Prepare Act Survive – Bushfire Township Protection Plan Meeting

I went to a bushfire meeting tonight, at the local CFA. It was very short notice, only 24 hours from when the notice landed in our letterbox. But I made the time, as I figured it would be a good gauge as to what people are thinking three years out from the 2009 Black Saturday Fires that devastated the state of Victoria.

My thoughts before I entered were split three ways, there would be those that cared a lot, those like me who were there for curiosity value and those that only cared about themselves. I thought it would be an even mix. I was wrong. 80% of the people were only there for themselves. 15% were there out of genuine concern (mostly elderly residents) and then there was the lonely 5%, which was me and perhaps 1-2 others. Who were there for spectator value.

The information provided was exactly what has been provided by news and media outlets for the last two years. There’s been a little bit of tinkering at the edges, but essentially not a great deal has changed.

The things I learned:-

.           There are 140 high risk bushfire areas in the state of Victoria

.           City of Whittlesea are the only council to place THESE signs (which are now incorrectly located due to changes in bushfire overlays)

.           There are only two (2) fire refuges in the State of Victoria (I don’t know where these are located) They are DIFFERENT to NSP’s

.           An unsealed road is often mapped as a track on fire maps. Check with local authorities if your road is marked or not.

.           People who are vulnerable and receive council services, they will be placed on a special watch and evacuation list, but if you don’t received council services you WILL drop through the cracks.

Things I already knew:-
.           CFA only provides key messages and points, not advice

.           Fire doesn’t obey lines on map. Yet people still insist in lines to define areas

.           Pets are not welcome at fire refuges or other areas that you may attend in case of high risk days (Code red Days) Please make other arrangements

.           Make sure you have a telephone that does not require 240V to operate, in other words get a handset that does NOT require power to operate.

.           You will not get a mobile phone warning if your billing address is outside the area affected by fire on the day.

.           Council services will not operate on days of Code Red (Was stated at this meeting)

.           Don’t rely on emergency services to care for your elderly neighbours, they may have fallen through the cracks.

Things in the “will people never learn area” (Sarcasm):-

.           It’s the council’s fault that people don’t leave on high risk days, they don’t want to leave their animals. The council MUST provide shelters are animals friendly (noting the 3 people discussing this were referring to horses)

.           The council should be consulting with people (and groups) who own horses to sort out places they can take the horses on high risk days/

.           Will the CFA web-based site work in the future when it wasn’t in 2009? (when the fire is moving too quickly to track it’s a bit hard)

.           What will old people do? They don’t use the internet or mobile phones. (but they do listen to the radio and TV & have friends not focused on the internet)

.           Apparently growing hay in areas close to the city should be outlawed, as the grass grows too long. (Note that 1^st cut hay is done in November) well before the fire season!)

.           Neighbourhood safer places are places of last resort and you should not attend unless the fire is at your heels

.           Dead end roads should have a fire access cut through them to allow for people to ‘escape’ (the problem with is – who will maintain it, who will pay for it and in this area most dead end roads lead north, directly into the likely path of an oncoming fire!)

This meeting got quite out of hand at one stage and a two-fingered whistle has to be used to get the meeting on track.

People seemed only interested in what the emergency services could do FOR THEM… not what people could do to protect themselves or make themselves more aware.

The attendance was very low, BUT considering that there was only 24hours notice, due to Australia Post delays and also being school holidays, attendance was acceptable I think.

The focus didn’t seem to be centred on houses or people, but predominantly animals, and large ones at that, which I found concerning. The biggest danger with horses and cows is that they are unpredictable when it comes to smoke and noise and things that scary for humans. Animals have a fight or flight mode and will use both. Horses at fire refuges are dangerous, yet people refuse to recognise this and still demand equal rights with people.

For me to attend the meeting was possibly not needed, in that I have always had emergency plans in place, I have a generator, fire fighting pump and gravity fed water. I have lived my entire life in high risk bushfire areas and believe I understand the risks involved in staying or going and am capable of making the right decision at the time.

