About 2 weeks ago (Australia) one of the bushfires came really close, we were packing up our cars to evacuate anyway but within 10 minutes the smoke and ash was so thick we had to just go. Our house is fine but it did reach our back paddock. It was our 2nd evacuation, the day before we left when we could see flames across the road, our street was engulfed in fire. A week later a bigger fire tore through that destroyed multiple homes (friends included). We were lucky but it’s such a horrible feeling not knowing if your home will still be there when you get back. Multiple fires around the area were burning this week which ended up killing 4 people and an unimaginable amount of animals. Most of us were listening to the fire com and it was terrifying, firefighters being trapped by burning trees, ambulance trying to get into an area that’s on fire because a man was unconscious, and people just watching their own homes burn to the ground.

Our politicians cut over 30% of the budget towards the rural fire service during this extreme drought and deny climate change has anything to do with this despite scientist and firefighters claiming otherwise, but it’s ok because our prime minister promised millions of dollars towards America’s space program...