......................................................................................................................................8
Appendix:......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
The role that social workers play at times of natural disaster is significant in terms of
preparedness and response. They are the ones who run community services and help in the
provision of important help for identifying groups that are at- risks and then they work to protect
them. Apart from that, social workers also offer more deal of help to help the people or
community in need. It is important to note that only surviving from the natural disaster is not the
ultimate goal; the social workers also promote recovery and healthy coping methods to survive
through the aftermath of the disaster (Dutta, Das & Aryal, 2016). However, doing such thing
requires acute preparation and profound understanding of the circumstances that is going on due
to the natural disaster and most importantly after an event that has caused large- scale damage.
The kind of consequence that natural disasters cause has an impact on various population groups.
Dealing with potential loss of property and the damages, compels the individuals and the
communities to contend with the trauma that is created due to those damaging events (Zhou et
al., 2015). Every social worker is important since they have to develop response plans for every
population group and also have to support similar care and interventions.
Disaster Description:
Australia is struggling hard till date for facing the worst season of bushfire and these
bushfires have fueled the temperature to a record- breaking hike and it has also been predicted
that the consequence of such a natural disaster will be several months of severe drought in the
country. Since the month of September, 2019, around 25 people have lost their lives in the
natural disaster and along with that several thousand of the people of Australia lost their homes

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and properties in such a disastrous event. Each and every state of Australia has experienced the
perils of fire in the summer of 2019. However, the biggest stretch of fire was seen along the
eastern and the southern cost of the country; unfortunately, this is the area where most of the
population of Australia resides and these areas also included Sydney and Adelaide. According to
reports, it has been found that more than area of 6.3 million hectares has been destroyed by
bushfire. In comparison, the incident of California faced destruction of around 80,000 by
bushfires in the year 2018.
It is significant to be aware of how the fires start, so that proper steps and measures can
be undertaken to prevent them from destroying human and animal lives in such a huge manner.
Basically, Australia faces a “fire season” when it is highly possible that they will experience
bushfires. Fires are generally initiated by lightning strikes or even an accidental spark can cause
such a big bushfire that it can destroy half the country. Another reason that cannot be ignored for
any circumstance is that, the global warming is warming up the planet by several degrees and the
consequences are coming in the form of natural disasters like these bushfires. The rising level of
carbon dioxide is warming up the planet along with Australia. The last year in December 2019,
Australia recorded their temperature that attained a new record which is 41.9 C (Strahan,
Whittaker & Handmer, 2019). New South Wales and Victoria has altogether of 50 fires burning
their surface and the authorities had to declare a state of emergency along the range of the
southern area of Canberra. New South Wales faced the destruction of 2,000 houses in the
bushfire and its compelled thousands of people to move from their homeland and seek a different
place to live. There were more than 1,600 firefighters who were involved to bring the raging fire
to control, but the rising temperature and the strong winds increased the fear that it might make
the fire uncontrollable (Ulubaşoğlu et al., 2019). The reports from the NSW Fire Service

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predicted that the flames of the bushfire were more likely to spread to the south eastern side of
the province. The state of emergency provided more power to the fire authorities since it allowed
them to impose evacuation if the situation seemed necessary. There were casualties from the
military troops and the fire- fighting men whilst they were trying to help the regional residents to
evacuate or relocate and also helping the fire- fighters with their efforts to control the fire.
The fire- fighters were doing everything they could to control the fire; they were spraying
water and also fire retardant from the planes and also the helicopters and some fighters were
spraying water from the ground too. It is an extremely difficult task and there are several
circumstances when the authorities have to decide whether to focus on stopping the fire from
spreading or put out the fire (Whittaker et al., 2013). There is also the method of digging earth
which can contain the fire from spreading beyond the boundaries made by digging, it stops the
flames from spreading further beyond; however, no matter what the method of putting out the
bushfire is, it is of extreme importance that lives are saved as much as it is possible.
Impact of Disaster:
The fire season in Australia that took place in the year 2019- 2020 was in fact
unparalleled. Approximately 18 million hectares of land was destroyed by the raging flames
scathing through the bush; such an area is greater than an average size of Europe and it is five
times larger than the size of the blazes in Amazon. Previously, it was predicted that climate
change will get worsened and the scientific bodies issued a warning against the existing
condition for fire or any other climatic condition. Previously these fires occurred once in a
generation, but nowadays due to such an exacerbated climatic condition, these fires are occurring
within 10- 15 years of time and each time with even greater ferocity (Mackie, 2014). Australia is

