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.

Taking Shelter Safely

WHEN THE BUSHFIRE EMERGENCY MESSAGE IS 

“It Is Too Late To Leave, You Should Take Shelter And Stay Indoors” 

WHAT SHOULD YOU ACTUALLY DO?

IF YOU CANNOT SHELTER IN A BUILDING
* Shelter behind a wall, beside a large bare-ground, fire resistant tree; in nor beside a car; in a dam (if no vegetation is near either) or crouch beneath a pure wool blanket on a bare or already burnt area.

IF YOU CAN SHELTER IN A BUILDING

BEFORE YOU GO INSIDE:
* Shut off gas and electricity at the mains.
* Put pets inside: dogs on leash, cats in covered cages.
* Take in outdoor furniture, doormats, hanging baskets, plastic pot plants.

WHEN YOU ARE INSIDE:
* Make sure all doors and windows are securely shut. 
* Turn off air conditioners; cover their internal vents.
* If windows are unshuttered, cover with pure wool blankets, heavy quality quilts, foil or wet towels. Move flammable furniture away from windows. (See Post December 1 What Renters Can Do, for ideas for emergency shutters.)
Wear protective clothing, nose mask, drink often, have pure wool blankets handy and cool off when possible
* Watch the conditions outside through a small window or peephole. When flaring shrubs have blackened it’s safe to go out again. Burning tree trunks do not generally emit killing radiant heat.

PASSIVE SHELTERERS
* Close internal doors to limit fire spread if embers enter and ignite inside.
* Stay by an exit door, in protective clothing and with blanket. 
* Do not shelter in an inner room. Not in the hallway. Not in the bath. If you shelter in ANY kind of inner room – no matter how many doors it has – you could be trapped. Embers may have ignited in ceiling space, sub-floor or wall cavities. Flaming walls or ceiling could collapse on you. Or toxic fumes from smouldering cushions or wall linings could overcome you.
* It is vital for passive shelterers to exit as soon as the potentially killing radiant heat from flames has died down. 

ACTIVE SHELTERERS
* Take hose, sprayers and ladder inside with you. 
* Fill bath & troughs with water, immerse towels, roll up and place at door gaps and window ledges. Plug keyholes with play dough, blue-tack or soap.
* Fill containers (e.g. garden sprayers) with water; put these, with dippers, mops etc, in each room.
* Watch for invading embers. Particularly in the ceiling space, through windows, gaps under doors. Quickly spray or hit with wet mop any sparks, embers or smouldering furnishings. 
* If any ignition cannot be extinguished, close the door of that room.
* Maintain easy access to an exit door. 
* Never go outside during a flame front to douse an outside ignition.

EXITING
* Exit with great care, preferably from a door that is sheltered from the wind.
* Wear protective clothing & nose cover, cover yourself with your blanket, crouch, lower your eyelids and open the door gradually.
(Extracted from my Essential Bushfire Safety Tips (CSIRO 2012), Chapter 21, 'What to do when bushfire threatens'.)

Post-2009 research by bushfire scientists revealed that although 2/3 of Black Saturday fatalities died while sheltering in or near the house, they did not die BECAUSE they were sheltering. They died because they did not know how to shelter safely.

Safely evacuating

If you want to evacuate be aware that the proportion of evacuated homes destroyed is far higher than those with defenders. 

Reduce the possibility of loss by ember and flame-proofing your home as much as possible before you leave: tightly close all windows and doors, shield windows, remove flammable plants from against windows and flammable cladding (pull them out if need be), mow grass, clear ground beneath trees, put outdoor furniture, toys, pot plants, mats etc inside, and cut back any branches close to the house. 

When you leave, dress in protective clothing, including wide brimmed hat and strong shoes, take drinking water & pure wool blankets. 

It is safer for your precious possessions to bury those you can in the garden than to take them with you.

Forced evacuation during bushfire is illegal

Anyone Wanting To Defend Their Home From a Bushfire Threat Needs To Know This:

THE LAW SPECIFICALLY ALLOWS YOU TO STAY.

Neither police nor fire officers (at least in Victoria) have a legal right to order anyone 

to leave a threatened or burning premises if they have any monetary interest in it. 

This, of course, includes renters who own anything within the property.  

Such persons cannot legally be forced to evacuate.

Kinglake, Victoria, Black Saturday, 2009. (Picture (c) Katherine E. Seppings)

 The Emergency Services Legislation 2012 and The Country Fire Authority Act 

that give police & fire officers power to order 

‘withdrawal’ from ‘land, building or premises 

that is burning or threatened by fire’

 expressly excludes  

‘any person having any pecuniary interest therein or in any goods or valuables 

whatsoever thereon.’

WHAT CAN RENTERS DO

Renters can be greatly restricted in preparing their home to be safer from a bushfire, because of not being allowed to make alterations to buildings. But there is still much you can do.