The CFA did a good presentation and having Victoria Police, the local council fire officer and also the local councillor gave the meeting an air of authority.

My only complaint was that as these meetings are CFA area targetted, then it might be a good idea for the CFA to state this on their written material to avoid public upset when people from other CFA areas do attend. (My only complaint)

What to do if flooded out (or about to be) and the Return AFTER Flooding

I don’t write this post with humour, but sometimes you have to laugh even when you feel like crying.

I’ll put it in point form to try and make it easier to read, I know you are probably under stress.

1. Leave early, if you THINK you’ll be flooded out, or cut off. Don’t wait until the last minute when you may risk you and your familys’ lives

2. Take your cats and dogs with you. If you can’t, make sure they are wearing collars and ID’d to a mobile (not the house phone, you won’t be there)

3. If your animals are larger, a collar OR spray paint a mobile number on their hide. If your horses are wearing rugs, remove them, rugs impede the animals ability to swim and may get hooked up on fences.

4. Turn off gas, power and water

5. Block any sinks with the plug and then weigh down with a sandbag or something similar, this MIGHT stop sewerage coming back through the drains. (Including bathroom floor drains) Include toilet bowls in this also.

6. Take your phone and laptop chargers with you, you’d be surprised at the number of people who forget.

7. Take important documents and photos with you. Things like passports and family photos.

8. Take enough clothes and necessities to last a minimum of 7 days. everything from baby formula to knickers and shoes.

9. If you have room, take you computer Hard drive, leave the screen and keyboard, just the tower, if you haven’t backed anything up.

10. DO NOT cross bridges/causeways unless you know they are stable and the flow of water won’t impede your crossing

11. Notify family and friends when you are leaving, where you are going and what time you are to be expected (allow 1hr leeway) just in case. Call them when you arrive.

12. Make sure you take any medicine you may require

13. It might be some time before you can get back, empty the fridge and freezer, take the food with you OR give it to a neighbour who IS staying. Things gets very smelly with no electricity. Leave the doors open to stop smells and also if the house is flooded, will stop the fridge/freezer becoming a floating hazard outside the house.

13. If you are staying. A fridge only needs to be run from a generator 1 hour in every 4 hours. That’s enough to keep things below room temp and keep things longer.

14. DO NOT charge phones or laptops from a generator, fine electrical items like that, do not like the unstable charge of a generator.

15. A generator chews through fuel, so use as though you may not get fuel for a long time.

16. Use gas where possible for cooking or a BBQ for heating water etc. Water and electricity DO NOT Mix.

17. Boil your water as a precaution, once the water level is more than 1-2 inches deep. JUST in case sewerage has somehow managed to get into the water supply.

18. DO NOT let children play in the flood water, firstly you don’t know what’s dead upstream and secondly there may be a current you are not aware of. This also applies to adults, stay out of the water. The flood water may also contain raw sewerage from flooded septic tanks from council treatment plants.

19. Let the Red Cross know your movements, you are staying, you are going, the number of people ‘lost’ during the bushfires was a critical factor in the number of people initially reported as missing.

20. If you have reported someone missing and the located them, please inform the Red Cross and keep informing them until you see their name removed from lists. During bushfires this caused much distress amongst separated family and friends.

21. Emergency services MAY NOT be able to get to you IF you decide to stay, keep that in mind when making ANY decisions. It may mean no food OR fuel. Keep that in mind.

22. Don't forget you will need batteries and candles for when the power does goes out and also for radios to listen to what is going on in your local area. Whilst you have power charge your mobile and laptops etc, iPods for the kids. Usual routine, Expect the power to go out WITHOUT notice.

23. Solar Panels don't require electricity to work (that's their purpose) Therefore the panels and surrounding cables will be LIVE and could injury to yourself or even death. AVOID at all costs.