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a country known for its climate denial and the recent events have erupted debates around the
management of bushfires and also the climate change. It is debated that whether the controlled
burned is the key solution to heal the climate- affected fire regions of Australia. Apart from it,
there is no existence of any other strategy of risk reduction. There are other adaptation methods
too, but it will very likely provoke an intense argument and debate which would include the act
of bush clearance. At a level, one of the experts of Australia has advised people to stay away
from the bushes and the beaches when the summer is in it full fledged form and the risk of fire
increases with the temperature.
The Australian bushfire has damaged human lives and properties, but it has also
destroyed the animal lives to a huge extent, such that people throughout the world became aware
of the issue and were ending their prayers and helps through any medium they could have their
access to. In South Australia, two human beings along with an estimated number of 25 thousand
koalas were killed in the bushfire when it attacked the kangaroo Island on 9th of January. Figure 1
in Appendix shows the impact of the Australian bushfire through satellite images that was issued
in BBC; the image clearly shows the extent of the impact from 15th December, 2019 to 12th
January, 2020. The image of Kangaroo Island in 2020 shows that almost all of the portion of this
province has suffered burns from the bushfire and the speed with which it affected such an area
is also shocking. Kangaroo Island is popular for its unique mix of several species of animals and
after such a disaster, experts and natives fear that the area might not be able to recover from this
loss (McCaw, 2013). Many endangered species of animal in the island are also facing concerns
regarding their survival and these animals include a black glossy cockatoo, dunnart and more
(Strahan, Whittaker & Handmer, 2018). There has also been loss of tens of thousands of farm
animals primarily sheep, in the bushfire. Social media were filled with videos that showed the

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effort people were giving to save the speechless and helpless animals from the disaster and how
these animals were taken care of during the aftermath by the social and community workers and
also by the natives.
The smoke from the fires has turned into a major health hazard even after the fires were
being put out. Air pollution presided all over the country and the quality of air degraded to such a
level that the Swiss -based group AirVisual has rated it the third worst among all the major and
global cities. Figure 2 in the Appendix shows another satellite image from NASA that was taken
on 4th January to depict the spread of smoke in the shown Australian countries and how the air
quality has been affected (Westcott et al., 2019). In fact, plumes of ‘black carbon’ emerging from
the bushfires have been observed to travel for more than 7,000 miles and those plumes are
harmful to human health.
Social Framework:
There are three practice spheres of social work namely, micro social work, mezzo and
macro social work. The micro social work focuses on individuals; mezzo social work uses a
slightly broad range than the previous one and it emphasizes on organizations or larger groups
like schools (Stephenson, Handmer & Betts, 2013). Finally, the macro social work than has the
broadest overview and focuses on engaging with societal issues or any large organization.
Therefore, the sphere in which the social work for Australian bushfire would be the most
appropriate is the Mezzo social work since the impact of the bushfire consists of a larger
organization. However, this sphere of social work practice requires a theory so that the social
workers can get theoretical tools that are needed to be competent in their approach to help.
Utilization of social work theories help the social workers to formulate a plan of treatment and

