Black Saturday bushfires

The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that either ignited or were already burning across the Australian state of Victoria on Saturday, 7 February 2009, and was one of Australia's all-time worst bushfire disasters. The fires occurred during extreme bushfire weather conditions and resulted in Australia's highest-ever loss of human life from a bushfire, with 173 fatalities. Many people were left homeless and family-less as a result.
As many as 400 individual fires were recorded on Saturday 7 February; the day has become widely referred to in Australia as Black Saturday.
Then Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard described Black Saturday as "a tragedy beyond belief, beyond precedent and beyond words … one of the darkest days in Australia’s peacetime history."
The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, headed by Justice Bernard Teague, was held in response to the bushfires.

Background

A week before the fires, a significant heatwave affected southeastern Australia. From 28 to 30 January, Melbourne broke temperature records by experiencing three consecutive days above, with the temperature peaking at on 30 January, the third hottest day in the city's history.
The wave of heat was caused by a slow-moving high-pressure system that settled over the Tasman Sea, with a combination of an intense tropical low located off the North West Australian coast and a monsoon trough over northern Australia, which produced ideal conditions for hot tropical air to be directed down over southeastern Australia.
The February fires commenced on a day when several localities across the state, including Melbourne, recorded their highest temperatures since records began in 1859. On 6 February 2009—the day before the fires started—the Country Fire Authority chief Russell Rees warned "We are in almost uncharted territory" in terms of bushfire conditions. The Premier of Victoria John Brumby issued a warning about the extreme weather conditions expected on 7 February: "It's just as bad a day as you can imagine and on top of that the state is just tinder-dry. People need to exercise real common sense tomorrow". The Premier went on to state that it was expected to be the "worst day in the history of the state".

Events of 7 February 2009

More than 19,000 firefighting personnel, mainly from the Country Fire Authority and Department of Sustainability and Environment, were deployed across the state on Friday evening in anticipation of the extreme conditions the following day. By mid-morning Saturday, hot northwesterly winds in excess of hit the state, accompanied by extremely high temperatures and extremely low humidity; a total fire ban was declared for the entire state of Victoria.
As the day progressed, the highest-ever temperatures recorded to date were reached. Melbourne hit, the hottest temperature ever recorded for the city and humidity levels dropped to as low as two percent. The McArthur Forest Fire Danger Index reached unprecedented levels, ranging from 160 to over 200. This was higher than the fire weather conditions experienced on Black Friday in 1939 and Ash Wednesday in 1983.
Around midday, as wind speeds were reaching their peak, an incorrectly rigged 'SWER' mains power cable was ripped down at Kilmore East. This sparked a bushfire that became the deadliest and most intense firestorm ever recorded in Australia. The overwhelming majority of fire activity occurred between the afternoon of 7 February and 7:00 pm, a period when wind speed and temperature were at their highest, and humidity at its lowest.

Chronology

;Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Delburn fire commenced in Central Gippsland; arson suspected.

;Wednesday, 4 February

Bunyip State Park blaze commenced.

;Saturday, 7 February

05:00 am – Bunyip State Park fire jumped containment lines; no other major fire activity.
Late morning – Many fires sprang up as temperatures rose and wind speeds increased.
11:50 am – Power lines fell in high winds igniting the Kilmore East fire. The fire was fanned by winds, entered a pine plantation, grew in intensity, and rapidly headed southeast through the Wandong area.
12:30 pm – Horsham fire commenced.
12:30 pm – ABC Local Radio abandoned regular programming to cover the fire situation.
12:45 pm – Hume Freeway was closed after fire crews were unable to contain Kilmore East fire.
Early afternoon – ABC Local Radio received calls from residents of affected areas supplying immediate up-to-date information on fire activity.
2:55 pm – Murrindindi Mill fire first spotted from Mt Despair fire tower.
3:04 pm – temperature in Melbourne peaked at.
4:20 pm – Kilmore East fire front arrived at Strathewen.
4:20 pm – Murrindindi Mill fire impacted Narbethong.
Mid-afternoon – smoke from Kilmore East firestorm prevented planes from mapping the fire edge.
4:30 pm – number of individual fires across the state increased into the hundreds.
4:30 pm – fire commenced at Eaglehawk, near Bendigo.
4:45 pm – Kilmore East fire front arrived at Kinglake.
5:00 pm – wind direction changed from northwesterly to southwesterly in Melbourne.
5:10 pm – air temperature in Melbourne dropped from over to around in fifteen minutes.
5:30 pm – wind change arrived at Kilmore East and Murrindindi Mill fire fronts.
5:45 pm – Kilmore East fire front arrived in Flowerdale.
6:00 pm – Beechworth fire commenced.
6:00 pm – Kilmore East fire smoke plume and pyrocumulus cloud reached high.
6:45 pm – Murrindindi Mill fire front arrived at Marysville.
8:30 pm – Victorian Health Emergency Co-ordination Centre notified Melbourne hospitals to prepare for burn victims.
8:57 pm – CFA chief officer first notified that casualties had been confirmed.
10:00 pm – Victoria Police announced an initial estimate of 14 fatalities.

