If
a grass fire approaches you while travelling in a car,
you can be safe by staying in it.
you can be safe by staying in it.
The radiant heat given out by grass fire flames, however, can be
intense.
Many travellers who have died when
confronted by grass fires
would most likely have survived. had they stayed in
their cars.
Car refuge safety
depends on fire intensity, flame height, amount of vegetation, whether parked
on clear ground or grass, the distance of the car from flames and if the
duration of flames themselves is less than 10 seconds. Grass fire flames
last 5–15 seconds and the front passes quickly.
Always carry a pure wool blanket for each passenger
when travelling in rural areas in the summer
Picture from Grassfires, fuel, weather and
fire behaviour (CSIRO Publishing, 1997) by N. P. Cheney and Andrew Sullivan
Cars can be death traps in most forest fires as these flames can last five minutes.
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 o, 3-metre high flames. Upholstery and trims can burn within one minute.
Only faulty petrol tanks have
been known to explode.
The tank won’t explode in the short sheltering time of grass
or mild forest fire.
Both The Complete Bushfire Safety Book and Essential
Bushfire Safety Tips
have chapters on protective travelling during the bushfire
season.
