Fire Fight!

Preparing yourself and your property. Part One.

This piece has turned out quite long so I am sending it in two parts. Here's the first part which among some more general points will look at what to wear during a fire event. The second instalment you'll get tomorrow and deals with fire hardening and otherwise protecting your house. I'm using pictures of my own home as examples and you might like to consider which fire risks each picture is presenting- there are lots- gulp! I'll be providing some answers in the second installment.

above: spot the fire risks 1

I have been reluctant to work on this piece for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the thought of a major forest fire here scares the proverbial pants of me and writing about it makes it feel more real, as if I'm accepting that it is inevitable. Given the fact that greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures continue to rise year on year and that even if they could be stopped instantly, global warming would still continue for some considerable time due to the gases already in our atmosphere and the heat stored in our oceans, fire probably is inevitable, at some point.

So, going along the lines of feel the fear and do it anyway, I've been considering what I find so frightening about it all. For a start there is the obvious fear of me and members of my family getting caught up in a conflagration and dying horribly. Aaaargh! Then there are livestock to consider, terrified animals, particularly large ones like cattle or horses.

And there's the thought of the house that we worked towards for twenty years and spent another twelve building going up in flames, along with everything in it, leaving only truncated, blackened walls, ash and a load of nails. Apart from all those irreplaceable contents, losses could also include vehicle, poly tunnel, various sheds, stables, fences, chicken coops and runs, plants, fruit trees, mulch and nutrients from the top soils in the gardens and fields, leaving a blackened, bare landscape and a polluted water supply. Great...Oh well, good opportunity to observe natural regeneration, again...

above: spot the fire risks 2.

My second reason for reluctance in writing this is reading Joan Webster's Essential Bushfire Safety Tips which made me realise what a very big subject this is. Without devoting the next few years or so to studying fire safety I can only offer here the barest outline and encourage those of you who wish to learn more to read Joan's books, David Holmgren's Retrosuburbia and look at his website. I’ll provide links to these at the end of the next installment.

So, considering the fears expressed above, what can I do to minimise the chances of such complete losses? Here goes.

First, what are the actual dangers of wild fire to us if we’re going to go anywhere near it, or rather, if it is going to come anywhere near us? Webster lists the three killer factors as radiant heat, dehydration and asphyxiation, which I'll deal with in turn in relation to personal protection when faced with a fire.

Radiant heat.

This is the heat emitted by flames at the fire front and can be extreme. The risk can be greatly reduced by wearing appropriate clothing, keeping back from flames, not staying too long near flames and taking breaks from flames by seeking shelter.

above: spot the fire risks 3.

Clothing:

Appropriate clothing includes loose-fitting cover-all clothes of pure wool or heavy cotton, tight-weave, straight-cut trouser legs tied over boots, a firmly secured, wide-brimmed, heavy cotton hat and strong boots with thick nitrile rubber or other fire resistant soles. Gloves should only be worn for handling hot materials as covered hands cannot feel rising radiant heat levels to warn you to take shelter.

The thing with clothes, though it can sound counter intuitive, is to keep yourself well covered to reduce the effect of radiant heat. Wool is particularly good both as an insulating layer and because embers falling on it will tend to go out. Synthetics should be avoided completely, including underclothes, as they can melt and burn. Clothes should be reasonably tight fitting without being restrictive, to stop embers going up sleeves, trouser legs, down the neck etc. risking setting fire to your pants, if they are synthetic!

A hat protects your hair and needs to be tied on as fire can create its own wind. Long hair needs to be tied up and well secured under the hat.

Eye protection is increased by wearing heat-resistant, vented goggles and using eye drops frequently.

above: spot the fire risks 4.

Shelter/shields:

Webster gives the following as means of sheltering or shielding your body from radiant heat. The best shields are buildings and earth banks though a dense mesh or chain link fence also provides some protection by reflecting some of the radiant heat.

