... IF you've prepared your property to be "defendable"... (This involves more than a garden hose and a pair of flip-flops. It means clearing brush around the home and planting fire-retardant plants, having siding (cladding) that is fire-retardant, no openings where burning embers can fly in (under the house or eaves), and more.) ... IF you're prepared emotionally and physically to stand and fight... (This means you don't have a disability that would prevent you from urgent action, that you have pumps that don't require mains power (that might be down), that you have envisioned yourself being calm in a firestorm, with no-one to help, and more.)
... IF you've done your homework... (reading the many resources available, having a "fire-fighting" box of clothes and masks at the ready, and more.)
...and IF you have the proper tools, and they are ready and at hand... (fire-hoses, water sprayers, window covers, gutter stoppers, and more.)
...it may be reasonable to consider our experience of staying and defending our property during a historically huge forest fire in Australia. All of us in our little valley survived uninjured, and saved our homes as well. The recent "Black Saturday" fires of February '09 were horrible, and there was a great loss of life and property. The fire in and of itself was no hotter, no windier, no larger than the one we battled in '03. What can we learn from this tragic event?
Are you prepared to defend your home from bushfires?
What's it like to be in the midst of bedlam and come out the other side?
How did we prepare, what tools did we need, how did the neighbors fare?
How did the authorities and emergency services handle things (hint: think Gallipoli).
In 2003, while Andre Agassiz was trouncing Pete Sampras 300 kilometers away at the Australian Open in Melbourne, my wife Carrie, my crippled mother-in-law Val, my niece Jill visiting from America, and myself battled a 2.5 million acre forest fire. It blew through our 12 acre homestead like a hurricane of fire, crowning 30 foot trees, jumping the 2 kilometers of mountainside across from us in less than a minute, sending burning embers under our doors and around our window weather stripping. It could hardly have been more furious or wild.
It had been raging out of control for weeks. Some folks left right off, some, thinking (hoping?) it would pass us by, waited until it was too late. Some of our neighbors lost their homes. Some few remained to save their properties. Victorian law says that authorities cannot force you to evacuate. They can strongly urge, no more. After Black Saturday of '09, there are those who would take away that right. Education and commitment can preserve it. All of us who stayed in '03 saved our properties, with no injuries. (You can read the story I wrote that midnight, adrenaline still pumping, by clicking here.)
Why would anyone be so foolhardy? Isn't that reckless?...
See some of the photos...