;Sunday, 8 February

Kilmore East and Murrindindi Mill fires merged to form the Kinglake fire complex.
Wilsons Promontory fire ignited by lightning.
Victoria Police increased estimate to 25 fatalities.

;Tuesday, 10 February

Spot fires from Kinglake complex fires merged to form the Maroondah/Yarra complex.

;Tuesday, 17 February

Six fires still burned out of control, with another nineteen contained.
Containment lines surrounded 85 per cent of the Kinglake–Murrindindi complex.
The Kilmore East – Murrindindi complex south fire burned in Melbourne's O'Shannassy and Armstrong Creek water catchments.
Bunyip and Beechworth fires almost contained.

;Thursday, 19 February

Victoria Police increased estimate to 208 fatalities.

;Monday, 23 February

Temperatures in the mid-30 degrees Celsius, northerly winds, and a cool change precipitated a flare-up of many of the fires, and ignited several new fires.
The most significant new fires were in the southern Dandenong Ranges near Upwey, south of Daylesford, and in the Otway Ranges.
Weather conditions directed previously burning fires in the Yarra Ranges towards settlements in the upper Yarra Valley, but the fires were of a low intensity and were quickly contained.

;Friday, 27 February

Bunyip fire still burnt within control lines in the Bunyip State Park and State Forest areas.
The Kilmore East – Murrindindi complex north fire burned within containment lines on the southeastern flank.
The Kilmore East – Murrindindi complex south fire activity continued in areas close to several towns in the Yarra Valley near both Yarra Glen and Warburton.
The Wilsons Promontory Cathedral fire had burnt and was still burning.
The French Island fire slowly burnt in uninhabited grass and scrub bushland on the northeast end of the island.

;Tuesday, 3 March 2009:

Extreme bushfire conditions predicted for Monday night and early Tuesday morning, involving very strong northerlies, with a change forecast to arrive by Tuesday morning. Mobile phone companies trialled technology by sending Victorians and Tasmanians three million SMS messages on behalf of Victoria Police.

;Wednesday, 4 March

Cooler conditions and rain from 4–6 March enabled firefighters to control and contain several fires, with the Kilmore East – Murrindindi complex south fire being completely contained.
Predictions for favourable weather signalled the easing of the threat to settlements from the major fires that had been burning since 7 February.

;Mid-March

Favourable conditions aided containment efforts and extinguished many of the fires.
Major fires

Kinglake–Marysville fires

The Kinglake fire complex was named after two earlier fires, the Kilmore East fire and the Murrindindi Mill fire, merged following the wind change on the evening of 7 February. The complex was the largest of the many fires burning on Black Saturday, ultimately destroying over. It was also the most destructive, with over 1,800 houses destroyed and 159 lives lost in the region.

Kinglake area (Kilmore East fire)

Just before midday on 7 February, high winds felled a section of power lines owned by SP AusNet in Kilmore East, sparking a fire at approximately 11:45 am in open grasslands that adjoined pine plantations. The fire was fanned by extreme northwesterly winds, and travelled southeast in a narrow fire front through Wandong and Clonbinane, into Kinglake National Park, and then onto the towns of Humevale, Kinglake West, Strathewen and St Andrews.
The cool change passed through the area around 5:30 pm, bringing strong southwesterly winds. The wind change turned the initial long and narrow fire band into a wide firefront that moved in a northeast direction through Kinglake, Steels Creek, Dixons Creek, Chum Creek, Toolangi, Hazeldene, Broadford and Flowerdale.
The area became the worst-impacted in the state, with a total of 120 deaths and more than 1,200 homes destroyed.
The cause of the Kilmore East-Kinglake bushfire was found by the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission to be an ageing SP AusNet power line.