Next best is pure wool though she describes heavy cotton drill as excellent. Layers of materials including textured fibreglass are very good while tree trunks and ruts in roads can be useful. Bill Mollison told us about sheltering in a storm drain as a fire front passed, although knowing something of Bill's story telling, this may well have been someone else...Even turning your body from side to side can help.

Dehydration.

Not to be underestimated as it can be a killer. Early warning signs include feeling sluggish, irritable and impatient. Later ones include feeling nauseous and severe dehydration leads to collapse. Drinking every 10 minutes whether you are thirsty or not will greatly reduce the danger.

Asphyxiation.

Smoke inhalation can clog the lungs, swell the throat and compress the windpipe. Best is an appropriate mask that filters particulates. David Holmgren suggests masks that filter down to 0.1 micron diameter particles (though I can no longer find the reference to this. Anyone help?) whereas Joan Webster says 0.01 micron. You can find some details of masks and filters in the footnote at the end of this piece¹.

In an emergency, breathing through a dampened woollen scarf will help and more than one source speaks of a pure wool blanket and a bottle of water as being potential lifesavers if it all goes horribly wrong.

Be aware, some burning furnishings and preservative treated timbers can give off various poisonous gases, such as cyanide and some plants, like as rhododendron, produce cocktails of toxic smoke.

above: spot the fire risks 5.

Embers.

Finally here, a word or two about embers as these are going to be the sources of our challenges. Embers refers to burning or smouldering material that is blown in advance of an active fire front. It is the embers falling on vegetation that are the prime cause of wildfire spreading; Joan Webster gives the main cause of house destruction during bushfires as embers getting inside the house and its embers falling on wrongly-clothed people that cause nasty burns.

She goes on to say that showers of embers can arrive half an hour before the fire front and continue to fall for four hours after the main fire has passed. They've also been recorded as travelling several miles (up to 35Km in a severe bushfire), depending upon the ferocity of the fire and the wind speed.

So it is a wild fire's embers and flames that can set fire to a house and if we can keep flames away from the building, as in the suggestions on my last piece on fire, then its just the embers we have to deal with. It’s useful to realise, as Joan Webster points out, that the total destruction of houses in bushfires is caused by the untended burning of its contents, that is, because there’s no one there to put out the embers. Research in Australia shows that the presence of just one 'able bodied' person is between two and four times more significant than any other factor in determining whether a house burns or not in a severe bushfire² and this should be taken as a very encouraging fact. If there are able bodied folk present and prepared, wearing appropriate clothing, and patrolling both inside and outside the dwelling, spot fires starting by blown embers can be put out before they grow to cause damage.

In the last piece on fires I described the importance of keeping flames away from buildings and how that can be achieved. Next I'll look at how we keep those pesky embers from getting into our homes in the first place. Till then , take care. Hwyl!

Comments always welcome but especially here, particularly from folk with direct experience of fires and firefighting. The last eleven months have all broken heat records globally. A hotter world means a more fire prone world. We need to tap into that experience and spread the word now.

1. The standards and classes of masks and filters are pretty complicated and if in doubt you should consult a professional. Basically, you should only be looking at face masks and filters with EN standards such as those given below::

EN136 standard covers full face masks of Class 1 to 3 with Class 3 being the best, most heavy duty, as used by fire fighters.

EN143 standard covers half masks from P1 to P3 with P3 providing the highest protection.

The other standard of note is EN14387 which is the standard for gas and combined particulate filters, classified from 1 to 3 with 3 being the best.

The actual filter fits into a detachable housing, either a single housing that fits low down on the front of the mask, or two mounted one on either side which is better for visibility and provides more surface area meaning they last a bit longer and are easier to breathe through.

If you go for a half mask, a pair of goggles are essential- on his website, David Holmgren is pictured with just such a half mask and goggles.

The only other thing to take into account is the type of fitting used to attach the filter housing to the mask; these are either bayonet or universal thread, the latter providing the best seal.

Masks have uses other than just fire fighting so woodworkers and painters may already have one. Just make sure you have a suitable set of new, P3 particle filters and keep them ready with your fire fighting kit.

2. David Holmgren Retrosuburbia