Fire Shelter or Fire Bunker, what should you do?
The threat of bushfire haunts many people throughout the world. How often on the evening news do we see footage of homes being lost despite the best efforts of firefighters in places as far afield as Los Angeles to Athens, not ignoring of course our own dry continent. My home state of Victoria was devastated last summer when a wild fire of unprecedented ferocity descended on it’s rural and mountain communities on a day remembered as Black Saturday. Many lives were lost and hundreds of properties destroyed as a result.
In the aftermath of this disaster many questions have been asked concerning what could have been done to safeguard us against the threat posed by bushfire. One suggestion that continues to surface again and again is the use of purpose built fire shelters.
For the last few decades authorities have relied upon a policy commonly known as stay or go. In the event of high fire risk, well prepared residents were encouraged to protect their own homes while those unable to do so were told that they should leave the threatened area well before the fire arrived. The unprecedented intensity of Black Saturday completely overwhelmed this policy with even the best prepared home owners unable to combat the fire and those trying to leave were caught by fires spotting up to fifteen kilometres in front of the main fire front. It is suggested by many experts that with the advent of global warming and prolonged droughts we can expect more wild fires that will match the ferocity of Black Saturday. This is the reason people are considering the use of fire shelters as a sensible response to the threat of bush fire.
The use of fire shelters or bunkers is certainly not a new idea. As our country was developed, forestry was a major industry which employed many people who lived with their families scattered through out the forests. Fire shelters comprised a major component of their fire safety plans. These shelters were located near townships or timber mills and their location was known to all the people of the district. Over time these shelters fell into disrepair or were removed by government as the focus of bush fire survival centred on preparing individual properties to cope with fire attack.
As you have no doubt noticed with your search of the internet a number of businesses have anticipated the publics interest in shelters and have offered a number of different types. These shelters vary widely in both price and sophistication, ranging from a hole in the ground lined with timber or sandbags, converted shipping containers to purpose built shelters constructed from reinforced concrete and fire rated steel. While a number of these facilities look extremely well designed it must be noted that there is currently no approved design standard for fire shelters, only the individual construction materials can be fire rated.
In the past it was commonly held that a shelter was only required during the initial passing of the fire front, a period of about fifteen minutes during which the radiant heat reached it’s peak. Experts studying the effects of Black Saturday however estimate that in some areas this radiant heat effect would have remained fatal for up to two hours. Bearing this in mind anyone considering purchasing a shelter should be certain that their shelter can withstand prolonged exposure to intense heat and also provide an adequate supply of clean air. Some shelters come with air tanks while others use an air filtering system but any using oxygen tanks should probably be avoided as oxygen is highly explosive when exposed to flame.
For many people the choice of shelter will depend on a number of factors, these being cost, level of threat and the number of people who might use it. The cost of the shelter might be defrayed amongst a number of neighbours which would allow for a more sophisticated unit. If you are considering investing in a fire shelter it seems obvious to do your home work and consider your choices carefully and while many of us are feeling threatened by the approaching fire season it might be prudent to wait until the relevant
authorities have had a chance to set the appropriate standards.
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March 10th, 2010
fire shelter fire bunker admin
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