Friday, January 11, 2013


Not a good idea to rely on your mobile phone for updates of bushfire information. Surest is a battery operated radio. 
Be aware that a car is a safe refuge in a grass fire. 
It can be a safe refuge in a mild fire. 
It is seldom a safe refuge in an intense forest fire. 
Always carry a pure wool blanket for each person and drinking water.
If a fire has started in your area it is unsafe to travel. Shelter safely by the exit door of a solid building that had cleared space around it.

As with houses, cars burn down from the inside. When people die in cars they are killed by the fuel inside the car: fibreglass, hydraulic fluids, petrol, plastics, insulation, magnesium alloys.

Car danger data
·        Duco burns in 15 seconds on a car 4.5 metres from only 40 o, 3-metre high flames.
·        Upholstery and trims can burn within one minute.
·        After the duco flashes over, tyres ignite, windows shatter, fuel lines rupture.
·        Fire erupts in the engine compartment, burns under car, linings overheat.
·        Disintegrating linings emit flammable gasses, molten plastic covers occupants.
·        Unbearable pain from hot fittings on bare skin can force shelterers out of cars.
·        Utility trucks ignite easier than sedans due to embers igniting material in their trays.
·        Escapees from unbearably hot cars in forest fires rarely survive.

 Suitable pull-up shelter places
·        Roadside clear of vegetation.
Ø      Safe vegetation exceptions are wide-spreading European deciduous trees.
·        Wayside stop. 
·        Brick or other masonry toilet blocks.
·        Dam or river.
Pull-up area must be cleared of vegetation.
·        Close under a cliff above which a fire is approaching.
The fire will jump over you.
·        Sports ground, picnic ground, golf course, school ground.
Not under flammable trees or on grass.
·        Beach.
·        Rocky ground.
·        In a quarry.
·        Fallow paddock.
                                                     (From Essential Bushfire Safety Tips)