Since late July  2019, the fire season started for Australia.

Ever since then there have been small fires caused by the dryness. Now in Jan.  2020, a major bushfire broke out. Many towns have been engulfed in flames, and many people have lost their houses. According to CNN, “More than 17.9 million acres have been burned across Australia’s six states.”

Massive evacuations started in Jan. 2020 across the hardest-hit regions of the Southeast due to the dangerous winds fanning the flames. Towns are overpowered by the smell of smoke and everything has been destroyed from the flames, even down to the street signs. People living in the town Clifton Creek are all on edge wondering when the fires will begin to mellow down. A quote from 52-year-old Deb Wiltshire, the owner of a cafe in Batlow, “You think it’s over and done, then you get told it’s on its way back.” 

Not only are the people getting massively affected by the fires, but so are the animals. More than 25,000 koalas, a third of the koalas in New South Wales, are believed to be dead and about 30 percent of their homes have been completely destroyed. The population of koalas before the fires was 50,000, which means more than half of their population is gone because of the fires. They could potentially go extinct because of these fires. According to CNN, more than 1 billion animals were affected by the enraging fires. 

Many organizations like the Australian Red Cross, are accepting donations that all goes to helping with the fires. With this money, it goes to its Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund, which has helped them get their staff members and volunteers to the communities that were badly affected by the fires. Not only do they accept money donations, but they’re accepting clothing and house-hold goods. 

Not only have these fires destroyed more than 2,000 homes, but they’ve impacted so many species of animals’ habitats. At Wheat Ridge High School, two history teachers, Brittany Hovland and Stephanie Rossi have taken it upon themselves to gain support for the cause. Throughout the whole school they’ve raised over $4,000. With these fires going on this could affect the world drastically. Not only do these fires contribute to Climate Change but it impacts the environment directly. There’s been mass amounts of damage to the land.