Thread: All 2019/20 bushfire comments here.

Now they are paid do they get other entitlements?
Super, work cover or more importantly given recent deaths of our volunteers.

Does the family now get "Compensation"?

Slippery slope if you ask me.

I wonder how this would play out in court now given there is money change hands.
I know in a work place environment you cant just pay compensation for workers volunteers.

It's very sad. Young recently married bloke with their first baby on the way. Awful.
Other firies there said a 'fire tornado' powerful enough to roll a 10 tonne truck engulfed them.

I wonder if these extreme fires will focus more attention on bushfire resistant housing?
Apparently few people changed to incorporate bushfire resistant features into their houses after the Black Saturday fires.
It doesn't seem to be that difficult or expensive but does require planning.
Ember protection is a big deal, particularly on decks and guttering, but there are fire resistent screens available at reasonable cost. Insect screens can be fire resistent.
A friend has just gone installed a sprinkler system on the roof of his house near Coffs after it was threatened by a recent fire. He has a balance tank on a hill so he was able to set it up so the sprinklers are gravity fed and do not need a pump, so they would still work even if the power fails. This means they could lock up and abandon their house with the sprinklers running and know they would just keep going until a 10,000 litre tank was empty.
Obviously, land around the house has to have minimal fuel. Don't have eucalyptus near the house - they are oil bombs.
I have long admired houses which are semi built into the landscape with underground rooms and grass on the roof. If I ever have the money I would like to build one.
The house we bought in Maleny is a terrible design for fire resistence, but we're doing what we can. I'm just about to install new gutter guard, for example. I would like to install fire resistent screens.
One of the problems is most of the nearby large trees are on other properties so we can't do anything about them except to minimise the risk on our property.
Has anyone here tried to minimise their fire danger?
Here's an interesting story about fire resistent housing:

Bushfire-proof houses are affordable and look good – so why aren't we building more? | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian

what about older houses?
i cant afford to rebuild my existing house?

One report by RFS said it was a Cyclone that ran across the fire ground that lifted & then dumped the truck. A command vehicle was also "flipped." Incredible.

The report quoted some fancy name "Pyro wottsit thingy"

Certainly a tragic event.

Back in the mid 80s in northern rural parts of Perth (now suburbia) we were paid as volunteers
For emergency callouts it was voluntary and not paid. However during the low risk times we were paid an hourly rate to do preventative work on public reserves and roadsides.
This ensured the preventative work was carried out. I doubt this sytem exists today

I don't like the articles use of the term 'Bushfire Proof' - your term 'Bushfire Resistant' is much better as you can't make anything bushfire proof - There were a few people that tried to do exactly that in California and at least 2 of those were destroyed a few years later in some wild fires - basically concrete bunkers with full fire suppression so if they aren't fire proof, then nothing is really - maybe a cave...?

Anyway, back to your actual point - up in Kinglake there was a push after Black Saturday for any houses that were being rebuilt to meet some newer standards on this, but not sure how many or to what degree were or not.

I guess it's like anything else in life - people weigh up the risks and make decisions that they are comfortable with. If I lived in the bush, I'd have a fairly high degree of protection myself - that's based on me being a Volunteer Firefighter for over 20 years (up until around 10 years ago) and seeing some pretty interesting things as far as what fires do on extreme days, but if things are bad enough, there's almost nothing that can save the house.

We thought about this twenty-five years ago when building this house. This is the list we came up with:-

1. Built on a slab. Fire cannot get under it.

2. Steel frame, incombustible cladding, no exterior wooden trim or doors. No part of the structure can burn.

3. All round 2.4m verandah, with insulated ceiling and on-ground concrete floor. Protects the walls from radiant heat from burning crown fires.

4. Walls heavily insulated inside cladding, all glass double glaze. Keeps heat out, reducing chance of igniting furnishings.

5. No garden adjoining house, 10m cleared all round. Nothing to burn close to the house.

6. Steel roof, with insulation under it. Almost spark proof, resistant to a lot of heat without failing, very wind resistant.

7. Metal insect screens to provide better spark resistance.