Black Saturday leads to major changes in bushfire emergency response

Ten years ago devastating bushfires in Victoria killed 173 people, left hundreds injured and destroyed more than 2,000 homes. Saturday, February the 7th 2009 came to be known as Black Saturday. In the decade since the tragedy, the way Australia responds to bushfire emergencies has changed markedly. As an arid continent, Australia has always been prone to bushfires - but the fires on Black Saturday were particularly severe with more than 170 people losing their lives. It was a natural disaster that triggered a Royal Commission that's led to Australia-wide changes to the way emergency services respond to bushfire threats. Andrew Gissing is a specialist in emergency risk management at Risk Frontiers, a business that specialises in risk management and catastrophe modelling. Please listen to the full report in the Pashto language.

Black Saturday in Melbourne 2009 Source: Supplied