Google Creates Map to Track Australian Fires

Google Australia have created a map to keep track of the awful bush fires burning through South East Australia in the aim of helping to coordinate traffic and assist the country’s emergency services. 

The fires have already reached a death toll of over 108 people, the worst in the country’s history – with many reports that the fires are being set alight intentionally.

The flash map gives real time information about the fire locations and their status from the State of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority (CFA) website via RSS feed. The map also provides an address search functionality which should be a big help.

The number in each marker shows the number of fires at the location. A green marker means the area is called “safe” by the CFA. Yellow means “controlled”. Orange means “contained”. Red means “going”.

You can view the map large here or see it embedded below.