Bushfire Case Study

• Gospers Mountain Fire


  A major bushfire that occurred in New South Wales, Australia
• Gospers Mountain Fire


  • Name
  • Location: Primarily affected regions in New South Wales, Australia
  • Duration: Ignited on 26th October, burned for 107 days, extinguished by Sydney Floods
  • Trigger: Lightning strike in Wollemi National Park
  • Contributing Factors: Dry weather, strong winds, dense dry vegetation
  • Magnitude: Burned over 512,626 hectares of land
• Probability of reoccurrence of the Gospers Mountain Fire is influenced by factors such as Climate Change, Fuel Load, Land Management Practices, Human Activities, Preparedness, Weather Conditions, Topography and Historical Fire Data
• Main Path of the Gospers Mountain Fire

  1. Originated in Wollemi National Park due to lightning strike

  2. Spread rapidly westward towards Blue Mountains, threatening communities and national parks

  3. Expanded further west into Hawkesbury, Central Coast and Hunter regions

  4. Covered a vast expanse of land, one of the largest wildfires in Australia's history
• Social Impacts of the Gospers Mountain Fire

  • Displacement and Evacuations
  • Long- and short-term health effects from smoke inhalation
  • Psychological trauma and PTSD
• Economic Impacts of the Gospers Mountain Fire


  • Property (housing) damage and losses
  • Disruption to tourism and agriculture
  • Substantial costs of firefighting efforts
  • Total estimated cost of 100 billion dollars
• Environmental Impacts of the Gospers Mountain Fire

  • Loss of biodiversity, with most animals killed or injured
  • Ecosystem degradation through soil erosion, water pollution, etc.
  • Air and water quality issues from smoke and ash
• Vulnerability to the Gospers Mountain Fire

  • Dry, hot weather conditions provided ample fuel
  • Presence of bushland, especially in National Park, increased fire risk
  • Communities closer to the fire were most at risk
• Mitigation Measures for the Gospers Mountain Fire

  1. Land management practices to reduce fuel loads

  2. Controlled burns to prevent more destructive bushfires

  3. Ongoing risk management and evaluation
• The Gospers Mountain Fire was ignited by a lightning strike, not human action, but human factors like emergency response and urban planning could have impacted the outcome
• Preparedness - Evacuation Plans

  1. Early action to evacuate before fire approaches

  2. Reduced panic through structured evacuation process

  3. Effectiveness varied across regions due to scale and intensity of fires
• Despite efforts at controlled burning before the 2019-2020 bushfire season, the season was particularly severe due to extreme weather conditions, prolonged drought and strong winds
• Controlled burning is an important tool but not a foolproof solution, as other factors like climate change, land management and human activity also play a major role in bushfire dynamics
• Rainfall from mid 2018 to mid 2019 was a contributing factor
• Gospers Mountain Fire


  A major bushfire that occurred in New South Wales, Australia
• Gospers Mountain Fire


  • Name
  • Location: Primarily affected regions in New South Wales, Australia
  • Duration: Ignited on 26th October, burned for 107 days, extinguished by Sydney Floods
  • Trigger: Lightning strike in Wollemi National Park
  • Contributing Factors: Dry weather, strong winds, dense dry vegetation
  • Magnitude: Burned over 512,626 hectares of land
• Probability of reoccurrence of the Gospers Mountain Fire is influenced by factors such as Climate Change, Fuel Load, Land Management Practices, Human Activities, Preparedness, Weather Conditions, Topography and Historical Fire Data
• Main Path of the Gospers Mountain Fire

  1. Originated in Wollemi National Park due to lightning strike

  2. Spread rapidly westward towards Blue Mountains, threatening communities and national parks

  3. Expanded further west into Hawkesbury, Central Coast and Hunter regions

  4. Covered a vast expanse of land, one of the largest wildfires in Australia's history
• Social Impacts of the Gospers Mountain Fire

  • Displacement and Evacuations
  • Long- and short-term health effects from smoke inhalation
  • Psychological trauma and PTSD
• Economic Impacts of the Gospers Mountain Fire


  • Property (housing) damage and losses
  • Disruption to tourism and agriculture
  • Substantial costs of firefighting efforts
  • Total estimated cost of 100 billion dollars
• Environmental Impacts of the Gospers Mountain Fire

  • Loss of biodiversity, with most animals killed or injured
  • Ecosystem degradation through soil erosion, water pollution, etc.
  • Air and water quality issues from smoke and ash
• Vulnerability to the Gospers Mountain Fire

