The Story About Australian Red Fire And The Animals Are Crying

It was a morning of the sort that happens in every small town somewhere on the fringe of the Australian bush. The sky was wide and the air was dry and still, and the sun was rising. People were doing their errands, children were laughing as they went to school and farmers were inspecting their farms. No one imagined that at the end of that day everything will be different forever.

This started with an odor. It was so dim at first like a camp-fire miles away. It was believed that perhaps a person was burning firewood in his or her backyard. However, with the hours, the odor waxed more intense. The sky was turning orange and a thin stream of smoke was showing above the tall gum trees. The smell was spread by wind all over the town and people began to become concerned. They switched on the radio and the report verified their worry- there was fire and it was spreading at a quick pace.

In a few hours, the conflagration was not a far-off haze of smoke anymore. It was a wall of fire, flowing with the breeze, burning everything under its way. People were in a great hurry to take with them what they could – photos, clothes, some valuable papers. There was time to take pets with some people but other people left animals behind. The streets were filled with vehicles attempting to flee, the flow of lights through the dense smog. The air became ever more hot, and ash fell like black snow.

Mrs. Thompson was an old lady living in the middle of the town in her wooden house more than seventy years. She had witnessed storms, floods and even little fires, but nothing of this sort. She shook her head when her neighbors besought her to go. Her deceased husband, she said, had constructed that house using his own hands and she could not leave it. But when the fire came nearer even she saw the danger. The boy who was a teenager in her next door neighbor house caught her by the arm and said, Please, Mrs. Thompson, you ought to come now. She locked her door and went away, and with the tears streaming down her face.

Not only homes were destroyed by the fire. It ravaged the forest, in which kangaroos, koalas, birds, and millions of other animals existed. Most of the animals were trying to run as they hopped and leaped away in an attempt to escape the flames. Others crossed roads and got to safer grounds, others did not. Koalas hanging on blackened trees with singed fur and fearful eyes were observed by people driving away to escape the fire. Farmers opened gates and gave cattle and horses an opportunity to flee to the open fields. The air was full of the cries of the birds, in the smoke-laden sky.

The firefighters were running into fire when everybody was running out. They wore heavy equipment, with hoses in hand and drove in red trucks. They used water sprays, excavated trenches and gave warning calls. Others had gone without sleep in days of fire fighting. They were ash-covered, but still did not stop. They had the realization that whole towns would go by giving up. As numerous individuals would afterward mention, they would have no chance of survival without those courageous firefighters.

It took days of fire. It moved so quick that in a few minutes some houses had been demolished. And when it had at last subsided, people came back to look at what remained. There was no traffic in the streets that were once so lively and black ash covered the whole place. There were houses which were lying in pieces, the walls demolished, the roofs caved in. And there were little things left of it too, among the ruins: a teacup, a photo frame, a child’s doll burned all around but still having its shape. All these small things were reminders to the people not only of what they have lost, but of the lives they had before the fire.

It was a good thing that despite the amount that was destroyed in the fire, the fire could not kill the spirit of people. Homeless families were taken in by shelters, schools, and even into the living rooms of people they did not know. Food, clothes and money were donated. They served hot meals, distributed water, and consoled the bereaved. Letters of encouragement were written by children and pictures were drawn to make the firefighters feel good. Goodness is a light that led everyone out of the darkness of all that sadness.

When Mrs. Thompson came back to her street, her house was disappeared. The ashes lay singly about the stone chimney. She wept on the ground. She reflected of her husband and how many years she spent with him in that house. So then she had a hand on her shoulder–the hand of the teenage boy who had rescued her. You are here yet, he said in a low voice. And that is the most important. She understood that the fire did not take her memories along with her house. Those were in her heart.

The nights were very quiet when the fire at last had passed. The mellow chirping of crickets, frogs and birds had disappeared. The forest had fallen quiet to the fire. Under the stars people were sitting outside, being sad and grateful. Mourning over everything that they had lost, yet being thankful that at least they were still alive, still breathing, still together. Neighbors talked to each other with greater kindness and parents embraced their children even closer. The fire had taken a lot but it also had taught them just how valuable life really was.

During the following months, the population started to reconstruct. This took some effort. Home clearance, road repair, and power line fixation had to be done. Others left town, and could not make themselves look back at the memories. However, a lot of people remained and were intent on revitalizing their town. The trees were replaced, schools re-opened and little by little laughter crept back in. The fire scars were there, the people were there, too.

Australian fire was not a disaster, it was something bigger. It was a life, nature and love lesson. It reconfirmed to all of us that nature is strong, and in some ways, evil, but that people are stronger when united. The story demonstrated how even during the most difficult periods, there can be kindness that would light up the world. It taught that houses and material can be replaced, but lives and hearts have to be guarded first of all.