I have been giving an awful lot of thought to my bushfire plan seeing as we are on EXTREME fire risk and there has been NO rain at all for at least a month.

I do have an evacuation plan up and running: As soon as a fire that is probably going to affect us is announced then I gather up all important paperwork and documents, photographs and a special box that we have with some of Kerry's hair in, have the dogs' leads and everything else ready by the front door to take out to the car if necessary.

These are the things I would grab if we were only given a moment's notice to evacuate. I've started to make a list of a few things that I would gather from each room should we be given 30 minutes notice to evacuate.

Having said all this, I have always decided that I would stay to try to protect our property. We have hoses both back and front of the property, we would switch our sprinkler system on and just the water for our evap air con (yes I know to switch off the fan) to give the roof space some protection.

What I have been wondering is if it came to a stage where we were trapped, how much protection could we get from jumping into a swimming pool while the fire storm passed? We don't have a pool ourselves but next door's one is just over the fence from us :wink:

you know what Anne i was thinking the same thing the other night while i was lying in the pool. When we move we will be in a high risk area too and while i think that I'd evacuate due to the kids i still think i'd have some plans for protecting the property incuding some sort of sprinkler system on the roof. As for jumping in the pool i would guess it would depend on how the fire jumps the pool.

I look at it this way, many people stay and defed their homes but you don't often hear of people dying when they do, i think the most dangerous thing to do is to plan to stay then run at the last minute when the surrounding area is too dangerous.

Speak to those around you and find out their plans as doing something similar would probably be a good idea. investing in a fireproof safe for all those "important" things might be a good idea incase fire comes through when you're not around to grab the things you'd hate to lose.

My next door neighbours (not the one with the pool) are retired and home most of the time and are also part of Neighbourhood Watch, and I have swapped phone numbers. They know where I work and that the dogs would be trapped in the house should fire come through while I was working so have said that they will always ring me. My school is only 10 minutes away by car and I could always tell them where my secret hiding place for my spare key was if I needed them to let the dogs out. The dogs would be my major concern if I was not at home and fire broke out.

I've always had a metal filing cabinet for important documents even when we lived in the UK in case of a house fire.

I sound like a right old harbinger of doom and gloom :rolleyes:

I did read on a website someone that if you're caught in a bush fire in your car to hide down in the foot bit and cover yourself with a pure wool blanket. Water would give you some protection but I guess inhaling the smoke would be the thing to watch out for.

I would have thought it is the intensity of the fire that would be a problem even if you were in a pool the fire would effectively go over the top of you. If you stand close to a bonfire it gets bloody too hot to be very close so even in a pool the heat from the fire around would be too hot for you to stand along with the smoke.

Maybe ask the fire department what to do if you were caught short in your property by a bush fire, they must be able to give you some sort of information.

I know it's easy to say cos it's not my house and possesions that could go up in smoke, but, things can be replaced, you guys can't. If a serious fire breaks out, please, just get out of there as quickly as possible. Please don't risk life or limb. :kissed:

I agree, sad as it would be to see our home and stuff go up in flames, as long as we were all OK that's the main thing