24. An old style phone (not requiring 240v) may also be beneficial, sometimes landlines are still working even when the power has gone out. Check your house wiring before assuming this is the case though

25. Check you neighbours, maybe they are elderly and too afraid to ask for help. Offer or do, or if needed bully them out with you. Sometimes you HAVE to do this. The guilt is not worth it after the fact.

26. Upon returning to your premises, assume the house is 'live' with electricity. DO NOT PLUG anything in, UNLESS the wiring has been checked by an electrician and given the all clear.

There may be other articles in this blog that may apply to your current position, Here is one regarding about managing without electricity. Residential Properties Having been through the bushfires, electricity seems so important that the time. You soon realise that not having electricity is not really that important after all. Once you know how to manage!

The Red Cross have published a PDF document that will assist in the cleaning up of flooded properties Cleaning up after Flooding - PDF

And for the geeks of the world, ben-geek has offered this advice Tips for Salvaging Flooded Computer Gear

If you would like to make a donation, 3AW in Melbourne have listed 5 different ways you can help 3AW - Donations Make sure any donations that you do make, are through official channels and that the money will go where intended.

Please take care out there, flooding is just as dangerous as fire.
#QLDFloods
#NSWFloods
#VicFloods

Mandatory Evacuations in the USA 'V' Australia

I am writing this whilst sitting in my lovely house on top of a hill, overlooking the suburbs of Melbourne. 10-20km north of me are tracks of land – burnt beyond belief. To the north of me 7 people died, to the east of me 164 people died. To the northeast of me the fire got to within 7km of my property, before the winds changed.

I’m trying to give to you a sense of where we stood in relation to the Black Saturday Fires and how close they came.

There have been many tales told of the USA where ‘Mandatory Evacuations” take place and I thought I would investigate a little further. Not everything you can hear is true nor understood fully by the speaker.

The word “Mandatory” means (in context) – (adjective) authoritatively ordered; obligatory; compulsory: It is mandatory that all residents leave the area.

Now mandatory evacuation doesn’t mean that in the USA. In the USA you have 3 levels of alert,
1. Be aware of your surrounding, you may be required to voluntary evacuation to pre-designated safe areas (similar to Australia).
2. Voluntary evacuation – evacuations centres are opened and the public may use them if they choose, or may re-locate to friends and family outside the immediate area of danger. People considered unable to care for themselves should be assisted by officials in the area. This could include children, if authorities deem them to be at risk.
3. Mandatory Evacuations – evacuations centres are opened, people are encouraged to leave the area and move to the evacuation centres, until the danger passes.

Now this is where it gets tricky. If you choose NOT TO leave, when the mandatory call is put out, you are ON YOUR OWN. Emergency services will not attend, food and fuel WILL NOT be available. Nobody will come and rescue you at the height of the danger. You are ALL ALONE.

Some things to consider IF a mandatory evacuation order IS ISSUED IN THE USA. From what I can understand you are effectively under marshal law and could be arrested if you step off private property. Explain Mandatory/Voluntary Evacuation

Now the key to ALL of this working is warnings and people being aware of their surroundings. No matter how diligent the officials are at warning people, some people will be missed. That is why it’s essential no matter which side of the world you live; you pay attention to the outside world.

In the USA, where there is more time than not, ample warning of an approaching hurricane or similar, I’m led to believe that along with radio and TV, loud hailers and face to face warnings are issued. Mandatory Evacuation

Bushfires because they are not something that can be predicted (i.e. arson or fallen powerlines) then the ability to issue timely warnings can be very limited. But in the instance of the Black Saturday Fires, for three days prior warnings were issued on Television, Radio and Print media. This was effectively Stage 1 of the ‘be aware of your surroundings’

On Saturday the 7th February 2009, the media switched to (Stage 2) requesting people leave their place of residence IF they lived in an area deemed to be a high risk fire area, or prepare to stay and defend. At that stage, NO fire had been reported.

Once the fire got started, there was no going back, the weather conditions on that day were probably the same if not worse than 1939 and the inevitable happened. Even those that had been through the 1939 fires, thought they were invincible and that turned out not to be the case.

