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Total Fire Ban Statewide today 26/12
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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.