Remember, the 3 core aspects of a house vulnerable to ember entry are the subfloor area, windows, and roof space. See earlier post on this.

The SUBFLOOR area is a danger when there is a space between the ground and floorboards: especially if this part enclosed by timber gap-boards. Burning debris can be carried through this.

Metal flywire can protect both subfloor and windows. Nail it over gap-boards, and the outside of window glass. This stops burning leaves and spark entry, and hinders cracking by radiant heat.

Cover gap-boards with metal flywire. remove shrubs and flammable woodchip mulch.

WINDOWS may need stronger protection if you are in an area close to forest and subject to strong winds. Protect them from being smashed and letting in a massive ember shower by making removable shutters. Attach these on days of high fire danger, as a precaution.

Temporary Shutter Ideas:

* Make a sandwich of fibreglass/mineral-wool batts or foil, pressed between sheets of 9 mm plasterboard, 19 mm hardboard, fibre-cement, corrugated iron, steel mesh or chicken wire. Attach by screws, hooks or velcro.

* Use a strong old aluminium security door.

* A roller blind of heavy duty foil protects from radiant heat and mild impact.

* If criss-crossed with adhesive tape, glass stays intact if cracked by radiant heat.

Each of these will withstand a short burst of high fire-front heat.

 

Bamboo blinds catch embers and can lead fire into the roof space.

The ROOF-CEILING SPACE is vital. It needs a thorough preparatory clean out, and careful watch for ember entry during a threat. This can be difficult to achieve when a rent house does not have any inspection trapdoor. Explain to your landlady or agent the dire potential for house destruction from this area and the great protection to their asset by installing an inspection trapdoor. 

GOOD GARDEN MANAGEMENT is usually possible. It will reduce potential radiant heat. Slash, mow, rake, prune, tidy. Replace wood chip mulch with compost, earth or pebbles. Move woodheaps and rubbish away from house and put under cover.

YOUR PRECIOUS POSSESSIONS can be left with a friend in the suburbs, put in storage, a hole in the ground. Copy computer files to an external hard drive or high-GB memory stick. 

For YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY, whether defending or evacuating, wear protective clothing and have a pure wool blanket.

Note that not even renters can legally be forced to evacuate. In Victoria, at least, if people have any monetary interest in a property or its contents, neither police nor fire officers have a legal right to order anyone to leave.  

More help in Essential Bushfire Safety Tips and The Complete Bushfire Safety Book at on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/Bushfire-Safety-Awareness/130977566959410

Please 'Like'my Facebook page, ‘BUSHFIRE SAFETY AWARENESS’

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bushfire-Safety-with-Joan-Webster-OAM/130977566959410?sk=allactivity

Stay and Defend or Leave Early'.

LINK to my talk at the Daylesford Bushfire Forum: 
"Is 'Stay & Defend or Leave Early' still relevant?" 
'Stay and Defend or Leave Early'. Is this slogan still relevant?
Is any slogan relevant? Few inform. Few are factual. Few save
lives or homes. They are seldom science-based. Often
nonsensical.

 So many slogans over the years. We’ve had:
‘People save houses. Houses save people.’
‘People and houses are safer together.’ ‘Stay in your house’
‘Stay and Defend or Leave Early’
‘Prepare, Stay and Defend or Leave Early’
‘Prepare, Act, Survive’.
And now: ‘Leave and Live’

Here are just a few of the non-factual, non-sensical new

mini-mantras spawned by the ‘Leave and Live’ slogan.

Far from raising consciousness, they increase ignorance and compound confusion. 

They contradict science, obscure facts, and immortalize errors. 

MORE:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0t9hjrhf0ev3l67/Daylesford%20talk.pdf?dl=0

I will be guest speaker at this Bushfire Forum 

Rural Fire Officer Cycles for Cancer

My nephew Marty Webster, NSW Far South Coast RFS safety officer.  

A big man in more ways than one. 

http://www.merimbulanewsonline.com.au/story/2591613/rural-firefighter-cycling-to-beat-cancer/?cs=4127

'Like' Bushfire Safety Awareness on Facebook 

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

The roof/ceiling space - an extremely vital bushfire-protection chore

Have you looked in your roof/ceiling space lately?  Ember ignition here during bushfires is a major cause of house destructions.

This Bendigo house was destroyed in 2009 when the bushfire's embers started fire in the roof-ceiling space. 

Before it gets too hot, shine a torch in there. Are ceiling and rafters coated with the  accumulated dust of years? This is highly flammable. Are there rats’ or birds’ nest? Old papers? Clean it out! If you  can’t physically do this yourself, there are firms that specialise in this. If you don’t have an inspection trapdoor, make one.

Crawl in and shine the torch up. Do pinpricks of light show through the roof? Bushfire embers could enter here. Solder or otherwise plug gaps in roofing metal; fasten and seal loose tiles.

These are extremely vital bushfire-protection chores.
 
