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Step 4. Make sure you have the app and are checking it.

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Step 4. Make sure you have the app and are checking it.

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Fire season has only just begun but already bushfires in Victoria and South Australia have destroyed property and forced people to evacuate. This season is predicted to be one of the worst for many years. So what can emergency services do to lessen the risk?

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Over the summer holidays, bushfires struck many communities around Australia. For the kids that live in those areas, recovering has been a really long process. So we asked some of them to let us know how they were going in the lead-up to school going back. Rookie Reporter Kane has more.

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Indigenous Australians have long-established fire practices that have modified and shaped the landscape.

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Bushfires move faster uphill rather than downhill.

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Bushfires are frequent events during the warmer months of the year, due to Australia's mostly hot, dry climate. Each year, such fires impact extensive areas. On one hand, they can cause property damage and loss of human life.

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Australia has been shocked by the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. The massive bushfires that ripped through Victoria killed at least 180 people but that number is expected to increase as hundreds of burnt buildings and cars are searched. Thousands of people have also been left without anywhere to live and have lost all their clothes and possessions. The size of the tragedy has shocked people around the world and many are now asking how can a bushfire have caused so much devastation.

Fire - it's one of our most useful tools and a part of daily life. But out of control it can instantly become one of the deadliest forces on the planet.

KEVIN RUDD: You have been to hell and back and we intend to help you rebuild.

JULIA GUILLARD: The 7th February, 2009 will now be remembered as one of the darkest days in Australia's peace-time history.

The weekend from hell started with dire warnings from fire-fighters and the weather bureau. They were expecting high winds, dry air and record temperatures. All in all, they feared that if any fires started, they would be impossible to fight. And they were...

Thirty-one fires ripped through the state, destroying whole towns in minutes. Residents in their path were given little or no warning of how bad it would be.

Scientists say it was like 500 atomic bombs worth of heat being released on these small communities. This was all that was left of the town of Marysville. And this, their school.

Town after town, area after area were destroyed. More than 450,000 hectares were burnt, including around 2000 houses. But worse than that was the number of lives lost. 189 people have been confirmed dead and maybe a million animals also lost their lives. It was easily Australia's worst natural disaster in history.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: But why was it so deadly? Well to answer that, we need to know how a bushfire can go from a tiny spark to a massive inferno.

There are a few factors that can make a small fire turn into something like Saturday's destructive blaze. The weather is a big one. On the day of the fires, there was 47 degree heat in Victoria, along with very dry, but very powerful winds. The heat made fuel - like wood and leaves - burn much easier.

Wind pushed flames through the bush at more than 120 kilometres an hour and blew burning embers up to 15 km from the fire itself. This created all new firefronts with frightening speed. They were the worst conditions ever recorded.

Another factor that made this fire so devastating is the areas that it hit. Much of the parts of Victoria that were burnt are hilly and covered in eucalyptus trees. This also helped the fire move so quickly - fires travel much faster uphill and eucalypts are highly flammable because of the oil in their leaves.

Most of the people living in these areas are nestled right in amongst those trees and hills. For many, there wasn't anything they could do. Some sheltered in their houses, others decided to evacuate. Some found themselves in cars, or the middle of nowhere. But all said the heat that came off this fire was like nothing they had ever experienced.

NATHAN BAZLEY, REPORTER: The most dangerous part of a bushfire is the radiant heat, or energy, that's released. Think about a heater. You don't have to put your hand in any flames to get burnt. It's the same with a bushfire, but the heat energy that is released from a fire that big can burn any uncovered skin from a long way away.

Hospitals in Victoria have been flooded with patients suffering terrible burns. Some were injured while fighting the blaze, others were burnt very badly when they were caught without protection. Many will take years to get back to full health. How long it will take their communities to recover is far less certain.

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Australia has been shocked by the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. The massive bushfires that ripped through Victoria killed at least 180 people but that number is expected to increase as hundreds of burnt buildings and cars are searched.