For bushfire safety information see:

my new blog
https://www.joanwebsterauthor.com/bushfire-safety/
and
my bushfire-safety-awareness Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Bushfire-Safety-Awareness-130977566959410/

CFA admits to bushfire safety advice errors

The Country Fire Authority Victoria has admitted that some bushfire safety advice in its publications is incorrect. The Authority has thanked me for bringing these errors to its attention, and undertaken to appoint staff to correct them. Chief Officer Steve Warrington has … Continue reading → 

 For updates see

https://joanwebsterauthor.com/category/bushfire-safety/

https://joanwebsterauthor.com/

and

https://www.facebook.com/Bushfire-Safety-Awareness-130977566959410/

Furniture can encourage house destruction

FUEL REDUCTION IS NOT JUST FOR THE BUSH AND GARDEN.

YOUR FURNISHINGS ARE FUEL, TOO.

Inside your house needs its own hazard reduction.

The reason houses are reduced to a few centimetres of ash during a bushfire is NOT that the ‘sweeping flames’ of the bushfire have ignited the cladding  and moved inwards to consume all. The reason is that some of the contents of the houses have been ignited inside by the bushfire’s wind-blown embers and this internal fire consumed all.

What happens when an unattended spark or ember from bushfire is blown inside a house, is that it smoulders, flares, and fire spreads through furniture and furnishings, clothes and kitchen contents, papers and plastics and fly-sprays and cleaning fluids. If no-one douses those first embers, the fire moves through the house and structure until only ash and twisted metal remain.

Destruction of historic homestead Wolta-Wolta, South Australia

Be aware of which aspect of your house makes it most vulnerable to destruction:

Not the cladding, the contents!

DANGEROUS FURNISHING FABRICS:

Cotton, rayon, linen, and acrylic; the plastic coating of fibreglass fabrics; nylon, terylene, dacron and other synthetics; polyurethane foam padding; synthetic carpets.

PROTECTIVE FURNISHING FABRICS:

Pure, untreated, heavy quality wool; natural leather; good quality vinyl; good quality lino; tiles and slate floors. 

To find more on this topic see:

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips 

www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6969.htm or 

The Complete Bushfire Safety Book www.randomhouse.com.au/books/joan-webster/the-complete-bushfire-safety-book-9781740510349.aspx 

Most libraries have both.

Don't wait to be told

On a  nasty, hot, dry, windy day today, any bushfire that starts will be nasty. 

Don't wait for one to happen near you. 
Don't wait to be officially told what to do. 

NOW is the time to put your plan into action: 
whether it is to evacuate, defend or simply shelter. 

A bushfire threat seldom arrives to a schedule. 

Any bushfire can be catastrophic when you don’t know enough of what to do. 

                            Those who plan to defend need to know how to do so safely.

Those who plan to evacuate need to know also how to shelter safely. 

SEE MY EARLIER POST  on The three core dangers to life -

1. Radiant heat
2. Smoke, toxic gases
3. Dehydration
Three core life protections -
1. Protective clothing. Pure wool blanket
2. Nose mask.
3. Drink, drink, drink

For everything to do with bushfire safety -
The Complete Bushfire Safety Book (Random House, 2000) has in depth details 
www.randomhouse.com.au/books/joan-webster/the-complete-bushfire-safety-book-9781740510349.aspx 
Essential Bushfire Safety Tips (CSIRO 2012) is the one-liner, dot-pointed ready reference  www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6969.htm

I have revamped my Bushfire Safety Awareness Facebook page.

Please Like and Share.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bushfire-Safety-Awareness/130977566959410

TRAVELLING SAFELY DURING BUSHFIRE WEATHER

Your car CAN protect you from a grassfire, 

MAY protect you from a very mild forest fire; 

WILL NOT protect you from a fierce forest fire.

Many travellers who have died when confronted by grass fires would most likely have survived had they stayed in their cars.

From 'Grassfires', Phil Cheney and Andrew Sullivan
Courtesy of CSIRO Publishing

If your petrol tank is in good condition there is miniscule chance that it could endanger you. It certainly won’t explode in the short sheltering time of grass or mild forest fire. Only faulty tanks have been known to explode. 

Car refuge safety depends on fire intensity, flame height, amount of vegetation, whether parked on clear ground or grass, beneath or away from trees, the distance of the car from flames, and whether the duration of flames themselves is less than 10 seconds. 

• Grass fire flames last 5–15 seconds (in the one spot) and the front passes quickly. So if a grass fire approaches you while travelling, you can be safe by staying in the car. 
• Forest fire flames can last five minutes (in the one spot) and for those who attempt to drive through fiery bush-lined tracks, the car can be death trap.

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, and toxins given off by them. 

• Duco burns in 15 seconds on a car 4.5 metres from only 40 degreesC, 3-metre high flames. 
• Upholstery and trims can burn within one minute. 

The in tense heat inside the car forces people out – usually to their death from the radiant heat coming from the bushfire.
Always carry drinking water and a pure wool blanket for each passenger when travelling in rural areas in the summer.

People trying to evacuate while a bushfire is in their area
can crash in smoke or be trapped by fallen trees.

The Complete Bushfire Safety Book and Essential Bushfire Safety Tips 

each have chapters on protective travelling during the bushfire season.