Georgia’s inmate fire crews respond to hundreds of calls in surrounding counties every year. Without them, there might not be a responder, but they aren’t universally loved – and they don’t get paid.
Survey respondents overwhelmingly prioritised saving a human life – even if that person had been repeatedly told to evacuate and even if, as a consequence, a snail or shrub species became extinct.
Normally, many bushfires ease overnight, as temperatures fall and moisture in the air rises. But these are not normal times, as Queensland’s early-season fires are showing
A Wyoming Hotshot crew conducts night operations on the Pine Gulch fire in Colorado in August 2020.
Kyle Miller, Wyoming Hotshots, USFS
Working a day on the firelines as a wildland firefighter can require the endurance of riding the Tour de France. That takes a toll, as a physiologist explains.
Homeowners and local governments can take steps to help protect homes from fires.
AP Photo/Keith D. Cullom
Adapting to our fiery future means preparing for the risks and not putting out every low-risk wildfire, writes the author of a new book on learning to live with fire.
Ruby Mountain hotshots construct a fire line during the Dixie Fire in 2021.
Joe Bradshaw/BLM
Twenty-five years of research show what it takes to fuel wildland firefighters through an average day, and the toll the long seasonal work takes on their bodies.
Firefighters are hailed as heroes and pillars of strength, bravery and courage. But the daily stressors and traumas of their jobs take a heavy emotional toll that largely goes unnoticed by the public.
My research focuses on how to support children with a parent who must travel afar for work. Strategies that boost understanding and maintain connection with the absent parent build resilience.
I entered firefighter school at 23 and thought I was hard enough to withstand anything thrown at me. Fourteen years later, I can say firefighters are not indestructible.
Firefighters in Kangaroo Island, South Australia. First responders’ experiences on the front line make them susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems.
David Mariuz/AAP
Emergency service workers already have poorer mental health than the rest of us. In the wake of this bushfire crisis, we need to make the well-being of our first responders a top priority.
Hazard reduction burns reduce bushfire fuel loads, but the current approach is not working.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Relatively little has changed since the Black Saturday tragedy. It is as though Australia suffers amnesia when it comes to bushfire preparedness.
Black Saturday firefighters battling flames in Victoria. When we laud fire fighters as heroes, we fail to acknowledge the ongoing impact of the fires.
AAP Image/Andrew Brownbill
In commemorating firefighters as heroes, we can fall into the danger of overstating their ability to control fires, absolving ourselves of responsibility.
Volunteer firefighting crews have attempted to crowdfund equipment and supplies.
AAP Image/Supplied, DFES Incident Photographer Lewis van Bommel
Farmers seeking relief from the drought and firefighters stretched to their limits have turned to crowdfunding for help. But public appeal shouldn’t replace good governance.
The devastating bushfires are intensifying the pressure on a government already increasingly on the back foot over climate.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Emergency Leaders for Climate Action have a simple message: we’re in “a new age of unprecedented bushfire danger” due to climate change. But Morrison refuses to acknowledge it as a central issue.
When faced with a wildfire, responders must act quickly and decisively to save lives.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
Emergency responders and military personnel need to think creatively – even imaginatively – to save lives under pressure. Analyzing the Grenfell Tower Fire in London reveals useful lessons.
An institution’s culture can affect the behavior of individual participants.
Anthony Montoya/Shutterstock.com