THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO PROTECT 

 OURSELVES AND HOMES

FROM DESTRUCTION BY BUSHFIRE

There are three core aspects of personal safety

Radiant heat             (Protective clothing)

Dehydration              (Drinking water)

Smoke inhalation   (Nose mask)

PEOPLE HAVE SURVIVED CASTROPHIC FIRES WITH ONLY

A HEAVYWEIGHT PURE WOOL BLANKET AND A WATER FLASK.

There are three core vulnerable areas of a house

       Roof/ceiling space  (Clear, insulate, plug gaps)

        Windows                      (cover with shutters or metal mesh)

        Subfloor gaps boards  (cover with metal mesh)

MODIFY BUILDINGS TO MINIMISE EMBER ENTRY AND OTHER DAMAGE.

There are three core vulnerable aspects of a garden

Type of vegetation  (flammable native, string barked [choose fire resistant])

Undergrowth            (beneath trees, adjacent to walls, windows)

       Closeness to walls, windows, roof.

MODIFY THE VEGETATON AND MODIFY THE DANGER

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips has multiple suggestions

for multiple situations

In bushfire, lives are not lost or saved by miracles or 'Acts of God' but by the knowledgeable or foolish acts of people.

Unsafe sheltering causes many bushfire deaths. Minimise travel, shield yourself in the lee of a solid wall, in a vegetation-free gutter or ditch – even behind a wide tree trunk. If in a house, stay by an exit door. Wrap yourself in a heavy-duty pure wool blanket.

Hazard reduction needs to be concentrated around towns, within towns, and most of all – in people’s heads.

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips spells out the hazards and benefits of each possible course of action - all in easy-access dot point one-liners. 

Bushfire scientists say it has the potential to save homes and lives. 

The CFA Calls it 'an outstanding achievement'.  It is cheap insurance.

Tomorrow, December 23, is a bushfire danger day for most of Victoria, southern NSW and much of  South Australia.

On such days, you never know where a bushfire will start or a flying ember will land. The golden rule - Be Prepared - means: 'do it yesterday'.

Be bushfire prepared at least first thing in the morning.  Put stock in a fallow or lucern paddock. Bring pets indoors. 

Put water, sprayers, buckets, mops, by vulnerable areas. Close windows and doors and put draft stoppers at them. Close shutters if you have them - even temporary shutters of heavy duty foil or a 'sandwich' of insulation batts between galvanised iron sheets will help greatly.  Move flammable furnishings away from windows. Bring in flammable outdoor furniture. Close car windows. Park in non-flammable area. Have protective clothing, nose cover handy and pure wool (NOT SYNTHETIC) blankets. Back up computer on external hard drive or USB stick. If precious possessions haven’t been ‘boarded out’ for summer, cover with heavy aluminium foil or bury them.

There are three core vulnerable areas of a house: the roof  space, windows, subfloor. Far flying embers, not approaching flames, is what endangers houses. Houses burn down from the inside when embers are blown inside.  Flames can be stopped in their tracks by thinning vegetation around your home and removing it from near windows and flammable walls.

Defenders, don’t waste energy and water by wetting house or turning on sprinklers before embers fall. Then concentrate on dousing embers. Put water on a burning substance, not its flames. Don’t go near bush to fight flames. 

The defendability of a house depends on people with defendable ability - with thorough bushfire safety knowledge. 

Passive shelterers must stay by an exit door.

If determined to evacuate, make house as closed tight as possible, cut grass short, get rid of flammable shrubs that are near windows or timber walls, take protective clothing, water blanket and leave as early as you can. Don’t wait for a fire to happen.

If caught by grassfire, stay in the car.

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips (CSIRO) and The Complete Bushfire Safety Book have every fact on defending, leaving & sheltering safely from bushfire.   

 On ABC Statewide Drive this afternoon, (December 13) scientist Mr Jim McLennan advised listeners that preparation of a house and its surrounds makes little difference to whether or not homes survive a bushfire. This is very dangerous, one could say criminally dangerous, advice to give people living in bushfire prone areas.

Mr McLennan put house survival down to a cool head and luck. A ‘cool head’ only comes from preparation. From having a thorough and frequently practiced plan, and thorough, frequently maintained preparation of house and grounds.

