A TOTAL FIRE BAN has been declared for the whole State of Victoria on Thursday 26 December 2024.
No fires can be lit or be allowed to remain alight in the open air from 12:01 AM until 11:59 PM Thursday 26 December 2024. Visit www.cfa.vic.gov.au/firebans
Please ELI5 to a non-aussie (Brazilian here), does this “Total Fire ban” also ban candles and incense sticks? If so, how religious groups (especially esoteric and occult ones) are supposed to practice rituals that involve such elements for meditation, devotion and invocation?
It’s Australia in Summer. There’s zero sympathy for religious use of flame. Bush Fire is deadly and if your religious candle causes a bush fire and kills people and destroys homes then the courts will hit you with everything.
There’s no reason you can’t wait a week until extreme fire danger has passed.
We’ve had too many deaths to start making excuses
Thanks for the clarification. It’s the first time I heard something as a “total fire ban”, so I thought it was a very strict thing that also included controlled and small indoor flames, such as candles and incense sticks, away from combustible things that would render the fire uncontrollable. Indeed, fire is a thing that needs responsibility so to avoid wildfires.
It’s also summer in Brazil, which also brings the risk of droughts. Brazil has some laws regarding prohibition of fire, especially within parks and national forests, but (unfortunately) there are little to no enforcement, and that’s why wildfires have been spreading throughout the Amazon rainforest. People over here are used to throw out “cigarette ends” on streets and roads, and this is bad in many ways: from pollution to risk of sparking fire because of how those cigarette ends could contain lit fire within.
I guess the total fire ban is largely in reference to outside fires and things that cause sparks.
Cigarette butts, angle grinders, open fires, BBQs etc.
In national parks and also on private land in backyards etc.
There was a case just a couple years ago where someone was using an angle grinder fixing a lawnmower and the sparks causes his backyard to catch fire which ended up burning down hundreds or hectares and dozens of houses.
No, it’s basically just fires in the open outside. So no outdoor cooking fires, fires to get rid of garden waste etc. There are also restrictions on things like using grinders which can create sparks and start a fire.
It would also be possible in some circumstances to get a permit to be allowed to have a fire, so if you did have a religious or cultural ceremony requiring fire you may be able to get permission to do so (you would need to have a good reason and show you have taken precautions to ensure the fire can’t spread).
If you plan on running a gas or electric BBQ, it also either has to be fixed in place and made from non flammable materials, or commercially manufactured exclusively for the purposes of “food preparation”, and in either case you need either a hose or a bucket with at least 10 litres of water
Either do indoors safely or don’t do it today. Religious exemptions for fire use don’t exist when the risk to everyone else is so high.
Do it indoors if at all. The fire ban applies to outdoor fires that might get out of control. Look up Black Saturday fires in Victoria and NSW. And Ash Wednesday. And Black Friday. These are just the ones with a lot of publicity. There are plenty of others. The bush burns in weather like this given the slightest excuse - deal with it. Do you want to be responsible for multiple deaths and a whole lotta destruction? If so, you’re on your own, as every occult practitioner and emergency services worker will be sending curses your way. I might even be one of them.
Rusty Raven works in the industry and knows what’s what.
Thanks for the clarification. It’s the first time I heard something as a “total fire ban”, so I thought it was a very strict thing that also included controlled and small indoor flames, such as candles and incense sticks, away from combustible things that would render the fire uncontrollable. Indeed, fire is a thing that needs responsibility so to avoid wildfires.
It’s also summer in Brazil, which also brings the risk of droughts. Brazil has some laws regarding prohibition of fire, especially within parks and national forests, but (unfortunately) there are little to no enforcement, and that’s why wildfires have been spreading throughout the Amazon rainforest. People over here are used to throw out “cigarette ends” on streets and roads, and this is bad in many ways: from pollution to risk of sparking fire because of how those cigarette ends could contain lit fire within.