If you have ever found yourself in the middle of a woodland devastated by fire you will know the experience stays with you for a lifetime. Even though the fire is out, it attacks all your senses. The smell, it lingers in the air, taken on the wind for all to consider how lucky they were not to be in the path of the fire, a small change in wind direction, their lives and community either saved or gone. Then noise, there is none! Not even a bird nearby. In the complete stillness your mind automatically responds to the thought of all living things within this environment fighting for their lives, knowing the majority did not make it. Your eyes are drawn to the blackened shapes of ancient trees as far as you can see, just trunks standing scorched black like the charcoal inside a pencil. As you touch the ground, the ash blackens your shoes and clings on as if to be saved. It pervades your clothes and into your very soul; you taste the sourness of the air as you walk away deep in thought and sorrow.
Whether you like it or not, we are facing climate change. Countries subjected to wild fires teach their young how to respect fire, how to behave around it, how to prepare for it and how to manage it. The fire in Canada Woods recently was set against a holly tree. Holly leaves contain oils and are highly flammable. As the flames reached several metres above their heads, one boy decided to remove his shirt and fan the flames with it. Whether it was to try and put it out or make the flames go higher is a matter of opinion but the option he chose in that moment could have ended in tragedy if a local resident had not intervened.
Regaling your children with stories of cosy woodland camp fires when you were a child is a dangerous exercise. It might have been innocuous in your day – but it’s not your day anymore – times change, our climate is changing. Children should be taught how to be responsible around fire, the preparation, the danger, the consequences. If you are in any doubt about the consequences, I suggest you venture into a woodland scorched by fire to stand and consider how lucky you currently are not forced to prepare your family and property for wild fires every summer and the fear that provokes; and to remember you have the power to educate your children and/or influence their behaviour.