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anguilliforme · 1 year

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Bushfire / Wildfire preparation and survival (long post)

Because of climate change, we will be facing increasingly difficult fire seasons not just for this year, but for what I can only assume will be every year from here on out. While I fully recommend contacting your local fire services to find information most helpful to you, here is a list of general advice for bush/wildfire preparation and survival. This list will cover:

General things you should know before preparing for fire season

Pre fire season preparation

Your evacuation kit

What to do on fire risk days

What to do if you choose to evacuate

What to do when you evacuate too late and your car is about to be caught in the fire

What to do if you choose to stay and defend your home

Firefighting tools

How to defend your home from a fire

What to do as the fire front approaches

What to do if your home catches on fire while you're in it

No house no car no evacuation centre- best places to use as emergency shelter

I am Australian so I will be using the word "bushfire" because that is what I am familiar with, please feel free to replace it with wildfire or whatever your local term is. Information is taken from the CFA, Fire TAS, and the NSW rural fire service but please check with your local fire authorities for the best information for your area.

General things that you should know:

You don't have to be in the middle of nowhere to be at risk for a fire. If you are located near paddocks, grasslands, costal scrub, or if your neighbourhood borders bushland (or woodlands/forests for my non aussie friends) you can be at risk.

Familiarise yourself with your local fire danger rating system (FDRS) I can not stress this enough. Go on your local fire services website now and look it up. I will be using the Australian FDRS as a reference because it is what I am most familiar with. It looks like this:

You should understand what your local FDRS levels are, because they are extremely important tool for communicating the possible severity of fires, and can help you make important decisions on how you should act.

You should also familiarise yourself with your local wind patterns. You would be surprised by how many people die in bushfires because they are unfamiliar with wind change patterns and get caught out.

Pre fire season preparation- your house

Prepare your property! This is basic fire safety, and most people who live rural will be familiar with the motions but for those who aren't in the know:

Keep the grass in your lawn cut to 10cm (4in) or less. Rake your lawn so there aren't loose leaves or twigs in the grass. Clean your gutters while you're at it.

Store any wood piles and flammable liquids away from your house (put it in a shed or any building that isn't attached to your house).

Cut back any trees that are overhanging your roofs. Generally you want 10m (or 33ft) of clearance. Prune the lower branches of shrubs to separate them from any possible fuel underneath them.

Line your garden beds with pebbles instead of mulch, if you have any shrubs or bushes under windows get rid of them.

Evacuation kit

You should have an evacuation kit ready to go during fire season. This is different for every individual but here are a few things that should go into it:

Scan all of your important documents (birth certificates, wills, passports, drivers licences, insurance documents, etc) and put them on a USB. Put this in your kit alongside the documents.

Your medication. Your prescription paperwork if it is not digital.

Portable chargers for your devices.

A battery-operated radio (check the batteries regularly).

100% wool blankets. Enough for everybody in your household to be fully covered. Do not pack anything synthetic. These blankets need to be accessible if you are travelling by car so do not pack them in the bottom of any bags.

"Bushfire fits", clothing that is either wool, heavy cotton, or denim. Once again, no synthetic fabrics. Shoes should be leather boots and not sandals or runners. There needs to be enough to clothe everyone in your household.

If you have pets you need to have their carriers, medication, food/water and bowls ready.

You should also have food and (more importantly) water for yourself and everyone in your household ready to go should you need to evacuate.

Other pre fire season preparation things

Practice packing your car at least once so you know exactly how long it will take you to get ready if you do end up needing to leave.

Talk with your neighbours. If you can't drive they might be able to drive you, if they're staying they may be willing to help defend your house if you let them use your water. You'll never know if you don't ask.

You need to talk with the people in your household and decide whether you will stay to defend your home from the fire or evacuate. If you want to evacuate you need to agree on which FDRS danger level you will evacuate on, or what your trigger to leave will be.

If you will leave, decide ahead of time how you will leave and where you will go. In a fire, phone services ay go down; have a physical map that shows not only your main evacuation route, but also your backup ones. Have these clearly marked.

On fire risk days

Stay informed. Listen to your local radio and use more than one source of information if available. You want to know if a fire starts near you.

If you have a deck or verandah with mats or furniture on it, move them away from your house. Hanging pots need to go too.

If you have a car behind an electric gate or garage door take it out and have the car facing the road ready to go.

Ensure your evacuation kit is ready to go. Make sure that everyone is aware of the evacuation trigger and has agreed to leave.

If you choose to evacuate

Leaving early is always the safest option. Many things can be replaced, but your life can't. This is the official stance of the Australian government. Leaving early (as in, before the fire even starts) will prevent any issues being caught in your car during a bushfire can bring. You do not want to drive through heavy smoke, and you do not want to accidentally block roads for emergency services.

Make sure everybody is in their bushfire fits, even if you can't see the fire. Better safe than sorry.

Turn off your home's gas and (if you have the time) plug your downpipes and fill your gutters partially with water.

Close and lock all of your doors and windows.

Leave your front gate open.

Tell somebody that you are leaving, and where you are leaving to.

Late evacuation- my car is about to be hit by fire

If you evacuate late there is a chance you may find that you are unable to drive safely due to smoke or flames. It is considered extremely dangerous to shelter in a car, however you can do the following to increase your chances of survival:

Do not park on a road. Emergency service workers do not need to be dealing with car crashes as well as the fires.

Park your car away from dense bushland, preferably in a clear area. If you can find a rock wall to buffer some of the radiant heat even better. Face your car towards the oncoming fire.