Personally I stayed, with my husband, we prepared, as we had prepared every day for this time. Our house had been constructed with fire mesh, with a water supply not requiring any form of power. We had a water pump; we had tanks with CFA connections. We had accessed what could and could not be saved, building wise. Prepared the animals to be transported or left. The neighbours had all been warned and transport arranged for the elderly and infirm. Those with young children packed and left. The fire should have hit us about 3.30-3.45pm on Saturday the 7th February 2009. At 3.15pm the wind changed, and the fire turned flank and headed east. God help those in the hills. I called my parents and told them the fire was coming. They had 3hours to prepare. They did what they could, warned those they could. They survived. Just like many others, who had spent a life-time doing the small things, leading up to that dreadful day.

So you see – Australia DOES have similar steps in place for emergency evacuations, the difference is people here, in Australia seem to think that emergency services have enough personnel on the ground to save THEIR house, bugger everyone else’s.

I’m sorry – there are two words – PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Heed them, look at them and act on them.

Public Fire Refuges and Bushfires

If you haven’t already figured, I’m very interested in this. In Marysville, during Ash Wednesday (1983) the Oval was the ‘safe’ place. Where the locals gathered, barrels of water, generators and general emergency type stuff. The same place I told my parents NOT to try and take my horse, because he was too unpredictable for them to handle. The roads were closed. I couldn’t get home, no buses running. The phone system was overloaded, mum somehow managed to get a message to my aunty to travel 2 hours to come and pick us up from school and take us back to her place. Horrible times. I was a mere child, but I’ve never forgotten those feelings of not knowing. NEVER.

Not long after that the Marysville Oval was deemed too risky to be used as fire refuge and Marysville was left without an nominated area. Some locals thought the golf Course, others the oval. The confusion was complete. Many did make it to the oval as per the news reports. Many were still there Sunday morning when I got into town.

Come Black Saturday (2009) when I lost phone contact with my parents, this time with hindsight I knew that things were bad. Just not how bad.

Public Refuges do have a place in EVERY township/settlement, I mean every and the councils of the area have no right to deny a township or settlement that peace of mind.

Residents in The Hills area in South Australia (Mitcham Council) are being denied Safe Refuges, because everyone is afraid of being made accountable. Hills & Valley Messenger Newspaper

Back in Victoria there are 9 designated ‘Neighbourhood Safer places’ in the Yarra Ranges area.

The state Government has allocated the amount of $500,000 for the state of Victoria to determine further ‘Neighbourhood Safer Places” That amount from what I can gather, covers the cost of signage ONLY. This is what a sign looks like.

It’s a standard size sign, approx 850mm x 200mm – blue background, white writing. The access to this particular ‘NSP’ was on a bend, and easy to miss on a clear, uncrowded road, I doubt I would be able to find it in heavy smoke or under stress. And the danger of accessing if coming from the north would be extreme, with the oncoming traffic coming around a blind corner.

There was no signage showing me where this site was located, I just happened to stumble across it whilst travelling.

I have just checked the CFA website and found this CFA - Neighbourhood Safer Places - I notice that the Murrindindi Shire/Council ONE NSP in their area. All the way up in Eildon. The Whittlesea Council has ONE NSP in their area. Too few for far too many people.

If the Council or State Governments won’t nominate an area that you will be safe in. Make sure you know where you will go on days of high fire risk. Failure to think about it might cause you to panic and do the wrong thing in times of stress.

Take care out there, no-one but you are responsible for you and your family.

The failure of Last Resort Fire Refuges and CODE RED school registers

State of Victoria

The two can’t and won’t go together that’s perfectly okay. What is not okay is the haphazard, reckless, misinformed way these two ‘registers’ have been compiled and released to the public.

Schools that should be listed on the Department of Education’s Code Red Register are not. What will happen if and when a fire threatens? – Who will be responsible? I would like to think that the parents have withheld their children from school that day – but I can only hope and dream.

