Fraser Island in the midst of massive bush fire, Australia seeing record heat

Fraser Island, located off Australia’s eastern coast, has been dealing with massive bush fires for the past six weeks. The eastern region closest to the island is dealing with record breaking heat as a consequence. 

Emergency crews and firefighters have been working to contain the spread and mitigate the damage. However, because of the high temperatures and strong winds, the fire is likely to spread. Several areas have evacuation orders in place. 

The 2019-2020 bushfire season (referred to as Black Summer) was the worst seen in Australia. Climate change has consistently been the cause of the frequency and intensity of these bushfires. Experts are concerned that any blaze has the potential to grow to the size seen last year, because of the current high heat.  Although bushfires are common in Australia, conditions have worsened in recent years. “If that explodes again, it’s going to be very damaging economically and also psychologically. I think people are scarcely recovering from the bush fires last year and early this year. So when you’re looking at these regions now, you can see the damage has not been undone.” 

Photo: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/01/australia/australia-bushfire-fraser-island-intl-hnk/index.html