The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that ignited or were burning across the Australian state of Victoriaon and around Saturday 7 February 2009. The fires occurred during extreme bushfire-weather conditions, and resulted in Australia's highest ever loss of life from a bushfire; 173 people died and 414 were injured as a result of the fires.
As many as 400 individual fires were recorded on 7 February. Following the events of 7 February 2009 and its aftermath, that day has become widely referred to as Black Saturday.
Causes
The majority of the fires were ignited by fallen or clashing power lines, or were deliberately lit. Other suspected ignition sources included lightning,cigarette butts, and sparks from a power tool.[4] Also implicated in the underlying conditions was a major drought that had persisted for more than a decade, as well as a domestic 50-year warming trend that has been linked to human-induced climate change. By early to mid-March, favourable conditions aided containment efforts, and helped to extinguish the fires.
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