Australia is on fire, the world’s largest fires to date have taken over Australia and all in it, what is happening and what is being done about it? 

The New York Times’ Australia based correspondent Jamie Tarabay discusses in a recent article how “about 16 millions acres have burned.” These fires are much larger than anything we have ever seen in history. 

To put this in perspective the fires have burned a land area of around the size of West Virginia and that is just in the New South Wales and Victoria areas. Other parts of the country are burning as well and that adds millions of more acres to the count. 

Tarabay states some statistics about the size of these fires which have burned “eight times as much land as the 2018 fires in California, which covered nearly two million acres.” As well as these fires have burned a significantly larger amount of land than that of the Amazon fires. 

Although this fire is burning around wildlife and deserted areas, it is also burning in populated areas which makes it even worse than previous fires close to this size. These fires are not only killing animals that are unique to Australia but the fires are also killing many people.  

These fires are reported to be far from over and are still reeking havoc on homes and wildlife. Exact numbers of death toll on both wildlife and humans are still not finalized as the fires are not over yet. 

Others are worrying about the long term effects of extended smoke inhalation and exposure. The large amounts of smoke have made way around the world and other countries are seeing the effects of this. South America has seen such as discolored skies due to this mass amount of smoke passing through. 

Australia has been particularly dry this year, this drought alongside aggressive winds have contributed to the prolonging of the fires. These winds have increased the spread of fire and have increased danger. 

Many firefighters and volunteers have given a lot of time to help fight the fires and prevent continued spread.

These fires are far from over, the Tiger Times sends their thoughts and good graces to Australia as they continue to fight dramatic tragedy.