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makes them goal- oriented.
Social workers can use the theory of CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Theory in the mezzo
social work; using this theory the social worker can help the victims to confront their own
thinking and recognize their distortions (Sharples et al., 2016). It can be helpful in the context of
helping the victims of Australian bushfire to help them overcome from the trauma or any kind of
phobia that has been formed from being in the midst of the bushfire. Next, the psychodynamic
theory can also be proven helpful for the people who suffered a great deal of loss in the
Australian bushfire. Through the teachings of Sigmund Freud, the theory of psychodynamics
aims to offer the victims an insight to their feelings by focusing on their past and their
unconscious mind and thus it will help them to resolve their conflicts that has arisen as a result of
the aftermath of the bushfire (Morrison & Pickering, 2013). Both the theories can be applied to
help the victims return to a normal life after facing such losses and destruction. The theories in
their mezzo social work will help the social workers to respond in a way that will help the people
to be able to start over again from the scratch with any help that the social workers can provide.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded that climate change is affecting the planet in more ferocious ways
and the bushfire in Australia is one of the most relevant examples of this. The bushfire started
from the impact of climate changes and the rise in temperature. Australia was warned
beforehand, but it had not paid any attention to such warnings. However, this bushfire had a
devastating result that resulted in thousands of animal’s losses of lives and their habitat; humans
lost their properties yet few lives were lost too. The social workers can respond to this natural
disaster through the mezzo social work and can follow the Cognitive Behavioral Theory and the

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theory of Psychodynamics by Freud to help the victims recognize their conflicts or distortions
that are created for the devastating bushfire and help them regain their stature through as much
help as can be provided and through therapy. The social work models will help the victims to re-
build what they had lost in the bushfire of 2019-2020.

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References:
Dutta, R., Das, A., & Aryal, J. (2016). Big data integration shows Australian bush-fire frequency
is increasing significantly. Royal Society open science, 3(2), 150241.
Mackie, B. (2014). Warning fatigue: Insights from the Australian bushfire context.
McCaw, W. L. (2013). Managing forest fuels using prescribed fire–a perspective from southern
Australia. Forest Ecology and Management, 294, 217-224.
Morrison, C., & Pickering, C. M. (2013). Perceptions of climate change impacts, adaptation and
limits to adaption in the Australian Alps: the ski-tourism industry and key
stakeholders. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(2), 173-191.
Sharples, J. J., Cary, G. J., Fox-Hughes, P., Mooney, S., Evans, J. P., Fletcher, M. S., ... & Baker,
P. (2016). Natural hazards in Australia: extreme bushfire. Climatic Change, 139(1), 85-
99.
Stephenson, C., Handmer, J., & Betts, R. (2013). Estimating the economic, social and
environmental impacts of wildfires in Australia. Environmental Hazards, 12(2), 93-111.
Strahan, K. W., Whittaker, J., & Handmer, J. (2019). Predicting self-evacuation in Australian
bushfire. Environmental Hazards, 18(2), 146-172.
Strahan, K., Whittaker, J., & Handmer, J. (2018). Self-evacuation archetypes in Australian
bushfire. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 27, 307-316.
Ulubaşoğlu, M. A., Rahman, M. H., Önder, Y. K., Chen, Y., & Rajabifard, A. (2019). Floods,
bushfires and sectoral economic output in Australia, 1978–2014. Economic

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record, 95(308), 58-80.
Westcott, R., Ronan, K., Bambrick, H., & Taylor, M. (2019). Public health and natural hazards:
new policies and preparedness initiatives developed from an Australian bushfire case
study. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 43(4), 395-400.
Whittaker, J., Haynes, K., Handmer, J., & McLennan, J. (2013). Community safety during the
2009 Australian ‘Black Saturday’bushfires: an analysis of household preparedness and
response. International journal of wildland fire, 22(6), 841-849.
Zhou, Y., Zhang, Y., Vaze, J., Lane, P., & Xu, S. (2015). Impact of bushfire and climate
variability on streamflow from forested catchments in southeast Australia. Hydrological
Sciences Journal, 60(7-8), 1340-1360.

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Appendix:
Figure 1: Impact of Australian Bushfire

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Figure 2: Spread of Smoke in Victoria and NSW