More than quarter of people who lost homes, family members and friends in the Black Saturday bushfires, suffered “severe psychological stress” for up to four years after the event, according to a study led by the University of Melbourne.
The Victorian bushfires occurred during a summer heatwave in February 2009, with days of record-breaking temperatures between 43 and 45 degrees Celsius. They remain Australia’s’ worst bushfires disaster with the loss of 173 lives and more than 2,100 homes destroyed.
The six-year study of the health and social impacts of the fires was led by Lisa Gibbs, director of the Jack Brockhoff child health programme at the University of Melbourne.
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