  • Dry, hot weather conditions provided ample fuel
  • Presence of bushland, especially in National Park, increased fire risk
  • Communities closer to the fire were most at risk
• Mitigation Measures for the Gospers Mountain Fire

  1. Land management practices to reduce fuel loads

  2. Controlled burns to prevent more destructive bushfires

  3. Ongoing risk management and evaluation
• The Gospers Mountain Fire was ignited by a lightning strike, not human action, but human factors like emergency response and urban planning could have impacted the outcome
• Preparedness - Evacuation Plans

  1. Early action to evacuate before fire approaches

  2. Reduced panic through structured evacuation process

  3. Effectiveness varied across regions due to scale and intensity of fires
• Despite efforts at controlled burning before the 2019-2020 bushfire season, the season was particularly severe due to extreme weather conditions, prolonged drought and strong winds
• Controlled burning is an important tool but not a foolproof solution, as other factors like climate change, land management and human activity also play a major role in bushfire dynamics
• Rainfall from mid 2018 to mid 2019 was a contributing factor
• Chernobyl Disaster


  April 26, 1986
• Chernobyl disaster


  A nuclear reactor accident in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine, which used to be a part of the Soviet Union
• The Chernobyl disaster is considered to be the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history and the only level 7 instance on the International Nuclear Event Scale
• What happened?


  1. The day before the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, plant operators were preparing for a one-time shutdown to perform routine maintenance on reactor number 4

  2. Under pressure from senior management and in violation of safety regulations, operators disabled plant equipment including the automatic shutdown mechanisms

  3. At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, when extremely hot nuclear fuel rods were lowered into cooling water, an immense amount of steam was created, which — because of the RBMK reactors' design flaws — created more reactivity in the nuclear core of reactor number 4

  4. The resultant power surge caused an immense explosion that detached the 1,000-ton plate covering the reactor core, releasing radiation into the atmosphere and cutting off the flow of coolant into the reactor

  5. A few seconds later, a second explosion of even greater power than the first blew the reactor building apart and spewed burning graphite and other parts of the reactor core around the plant, starting a number of intense fires around the damaged reactor and reactor number 3, which was still operating at the time of the explosions
• Causes of the Chernobyl accident


  • Unsafe and unstable reactor design: In addition to generating electricity, the RBMK reactors at Chernobyl were also designed and adapted for the production of plutonium for military purposes, as fuel can be loaded and unloaded during operation. This double function restricted the reactor's built-in safety mechanisms
  • The operators' lack of theoretical training and knowledge: During the cold war, safety was clearly not a priority. There was a critical lack of safety culture at Chernobyl, which was amplified by an global lack of understanding and training
  • The culture of strict confidentiality that reigned in the former Soviet Union due to the strong interdependency of civil and military nuclear applications: Within the context of the 1980's, operators were not supposed to think critically or take initiatives in case of emergency situations, which were never even officially considered
• Evacuation


  1. People were evacuated the day after the explosion (36 hours)

  2. A month later 116,000 people in an 18 mile radius of the plant were evacuated

  3. Over 300,000 people were moved from the accident
• Many still live in contaminated areas and the long term effect is not yet known
• The Soviet Union has not been able to study effects due to lack of funds and secrecy
• Effects on the Environment around the Chernobyl explosion

  • Fallout levels were very high right around the nuclear power station and affected all wildlife
  • Red Forest- was a forest right by the plant was named this because plants had a red hue after the explosion. These trees also died from the amount of radiation they received
• Thyroid cancer


  • The thyroid gland is the most vulnerable organ to radiation in the human body
  • This is a rare disease
  • Thyroid cancer can take 10-30 years to show it's effects
  • There has been an increase in the rates of thyroid cancer in Belarus since 1986 as shown in the graph above
  • In the Homyel region of Belarus, the region closest to Chernobyl, there has been a 100-fold increase in thyroid cancer
• Thyroid Cases Graph


  • BLUE: 20–46 Years old
  • RED: Children
  • Yellow: Adults over the age of 46
• Other problems...


  • Milk—Farmers have to watch the radiation level in milk as the cows eat contaminated grass which gets into their milk which is then drunk by human
  • Fish—Cannot be eaten, as water absorbs radiation and fats concentrate it
  • Radioactive Floods every spring as the rain water infiltrates through contaminated soil and then runs into the rivers
  • Mental health issues and depression
  • Even healthy people were traumatized