NSW FIRES

[trout]

We just don't learn from past mistakes.

YES we do.
After Cyclone Tracy Darwin and the North West of Aus built to Cyclone standards and got their act together with warnings and procedures and NOW these places are FAR safer to live and work in.
I agree that after "Ash Wednesday" there should have been building standards (Enforced)  and procedures in place to prevent the loss of life and property.
Alas this hasn't happened in the Eastern States and is just plain stupid and dangerous.

[Goldseeker]

I have always said that the authorities can make all the regulations that they like but to enforce those rules and regulations is another thing.

I live in an outer western suburb in Melbourne and we have a lot of mixed cultures, many different languages etc and many, many illegal additions to houses and buildings.

Until we have sufficient law enforcement and rule enforcement officers, then illegal buildings will continue to be built here in suburbs and in the bush.

Why, cant a law be passed that all buildings built in the bush or bushfire areas be fitted with water sprinklers that when turned on, put up a water screen to stop embers from settling on the building.   Why do we persist in putting up wooden fences when steel fences will slow a fire up.   Just look at the recent Canberra fires when they lost an almost entire suburb from bushfires but when the helicopter flew over head and took the film of the damage, all the swimming pools were still full of water but no house.

If I ever had a swimming pool in my back yard, I would certainly connect a sprinkler system on the house that would/could use the swimming pool water in an emergence.

People want to live in the bush should take care to preserve property but with certain groups of people arguing that one can't cut down that tree, what else do we expect.

[Fulvio]

to enforce those rules and regulations is another thing.

This is a multi-layered issue.

First you have regulations. Lack thereof, inappropriateness, and enforcement.

Example: Before the fires you couldn't chop down a twig in the hills, because of course trees are sacrosanct to greenies. Immediately after the fires though, the roar of chainsaws was deafening. Bit late for the destroyed properties, but it undoubtedly saved further grief for a couple of years. But now of course its all back the way it was, setting the stage for the next disaster.

Then you have cost. There seems to be systemic profiteering around most things which are beneficial. What's good for you, be it food or clothing or safety or whatever, always seems to be much more expensive. And most people aren't rich. So they make do with what they can afford. They eat junk food, they wear clothes from sweatshops, they don't change batteries in fire alarms, and they don't install features that could save their lives.

And of course you have peer pressure. If everybody lives in a timber box, people will build timber boxes, not earth-covered fireproof dwellings with automatic sprinklers. Drive around any community anywhere in the world and there is a sameness to the structures, and an overwhelming resistance to any development that doesn't "fit in". Which may be fine in safe areas, but inappropriate where the landscape wants to kill you.

There ARE things that can be done, and cheaply. We used mud bricks, which are not only far safer but much much cheaper and stronger. We used single lengths of Colourbond to go up and over a low-pitched roof, so as to have no ridge cap for embers to get in. We had four-foot eaves for the same reason. We had skinny, wide windows high up under the eaves on the end wall facing down fireball alley, and double-glazed them with stained glass. We had sprinklers. We used massive external hardwood timbers. We removed flammable trees and replaced them with fire-retardant ones. And we cut into the hillside to expose as little house as possible. The next time the town burns I guarantee this will be one of the houses that will survive. But all the immediate neighbours are wooden boxes on stilts with crap stored underneath. Why? Because that's the norm of course.

Changes must start with the way people think. Every disaster presents the opportunity for change. Sometimes that happens, more often it doesn't.

[robbiegal]

in Canberra
Elivis came in and emptied almost every available pool
my friend's son was on the roof of their house with a hose piddling out a trickle
the house next door and across the road were in flames
Elvis flys over then ahead
comes down - empties the neighbours pool

then flys off
where to - they were dousing the Aust Fed Police ammunitions stores just up the road - smack in suburbs and just up from a primary school - mind you
not a single home was doused with water that I know of
everyone left to burn in what many have described to me as Hell on Earth

and ys, the rebuild doesn't look as if the homes are much different in their designs besides being 'more modern'
i'd love a pm with pictures of the house or plan ideas
we have tiled roof, trees, wooden fence on one side - all fire ball magnets

[Fulvio]

i'd love a pm with pictures of the house or plan ideas

This was back in the days before digital, and sadly, she got all the pictures. I literally have nothing from those years.

Still, if you google-map 17 belgrave-gembrook rd cockatoo, you can see where it is. The fireballs came up the valley from the north-west, between Caroline Ave and the main road. I see the new owner has built a bloody great fence along the front, but if you go into streetview you can glimpse the house through the open gate. Its basically a box on a slab, with big Jarrah posts and railway sleepers supporting the roof and mud brick and glass between them. the internal layout isn't very exciting I'm afraid.

The bushfire house was, IIRC, 4 Caroline Ave, which appears to now be well and truly overgrown and probably not a very safe place to be anymore.

You're right about those things being magnets.. and there's not a lot you can do about it. Replacing a roof is expensive, and sealing it is a temporary fix. Besides, concrete tiles explode if they get hot enough. Trees are likely to be impossible to remove in most areas thanks to the way councils think, and fences involve neighbours so that's going to be impossible as well. But then again, you're in suburbia, and I would think the Canberra fires were enough of a wakeup call that the emergency services will be better prepared next time.

The best things you can do are probably a roof sprinkler system, and double-glazing or shuttering the windows, which produce other benefits besides fire protection. And of course keep the area clear of as much flammable material as possible.

[robbiegal]

thanks mate
will have a look

ps google earth is one heck of a head spin!!