‘My Heart Breaks’: Steve Irwin’s Daughter Speaks Out as Devastating Bushfires Rage Throughout Australia

Getty Images | Jon Kopaloff

Australia’s bushfire crisis has already taken a huge toll on the country’s biodiversity. While firefighters, authorities, and benevolent members of the community wage their best efforts to keep the blaze at bay, the family of the late wildlife expert “The Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin are doing their part, too.

Burning embers cover the ground as firefighters (back R) battle against bushfires around the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales on Dec. 31, 2019. ©Getty Images | SAEED KHAN

Twenty-one-year-old “Wildlife Warrior” Bindi Irwin, Steve’s daughter, took to social media on Jan. 2, 2020, to share how her family was working alongside the staff at Australia Zoo to help treat a huge influx of animal casualties.

The family-run wildlife facility, near Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast, has increased its capacity for in-patient treatment and rehabilitation since the Australian bushfires began to rage back in September 2019.

Steve Irwin and his mother, Lyn, pose with a crocodile at Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Australia, on Sept. 16, 2006. ©Getty Images

Bindi, calling the fires “devastating,” explained: “[M]y heart breaks for all the people and wildlife who have lost so much. I wanted to let you know that we are safe,” she wrote. “There are no fires near us at Australia Zoo or our conservation properties.

“My parents dedicated our Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital to my beautiful grandmother,” Bindi continued. “We will continue to honor her by being Wildlife Warriors and saving as many lives as we can.”

The Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital has been run by Steve’s widow, Terri Raines, since Steve’s untimely death back in 2006. The beloved TV personality died following a freak stingray attack that occurred during the filming of a documentary about marine wildlife.

©Facebook | Bindi Irwin

Steve and Terri’s two children, Bindi and Robert, 16, later joined their mother on the Australia Zoo team. Growing up, both siblings realized their own passions for continuing their father’s legacy of wildlife conservation work.

On Jan. 2, 2020, Terri updated Australia Zoo’s followers on their involvement in the bushfire crisis via Facebook. “We’ve seen animals suffering from fires, drought, and disease and our team is busier than ever,” she said.

“To have treated 90,000 patients since opening in 2004 is an incredible feat and Steve would be so proud,” Terri continued. “This makes an immense impact to our wild populations that are facing enormous pressure.”

It is certainly not the first time that the area near Australia’s Sunshine Coast has suffered as a result of widespread bushfires.

In November 2017, the Irwin family’s Australia Zoo itself came under threat; the three enclosures closest to the fire were evacuated, and a spokesperson, as per the Daily Mail, stated that staff were taking “all necessary precautions.”

(L–R) Terri, Robert, and Bindi Irwin attend as Animal Planet celebrates "Crikey! It's the Irwins" in New York City on Oct. 19, 2018. ©Getty Images | Monica Schipper

In response to the severity of the 2019–2020 bushfire crisis, many ecologists are fearful that the enormous loss of wildlife could change the outlook for entire species of flora and fauna.

Ecologists at the University of Sydney, as per the Independent, have estimated that around 480 million creatures, including 8,000 koalas, have already lost their lives in the fires.

Tracy Burgess, a volunteer at Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Services (WIRES), told Reuters: “We’re not getting that many animals coming into care. So, our concern is that they don’t come into care because they’re not there anymore, basically,” she explained, voicing the fears of many.

In the face of unequivocal disaster, however, Australians continue to pledge their time, money, and manpower as volunteers and charity donors in order to help alleviate the impact of this environmental disaster.

This crisis needs all the “Wildlife Warriors” it can possibly enlist.