When San Jose State kinesiology senior Caitlin Bettenay went home over winter break to Sunshine Coast, Australia, all she saw was red.
“I saw the red sky above the blue water and the trees were completely burnt,” Bettenay said.
Australian SJSU students returned to campus while the fires continued.
The Australian wildfires have burned between 12 million and 24 million acres of land with nearly 60 fires still burning, 2,000 homes evacuated and approximately 30 recorded deaths, according to BBC News.
Bettenay first heard the news about the fires while she was on campus.
“I was pretty shocked, especially because one of the first places to go up in fire was really close to my house,” Bettenay said. “It was literally in the next town over, like 10 minutes away, if that.”
As she followed updates on the fires, Bettenay wished she could help more.
“Obviously I would post on my social media and I would help out with the donations,” she said. “But I felt hopeless. I couldn’t be home when home needed me.”
The Australian wildfires have proved difficult to contain because of the soil’s inability to absorb rainwater, according to ABC News.
“Sometimes the soil gets so dry that the water ends up running off of it rather than absorbing into it,” Craig Clements, SJSU meteorology professor and Fire Weather Research Laboratory director, said in an email. “Wildfire can also change the soil properties due to its intense heat and this causes the soil to respond to rain differently than before.”
Harry Nixon, a biology freshman from New South Wales, Australia, said that when he went home for winter break, he felt like he suffered from second-hand smoke.
“I was coughing horribly when I went out clubbing,” Nixon said. “The city was completely covered in smoke.”
These “fire clouds” are clouds of smoke that can travel 10 miles high and disperse thousands of miles from its origin, according to NASA.
“Some of my friends already evacuated,” Nixon said. “At the beach, you couldn’t even sunbathe because the smoke was blocking out the sun. It was insane.”
Nick Marchione, biological science sophomore and Melbourne, Australia native, said, “It’s all anyone talks about and people do everything they can to help out.”
9News reported that bushfires burned through Australian states Queensland and New South Wales, which also had a devastating impact on wildlife.
“We have a lot of nature, a lot of habitats,” Marchione said. “Australia thrives on its rich diversity in nature, but half a billion of animals have died, it’s hard to even express the kind of toll that takes on a country.”
Live plants such as shrubs and trees become dormant during droughts in Australia, Clements said. The plants’ inactivity creates dry tinder that can ignite dangerous wildfires across the landscape.
Clements added that droughts create longer and more severe wildfire seasons.
“If the Australian droughts are linked to climate change, this is a situation where the fuels are being stressed under drought and the fire weather conditions are extreme,” he said. “Those two aspects combined led to the devastating fires.”
The fight against the fires has yet to end.
On Jan. 29, 9News updated its reports that Southeast Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales are expecting record-high heat waves, while fires continue to blaze in Canberra and flash-flooding occurs in Queensland.
Kinesiology sophomore Matilda Moore from Rockhampton, Australia, said she feels angry about the lack of government action toward global warming and the bushfires.
When Moore visited home over winter break, she said she felt humbled by her fellow Australians by seeing Muslim, Sikh and Christian groups going out to the affected areas with food and resources.
“It really brings the community together even stronger,” Bettenay said. “We have to support each other, especially being such an isolated country. We’re really all we’ve got.”
