I grew up in a place of extreme heat, yet I often craved the cold.

The burning of the natural environment is some of my earliest memories.

In 1983 at the age of 5 in early February, I was sent home from school as day turned to night.

Ash from the Ash Wednesday fires hid that harsh Australian sun. As this occurred, (though I wasn’t currently aware of it) my grandfather was setting sprinklers on his Mt Macedon farmhouse roof and preparing to save his property and his livestock.

He did, but he never talked to me about it with me.

Wildfires (or Bushfires as I grew up calling them) were a common occurrence in Australia as in North America, and we were taught to fear them.

As well described in Edward Struziks “Dark Days at Noon:  The future of Fire” humans have learnt (and been taught) over the 19^th till 21^st centuries to see fire as the enemy, a destructive force that takes life and threatens our lives, belongings and homes.