Thread: My Bush Fire House protection system

A great idea but a few recently got caught and lost the house despite sprinklers. First problem is lack of water if you are on mains and at the end of the line. Second, quite a few pumps seized from the heat and were useless. It doesn't take long to drain a tank of water either. Third, you have to be there to turn it on. Many homes were lost in the BM fires because owners were stuck at road blocks.
Keep those things in mind. Cheers

Originally Posted by mikehzz

Many homes were lost in the BM fires because owners were stuck at road blocks.

same thing according to the royal commission into the 2009 vic fires.

road blocks prevented fire crews getting to the firestation, and trucks wont go out half maned.

Ages ago I saw a system on some show like Landline or maybe it was the New inventors. The system could be turned on and off by the use of a satellite pager so you could send the pager signal from your office in town (not that there are pager systems anymore) and used the rainwater storage tank. Outside evaporation and loss by overspray not hitting the reticulation system some of the spray water is returned to the tank.

Can't remember if the pump was mains powered or used a generator. As mentioned above heat would be a problem, so having the pump isolated from heat e.g. under the house or in a fire proof bunker would be an idea.

Depending upon the pump decent mains UPS back up via solar/battery set could be a possibility.

The other thing to consider would be the intense heat, especially radiated. Any plastic parts in your butterfly sprinkler would melt and sieze the spinner.

Then there is the ground temperature if you're close to a decent fuel load...

From friends who lost the lot in SA /Ash Wednesday fire, pipework less than a metre underground is vulnerable in worst-case conditions. All their underground plastic retic pipe was melted, and this included copper piping to a significant though not 'quoted' depth.
The damage was melting above ground and to ? deep, and un-soldered/popped solder joints further down.

Good idea Keith, sorry you probably feel we are all having a go. But how many Litres per second do you think it will run. I'd imagine with the intense heat the sprinkler would have to be like an irrigator to do good. It may only have to be for 2 to 4 minutes, but it needs loads of water, at the critical time of the fire head.

I know it's not saving the house, but would a bunker be money better directed.

Originally Posted by 123rover50

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The theory is that half the spray goes on the roof and half down the side. This is on the windward side so can blow under the eaves and verandah to cool any embers etc.....

When you think about locating sprinklers, you should remember that the normal "windward" side is irrellevant because the fires generate their own weather conditions and will draw air into the fire. This means there will be a wind, often quite strong, heading into the fire.

Also because of this wind relying on a single set of sprinklers may mean that the spray will be blown off the roof. It may be better to rely on a greater number of smaller sprinkler heads located all over the roof and eves.

To avoid problems with pumps, and needing to be there to turn it on....

Why not mount a water tank on a tall stand (gravity feed) and use proper fire sprinklers with the (wax?) slugs which melt when they get hot enough?

This thread has come at a good time and made me realise how little I had thought things through. I was going to do the same and just poke some sprinklers on the roof.