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Bushfires
Given Logan’s leafy areas and large areas of natural bushland, bushfire is a potential threat, particularly in dry years.
Preparing for bushfires
- Prepare an emergency kit.
- If possible, make a firebreak around your home (use mower, rake, spade), and trim branches well clear of house.
- Clear roof and gutters of leaves, twigs, etc.
- Remove all rubbish, leaf litter and native shrubs growing too close to the house.
- Keep grass short and green.
- Fit wire screens to doors, windows, and vents, and enclose all gaps, roof eaves and the area under your house.
- Keep a ladder handy for roof access (inside and out).
- Fit hoses to reach all parts of the house and garden.
- If town water is not connected, keep tanks full and ensure that pumps are in good working order.
- Store wood, fuel, paints etc well clear of the house.
- Decide on a household plan to either leave early or stay to protect your home during a bushfire.
During a bushfire
Unless you have decided to leave early, or are ordered by Police or Fire Service to do so, stay in the house after taking the following precautions:
- Phone the Fire Service – don’t assume they know there is a fire.
- Turn off gas and power.
- Close all external windows and doors and block gaps from inside with wet towels.
- Fill baths, sinks and buckets with reserve water.
- Place filled water containers around the house.
- Plug downpipes with rags and fill gutters with water.
- Remove curtains and furniture away from windows.
- Wear long, woollen or heavy cotton clothing, solid boots or shoes, a hat or woollen balaclava and gloves.
- Smoke masks can be made from wet handkerchiefs or wet clothes.
- Hose down walls, garden, etc. on the sides facing the fire and watch for hot spots from flying sparks and embers; home-made fire extinguishers can be crafted from leafy green tree branches, hessian bags or wet rags.
- Use pool water if available.
- When the main fire front arrives, go inside, away from windows, while it passes.
After a bushfire
- Quickly extinguish any fires that may have started in, near, or under the house or roof; check inside the roof too.
- If the house is alight and can’t be extinguished, move away onto burnt ground.
- Don’t leave – wait for help.
- Listen to your local radio/TV station for official information, as well as advice on damage and service disruptions.
Caught in a fire while driving
If caught in a fire while driving, shelter in your car after stopping at a clearing or roadside with low vegetation.
Keep vents, windows and doors closed.
Lie below window level, under a woollen blanket until fire passes.
The petrol tank is unlikely to explode in the period you need to stay in the car while being shielded from the heat of the fire front.
After the main fire front has passed, if heat or fumes inside the car have become severe, get out of the car and move to already burnt ground, keeping your whole body covered.
Caught in a fire while on foot
If caught in a fire on foot:
- Cover all exposed skin.
- Find open, or already burnt ground.
- If you can’t avoid the fire, lie face down under a bank, rock, loose earth, or in a hollow, or if possible get into a dam or river (but not a water tank).
Other fire dangers
If faced with the dangers of radiant heat from flames, body dehydration or smoke inhalation, wrap yourself in a heavy, pure woollen blanket and carry a flask of water to drink and moisten the blanket corner as a smoke mask.
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