Secondary: Rapid Response Assemblies


Fires in Australia
By Ronni Lamont

If necessary, please update this rapid response assembly when you use it.

Suitable for Whole School

Aim

To consider the Australian bushfires.

Preparation and materials

• Download pictures from newspaper websites. Please be sensitive to what the pictures show.
• You will need a candle and matches.
• Download the music ‘Fragile’ by Sting.

Assembly

1. When the students are gathered, ask them to sit comfortably. Ask them to listen to their breathing: in . . . out, in . . . out.
   

2. When they are calm and relaxed, light the candle. Run through the things they have to think about when they use matches and have a fire:

   Take care to keep an eye on the candle.

   Make sure the burning match is extinguished carefully, and then placed in a fireproof bin, etc.
   

3. Comment that people have always been fascinated by fire. The students might remember sitting in front of a fire or watching a bonfire. The way the flames leap and change has enthralled human beings for as long as we have known how to make fire.
   

4. There have always been people who are so fascinated by fire that they sometimes start them in places where they could cause harm, such as derelict buildings. We call these people ‘arsonists’. It is against the law to commit arson. In Australia, arsonists are called ‘firebugs’.
   

5. Show the pictures of the Australian bushfires, and ask if anyone knows where the pictures have come from.
   

6. In Australia, in the area where the pictures were taken, there has been a drought for 10 years.
   

7. Many of the trees in this area are eucalyptus trees. These trees produce leaves that contain lots of oil, which we use for insecticides and medicines. In the autumn, when the leaves fall off the trees and drop to the ground, they still contain lots of oil. That oil is highly flammable. Each dead leaf can catch quickly and burn fiercely, like a miniature explosion.
   

8. The aboriginal population of Australia knows how dangerous this accumulation of eucalyptus litter could be. In the past, every few years, they burnt the litter in a carefully controlled fire.
   

9. But there haven’t been any of these preventative fires for many years.
   

10. So when the fires started – and some were started deliberately by firebugs – the fires under the trees spread very quickly. There was 10 years’ worth of leaves to burn on the forest floor, and the litter was exceptionally dry.
    

11.  Many people have lost their homes. Animals that live in the bush have died. Now we know that many people have also died because they didn’t realize how fast the fires were moving.
    

12. The Australian government is doing all it can to catch the firebugs, who may be charged with murder. But for the people who have lost friends and family, and those who have lost everything, that is scant comfort.

    
    

Time for reflection

Reflection

Ask the students to look at the candle flame.

Ask them to consider all the good things fire brings with it.

And what bad things a fire can do . . .

Read Psalm 23: ‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me.’

Perhaps the person who wrote these words was scared that he might die or, perhaps, someone he loved had died, and he was very upset and sad.

The people of Australia are also sad at the deaths and hurt caused by the fires. They are angry that people could start fires that have caused so much death and destruction.

(Repeat the reading. Play the music.)

Prayer

In the silence of our hearts, we remember

all those who have lost their homes,

all those who have lost their possessions,

all those who have lost a friend or a relative to the fires.

May they know that you are close,

may they know your comfort.

And may they trust in your love to hold them at this time.

Amen.