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)
