Personal Work: Stories: The Long Season

Each year the hot, dry Australian summer threatens the state of Victoria with devastating bushfires. And the 2006-2007 season saw it all, what the state Premier Steve Bracks called, "The worst bushfire conditions ever had in Victoria's history." Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) firefighters conducted fuel reduction burns leading up to the summer season, but the extreme drought conditions gripping the state made it a difficult battle. Lighting strikes in the beginning of the summer ultimately led to 69 straight days of bushfires in nearly every corner of the state. The fires eventually merged into massive blazes, called the Great Divide Complex South and Great Divide Complex North. DSE firefighters and volunteer firefighters from the Country Fire Authority (CFA) tirelessly battled the blazes that ultimately burnt 2.5 million acres and destroyed numerous homes and properties.