Don't wait to be told - prepare now

Your advance bushfire warning is this weather

NOW is the time to out your plan into action:

whether it is to evacuate, defend or simply shelter.

Be prepared as if for catastrophe every hot windy day.

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

When bushfire-weather is forecast

Take small children, the aged and frail to pre-arranged safe area.

   If you have a country property, go there to make it safe. 

   Cancel unnecessary country trips.

   Move stock into their refuge area- Do not leave this until embers fall.

   Clear under the house of flammables.

   Rake grounds clear of flammables.

   Bring in outdoor furniture, hanging baskets and toys.

  Move plastic pots from flammable walls.

  Clear litter from forks of trees. Strip loose bark.

  Mow any long grass. Bury rakings and grass clippings in mulch heap.

  Check for loose tiles or roofing sheets.

  Prepare covers for windows, evaporative air conditioner and vents.

  Check protective clothing kits.

  Connect nozzle-activated hoses to taps.

  Attach pump to reserve water and test.

  Fill troughs, stirrup pumps, knapsacks, garden sprayers, buckets.

  Put throwing dippers, mops or wet bags in buckets, troughs, the bath, etc.

  Place these around buildings at windows, wall angles, sub-floor, gaps, ceiling space.

  Set ladder, water-filled sprayers, and torch at ceiling space inspection hole.

  Clear the gutters. Block downpipes, fill gutters with water.

  Set ladder against roof on leeward side.

  If not already done, take precious possessions to a friend’s safe house.

  Or put in refuge room or hired locker.

  Or bury in a garden dugout. 

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips and 
The Complete Bushfire Safety Book

list the safe actions to take at each stage of bushfire threat.

The C F A says of Essential Bushfire Safety Tips:

‘Truly an outstanding achievement 

and a book that certainly could help save lives within the community.’

Click on the picture of its cover for an e-book preview.

Bushfire warnings

No one should say they didn’t have enough warning about a bushfire

Your Early Warning is – SUMMER

Your Current Warning is – HOT WINDY DAY FORECAST

Be prepared as if for catastrophe every hot windy day.

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

All summer
Have water containers filled, and set around the house.Throwing dippers, sprayers and mops available in an instant.Protective clothing for a Survival Kit

When bushfire-weather is forecast
Take small children, the aged and frail to pre-arranged safe area.

   If you have a country property, go there to make it safe. 
   Cancel unnecessary country trips.

   Move stock into their refuge area- Do not leave this until embers fall.

   Clear under the house of flammables.

   Rake grounds clear of flammables.

   Bring in outdoor furniture, hanging baskets and toys.

  Move plastic pots from flammable walls.

  Clear litter from forks of trees. Strip loose bark.

  Mow any long grass. Bury rakings and grass clippings in mulch heap.

  Check for loose tiles or roofing sheets.

  Prepare covers for windows, evaporative air conditioner and vents.

  Check protective clothing kits.

  Connect nozzle-activated hoses to taps.

  Attach pump to reserve water and test.

  Fill troughs, stirrup pumps, knapsacks, garden sprayers, buckets.

  Put throwing dippers, mops or wet bags in buckets, troughs, the bath, etc.

  Place these around buildings at windows, wall angles, sub-floor, gaps, ceiling space.

  Set ladder, water-filled sprayers, and torch at ceiling space inspection hole.

  Clear the gutters. Block downpipes, fill gutters with water.

  Set ladder against roof on leeward side.

  If not already done, take precious possessions to a friend’s safe house.

  Or put in refuge room or hired locker.

  Or bury in a garden dugout. 

Essential Bushfire Safety Tips and The Complete Bushfire Safety Book

list the safe actions to take at each stage of bushfire threat.

Action lists of what to do during a bushfire were originated by me in my

The Complete Australian Bushfire Book 1986

No bushfire authority brochure had them before this.

The Country Fire Authority says of Essential Bushfire Safety Tips 3rd edition:

‘Truly an outstanding achievement 

and a book that certainly could help save lives within the community.’

Record hot September

Record heat for September, we are told. 

But if the unusually strong winds persist, this is even worrying for bushfire months . 

Don’t put off your bushfire safety preparations any longer. 

And if travelling in hot windy weather, 

always carry drinking water and a pure wool blanket per passenger 

- and stay away from forest areas.

 The time to prepare for summer bushfire safety is not when you see this:

The time to prepare for summer bushfire safety is in the winter. Now.

Winter is the time to:

·        Inspect the house and grounds.

·        Make and mend.

·        Start thinking about your bushfire safety plan.

To keep bushfire out of the house, make and mend, paint and fill.
Houses are rarely destroyed because approaching flames burn the cladding. Ignitions almost always start inside, from ember penetration.

Clean out the roof void! If you don’t have an inspection trapdoor, make one. Insulate above and below rafters. This is an extremely vital bushfire-protection job.

Embers can’t penetrate roofs if you secure loose iron and fill nail holes.

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

Walk round your property and take note of spots where it is more windy than others.

If you find any narrow space that pulls wind through, such as between house and fence, block it with a solid gate, fence or fire-retardant plant. Hedges and walls can be wind and spark inhibitors to help prevent cladding from drying, windows from cracking, and as shields to shelter people from radiant heat. 

Build a radiant heat shield - a masonry wall about 2 metres high and wide, ideally 6-10 metres from an exit door. A brick barbecue backing can double as a radiant heat shield.

 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.