The ceiling space is very vulnerable. A tile or galvanised iron sheet lifted by strong wind, a nail hole, a gap in the eaves, can let in flying sparks and embers.
 
Even a spark can ignite roof dust and eventually ignite rafters. Slowly and unseen, fire builds up, gases erupt, and up goes the whole roof space. This can take hours. It often starts after a fire front has passed, while the ember shower is still falling  If shelterers are ignorant of what is happening above them, a flaming ceiling collapses in. Too many bushfire deaths and house losses happen this way. They need not. 

                             The SA historic home, ‘Wolta Wolta’, destroyed on Ash Wednesday, 1983. 

While Wolta Wolta's owners rejoiced that the fire front had passed them by and were relaxing with a cup of tea, fire was stealthily building up in the roof space.

          Embers can’t penetrate roofs if you have continuous metal sheeting and/or roof sprinklers. 

      - best are low flow sprinklers. And have enough water to run them.
Fill cracks with Expanda Foam or a fire resistant expandable epoxy-type such as Nullifire.
Insulate above and below rafters.

     Insulate with mineral wool, fibreglass batts or aluminium foil laminate.

On the day:

Keep inspection door open, with ladder against it with a torch, and water in knapsack or garden sprayers, handy just inside it. And, of course, wear protective clothing.

'Like' Bushfire Safety Awareness on Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/Bushfire-Safety-Awareness/130977566959410

Time to prepare for summer bushfire safety.

The time to prepare for summer bushfire safety is Now.

Even if you plan to evacuate, your house is more likely to be there when you return if you prepare for its safety.

During a bushfire, vacated homes have the highest chance of being destroyed and each burning house sends embers to destroy others. Most in-town house losses are caused by such house-to-house ignitions - not by the bushfire itself. Good preparation, and knowledge of what to do, can virtually assure survival.

Of the few Black Saturday fatalities classified as having made some preparations (14%), the majority did so, bushfire scientists investigating the losses noted: ‘only in the hours, or minutes, before they thought a fire would hit.’

This house survived the Black Saturday bushfires at Kinglake

Contrary to the official fire service message, they found that people had not died because they stayed to defend. That only 5% of fatalities in or near houses had been engaged in any kind of active defence and very few had a comprehensive fire plan. That more than 2/3 of houses in the Black Saturday fire zones survived and 80% of home defenders succeeded.

The post-Black Saturday research confirmed that almost every loss is caused not by ‘catastrophic’ weather, lack of official warning, nor by ‘staying’ or ‘going’. But by apathy, ignorance, and confused understanding. What did some know that others did not?

Safely prepared surrounds

Winter is the time to:
• Modify the grounds.
• Make and mend.
• Check your bushfire safety plan and personal Survival Kit

Inspect the garden for clutter and flammability. In an un-cluttered garden, flames have to thin out; radiant heat has to die down, embers become sparse. The less dense the vegetation, the less intense any fire in it. Remove undergrowth and mow grass beneath trees - a tree can only ignite if such ‘kindling’ is beneath it. Replace highly flammable native plants and ‘fine fuel’ with fire retardant plants such as succulents and European deciduous trees. Move plants away from walls and windows. Flames can’t ignite cladding if it’s not being hugged by shrubs.

House are rarely destroyed by bushfire’s flames. Ignitions are caused by ember entry. They burn from the inside outwards, furniture and fittings first, frame and cladding last. Roof/ceiling space, windows and sub-floor are the main entry points.

Walk round your property and take note of spots where embers could penetrate.
• Clean out the roof void! If you don’t have an inspection trapdoor, make one. Insulate above and below rafters.
• Secure loose iron and fill nail holes. Install low flow roof sprinklers if affordable.
• Plug cracks with a fire resistant expandable epoxy-type filler 

• Insulated wall cavities so burning debris can’t send flames up them. Or build on a concrete slab.
• Shutter or screen windows and skylights so neither radiant heat nor embers can crack them.
• Furnishings with fire resistant materials. Embers can’t ignite floors if they’re slate, tile, brick or quality lino.
• Pack a Survival Kit containing pure wool blanket.
• Prepare, plan and practice a thorough safety plan based on proven information.

ABC’s Catalyst program tonight, Earth on Fire, was excellent. A pity its promo and introduction was so misleadingly sensational: ‘The nature of fire is changing’. 

No.

The nature of fire is not changing.

It is the nature of its required ingredients that are changing. As the program itself showed: human activity and climate change. And a lot of this is up to us.

The unchanging requirements of fire remain:

Fuel - density of vegetation to give it intensity of heat

Heat - ignition source: lightning, human activity

Dryness - dryness of air (low relative humidity) to hasten ignition and burning

Oxygen - strength of wind to speed and extend reach of flame & spread of embers

We can’t change the heat, dryness, oxygen factors. But WE CAN THE FUEL FACTOR.: within and around our properties; within and around our towns.