The Last Resort Fire Refuges listed on the CFA website and not compiled by them; leave much to be desired. Here is the list http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/publications/neighbourhood_safer_places.htm There are many areas that have been omitted from this list, so where are you meant to turn? Where is the safe refuge in your area? You don't know, you haven't been told. Makes you feel as though you and your families lives are not important, not important enough for a Last Resort Fire Refuge to be declared, anyway.

The CFA are not given keys to some of these premises, the only way to access these premises is using council staff, yet some councils are closing all public buildings on High Risk Fire Danger Days. So who will open these buildings for the public IF the need arises?

Or will the CFA have to use the master key, the bolt cutters and sledge hammer, to gain access and create more of a fire risk – by having open access points that cannot be sealed from ember attack?

The State Government at all levels are failing the people of Victoria, they are creating a mess, with interim report this and interim report that – I understand it’s hard to decide, but I honestly believe that open areas, like sports grounds, offer a far better form of protection, especially if the vehicles are driven on this turf, the ground is clear, there is often a road around said facility which offers a fire break to prevent grass fires.

Yes, there is still a risk posed, but I would far rather be in the open, than locked up in a building with the prospect of a stampede when someone panics.

Too many questions, too little time and it’s not just the country folk that should be paying attention to this – it’s also people living on the fringes of suburbs or even in the suburbs, you too could be affected by loss of power or even ember attack.

Please read thoroughly all articles HERE http://itaintalwaysso.blogspot.com/search/label/bushfires Pass the link around, and make sure everyone you care about knows – cut and paste the link and hand ball it – remember you can ONLY rely on yourself in times of emergency.

Do Council, Government & Insurance Co.'s have power to shut your business on HIGH fire risk days?

It looks like the ugly words – Public Liability and Personal Responsibility are now going to curtail your business opportunities, between the insurance companies and councils in fire risk areas, you won’t have much choice but to close your business that sells ice-creams on hot days. Possibly the busiest day/s of the year and you will be prevented from earning an income

You are going to be forced to close the doors, regardless.

Closed:- Schools, Childcare Centres, Kindergartens, Council Offices

NOT Closed:- Old Age Facilities,

Clarification needed:- Safe Evacuation Points, Retail Outlets, Community Events

Macedon Ranges Council has already decided to shut council offices and premises on high risk days. Rumours abound that insurance companies will force the closure of businesses due to fire risk (yet must be happy to make a payout IF the premises and stock is left unprotected and lost due to fire)

The Falls Festival in Lorne, which boosts the town economy enormously, officialdom wants it moved to September.

Councils won’t advise on last choice fire refuges, even now as the fire season is upon us. They are going to let these refuges once again go by the by, because it is all too hard.

People are turning to the CFA for advice and the CFA can’t advise what they don’t know. They are not being told. They can only state what they are advised to state by those higher up the command chain.

The CODE RED School Register is incomplete; many schools that should be listed are not. Schools like Hurstbridge Primary School, Diamond Valley College, Whittlesea Secondary College, Whittlesea Primary School, St Marys Primary School in Whittlesea, Marymeade College in South Morang. There are only some of the schools that should be listed and are not.

I understand the need for care, I understand the need for reduced liability, we are the sue now and think later nation after all. But what happened to personal responsibility?

What happened to being accountable for your own actions? What happened to being aware of your surroundings?

Are we so truly dumbed down and babysat by the Government that we can’t think for ourselves?

Let’s look at things from a different angle, most public pools are located on public land, thus under council regulations, will the pools be forced to close on high risk days? Which would also happen to be their busiest days of the year.

A pool would have to be one of the safest places to be with a fire approaching. Let’s kill two birds with the one stone, stuff the cars, animals and houses, let them burn. If you are worried about your personal safety use the local swimming pool as a refuge. You could swim while waiting for death to approach.

Make your plans, rely on no-one but yourself, because nobody else but YOU can decide where YOU are best off staying or evacuating to, ONLY YOU.

Take care