For a newspaper located in a country that is not ever plagued by huge vegetation fires, the UK-based Guardian does a surprisingly good job of covering them when they occur in North America or Australia.
On their Teacher Network the Guardian has a resource that could be of value for classes that want to learn about fires, and specifically, bush fires in Australia. The article has links to photos, videos, maps, news program transcripts, and PowerPoint presentations that should be able to capture the interest of students.
Several of their resources are about the family in Tasmania that was forced by an advancing fire into a saltwater bay. A PowerPoint presentation has several photos taken by a man of his grandchildren on a pier and in the water surrounded by smoke. If a teacher decides to cover this in a class, it will not be boring, and might even be scary. But the students will remember it.