Stay in the car, close all windows and doors. Shut all vents and turn off your engine.

Cover yourself with the wool blankets from your evacuation kit. sit or lie down below window level. Drink water.

Once the fire has passed, get out of the car and move to burnt ground.

If you choose to stay

The best way to prepare to stay for a bushfire is to have an action plan that you have both written down and practiced with your household. During a bushfire there is a high likelihood of service disruption both during and after a fire, so do not expect for there to be phone service, internet access, electricity, or water. You should expect:

Embers and spot fires which will move ahead of the main fire. Embers can also land for hours after a fire has passed. Embers are the number one cause of house fires when there is a bushfire.

Darkness. You will never truly understand how dark it can get in a bushfire until you are in it. It's darker than midnight.

Smoke will also make the air difficult to breathe. Invest in good face masks.

Local roads can be blocked from fallen trees or power lines, burnt out cars, dead animals, or emergency service vehicles.

Radiant heat. This is the biggest killer of bushfires. There is very little way around this. Long term radiant heat exposure will kill you long before the main bushfire gets to you. You can block radiant heat with solid walls (such as brick or concrete). Stay away from windows.

Your weapons in the fight against fire

You will need at a bare minimum 10,000 litres (2200 gallons) of water to defend your home. Have a petrol/diesel pump ready to use close by your water source.

In Australia you can find specialty firefighting hoses. Check your local availabilities, but you can still use a gardening hose in a pinch (be aware that plastic will melt once it gets too hot, get ones with metal fittings). Any hose you use should be able to reach all the way around your house.

Sprinklers. Ensure any plastic hoses connected to them are buried so they don't melt.

Buckets. And mops. Yes, you can whack an ember to death.

Metal rakes and shovels which will help break up burning materials.

Metal ladders so you can reach your roof.

Defending your home

If you are planning on staying to defend your home there needs to be at lease two fit adults. They both need to be physically and mentally willing to work for several hours in difficult and distressing conditions.

Everyone who stays also needs to be aware that there is a chance of dying. Survival is not guaranteed if you stay to protect your home.

Make sure you are all wearing appropriate clothing. Put on your bushfire fit. Wear eye protection and face masks to block out smoke. As funny as the picture of the bloke in his shirt and thongs standing on his roof with a hose is, it is a monumentally dangerous move.

Turn off your gas supply, air conditioners, and close all of your windows and doors facing outside.

Block your downpipes and fill your gutters with water, put wet wool blankets (or cotton towels) inside of windows and as door stops.

Check that pets are safely contained, and your car is ready to go in case of a late evacuation.

When embers appear, turn on your sprinklers.

You will need to patrol for embers, and put out any spot fires which occur. As embers float through the air, you will also need to check your roof as your home can easily be set alight from roof embers.

You will be patrolling for embers for several hours, as they can show up before, during, and after the fire front has passed.

Keep hydrated, even if you don't feel like drinking.

As the fire front approaches

You will begin to feel the radiant heat. Remember- you will need to protect yourself from this. Once the heat outside is unbearable you must retreat indoors or you will die.

Hose down any decks and/or garden beds connected to your house.

Collect your fire fighting equipment and bring them indoors. Anything plastic will melt. There are specialty fittings that will let you attach your fire fighting gear to washing machine taps to make it easier to fight fires inside your house.

Stay hydrated. Drink water, and splash your face with water to cool down.

If you are caught in your home during a bushfire

You will still need to patrol inside your home to check for embers starting fire. This includes going into your roof space, as embers enter most easily through the roof.

Make sure the room/s you are sheltering in have two exits- one to another room and one to outside your house. Keep all of the doors inside your house open.

Do not shelter in a room with frosted windows as you want to see what is going on outside.

If your house catches fire and it can't be put out

Close the door to any room that is on fire. Move away from the area/s on fire, keep low to avoid breathing in smoke. Close all doors behind you so you know not to turn back.

As soon as the main fire has passed your house get out! Please do not stay in your on fire house. Instead move to burnt ground.

Drink some water. The last thing you need is to be dehydrated.

Once the fire front has passed

Use your own judgement on whether the outside radiant heat is bearable. Remember, solid walls protect you from radiant heat, so it may be hotter outside your house. Once you can go outside, you are back on outdoor ember patrol.

Do not take your bushfire fit off. Yes, even if it is warm. You don't want bare skin in bushfire conditions.

Put out any fires that have started near or on your house.

Hose down the outside of your house, all of it including the roof and under the floorboards.

Call your friends and family. Let them know you are alive, and that the front has passed you.

Drink water. Do not die of dehydration or heat stroke now.

You will need to stay vigilant for several hours after the front has passed- embers can still start fires.

Places to shelter

If you are caught in the open with no options available to you, you can use these as a last resort shelter:

A stationary car in a clear area such as a bare field.

A ploughed paddock, field or park.

A body of water such as a river or dam.

Thats all I can think of right now. If anybody has any more information to add before this years fire season starts feel free.

#bushfires #wildfires #straya #australia #psa #I got this info for a class im teaching which is fun #oh fun fact: different Aussie state fire services have different opinions on whether or not to hose down your house #a story: ive always been scared of bushfires #when I was a toddler my parents were thinking of moving to the country but apparently I threw a massive fit #thinking we were going to die in a bushfire #they decided that I had a decent point so they didnt #anyway every property they looked at burnt down on black saturday so theres that

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