Inside the Firestorm (ATOM Study Guide)

There were so many fires, they moved so quickly and with such ferocity that the warning systems and the plans the authorities and ordinary Australians had always relied on to deal with a bushfire emergency failed with dire consequences. This was a fire that re-wrote history and broke all the rules.'

On 7 February 2009, Australia suffered its worst bushfire disaster. Black Saturday claimed 173 lives, left almost 8000 people homeless and destroyed close to half a million hectares of Victorian bushland – equivalent to a quarter of a million football fields. 2300 homes were lost. One year on, Inside the Firestorm tells the story of what happened on that terrible day. It is a powerful and gripping film of record, a film that commemorates the catastrophe as seen through the eyes of those who were there.

Curriculum Links

Inside The Firestorm would be suitable for SOSE/HSIE units at middle- to senior-secondary levels (Humanities: Geography and Civics & Citizenship). In Geography at this level, students need to be given opportunities to 'investigate some of the significant natural processes that operate across Australia (for example, rainfall, drought, flood, earthquake, cyclones and bushfire), and how people react to them, including their preparation for, and management of, natural disasters' (VELS). Inside The Firestorm would accommodate these curriculum goals.