The instances Mr McLennan cited as ‘bad luck’: house situated on sloping land, a falling tree branch breaking the roof, are not matters of luck.  There is a great deal householders can do in safety preparation in these areas, as other scientists have found in their research, and as I have detailed in my recently released, updated 3^rd edition of Essential Bushfire Safety Tips . 

Mr McLennan warned: ‘staying and defending is chancy’. So is going. Historically, far more people have died evacuating than defending. Some days, those wanting to evacuate safely by leaving 'early' find it almost impossible to work out when this is. For one thing, no one ever knows where on a bad day, a bushfire will start, and if it does, when. Many bushfires are started at night, by lightning. It may start in the paddock next door, seem unthreatening, then flare up and endanger your house.

Leaving your home, with all its precious possessions to burn undefended, is chancy.  Many who did so on Black Saturday are still living in cramped temporary accommodation. Many who thoroughly prepared their properties – and minds – are still living in their loved homes today because they did prepare; and many have written that it was the use of my bushfire safety books that enabled them to do so.

Joan Webster OAM is the author of Essential Bushfire Safety Tips, the updated 3^rd edition of which has just been released by CSIRO Publishing, and of The Complete Bushfire Safety Book. In 1990 she received the AFPA Community Service Award for her 'outstanding contribution to fire prevention and protection. In 2010 she received the Order of Australia for her work in raising awareness of bushfire safety. 

The well known standard official bushfire safety advice features of preparing a bushfire plan, actions lists of what to do at various stages of bushfire threat, the personal Survival Kit, protective window shutters special needs of children and the frail; care of pets; holiday safety; safety of precious possessions were all innovations originally devised by Joan and first appeared in her Complete Australian Bushfire Book, 1986. 

This was a groundbreaking book, acclaimed internationally by authorities and householders alike, it caused a revolution in bushfire safety. Its in-depth analysis of the evacuation dilemma helped shape official policy. Bushfire services used it in the training of their officers. Emergency authorities and government departments throughout Australia still use it as a resource.

Now titled The Complete Bushfire Safety Book, it is still acknowledged as the most authoritative publication of its type and considered the definitive work on bushfire safety for the householder.

Purchase at http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Books/THE-COMPLETE-BUSHFIRE-SAFETY-BOOK/9781740510349/Trade-Paperback/

Purchase its companion ready reference, the just released 3^rd edition of Essential Bushfire Safety Tips at www.publish.csiro.au

Maree Edwards MP @mareeedwardsmp
"Honoured to launch local author Joan Webster's Essential Bushfire Safety Tips in Cmaine today- saving lives and homes - everyone should read" https://twitter.com/mareeedwardsmp

http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/624673/castlemaine-author-to-be-commended-for-work/?cs=84

Castlemaine author to be commended for work SaveSave

Nov. 6, 2012, 1 a.m.

Castlemaine’s Joan Webster is to be congratulated on the release of the third edition of her much-acclaimed book, Essential Bushfire Safety Tips.

Joan’s dedication and commitment to bushfire research and raising awareness about community safety were recognised two years ago with the Medal of the Order of Australia.

The new edition of Essential Bushfire Safety Tips published by CSIRO should be a must-read for all residents in central Victoria and the Macedon Ranges.

As locals, we sadly know only too well the ever-present danger of fire in our region as experienced on Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday.

I was honoured to be able to attend the launch of Joan’s revised book, which is a guide to being prepared and to keeping safe.

I encourage all in our local communities to act now to be safe this summer.Thank you Joan for your continued work to promote bushfire safety. 

Greg Bickley,

Liberal candidate for Bendigo

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Update on interviews:
November 1, 7.30 am WA time:  ABC Albany WA with John Cecil

Back Yard Farmer:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Back-Yard-Farmer/205241249538511

This 3rd, updated edition of Essential Bushfire Safety Tips sets the record straight on many misguided ideas on bushfire safety that have been bandied about since Black Saturday.

Verified and approved by some of Australia's top bushfire researchers.

Read my article in  Age Oct 26, 2012

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/our-bushfire-experts-have-got-it-wrong-20121025-28839.html