FAQs - from Sparking Conversations
- Australian Fire Danger Rating System - The Ratings
- TasALERT - Alerts
- Country Fire Authority - Am I at Risk?
- Country Fire Authority - Radiant Heat
- Tasmania Fire Service - Check the Fire Danger Rating Forecast
- Tasmania Fire Service - 5 Minute Bushfire Plan
- Tasmania Fire Service - Bushfire Safety Guide
- Tasmania Fire Service - Emergency Kits
- ABC Big Weather with Craig Reucassel - How to pack for an emergency fire evacuation
- CSIRO - Bushfire Basics
- CSIRO - Extinguishing bushfire myths and misconceptions
- Country Fire Authority - How Fire Behaves
- Matt Davis (Tasmanian Fire Fighter) - An introduction to bushfire
- Matt Davis (Tasmanian Fire Fighter) - Bushfire types and the fuels that support them
- Country Fire Authority - Facts of Fire Overview
- CSIRO - Bushfire Best Practice Guide: Landscaping
- Tasmania Fire Service: Bushfire Ready Neighbourhoods - Guide to burning heaps safely
- ABC Big Weather with Craig Reucassel - How to prepare your home for bushfire season
- Country Fire Authority - Property Preparations: Designing your garden for bushfire
- Country Fire Authority - Property Preparations: Preparing your property for fire season
Bushfire Safety
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The safety of yourself and your loved ones is the most important thing to think about in the event of a bushfire.
The following resources will provide you with information that will help you to stay safe in a bushfire.
Plan to survive
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Preparing for bushfire involves more than your physical preparations around the house and garden. It also includes having a bushfire plan that can be enacted on days when the fire danger rating in your area is extreme or catastrophic, or in the event of a bushfire.
The following resources will help you think about and write your bushfire plan.
Learn about fire
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Bushfires can be scary, but learning about basic fire science can help you understand its behaviour and how to prepare.
The following resources will help you learn about bushfires, how they start and spread, and how they impact homes and neighbourhoods.
Preparing your house
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There are a number of ways that bushfire can damage or destroy houses. The most common is from embers landing on or near flammable materials around the house and garden and igniting spot fires. Direct flame contact from a bushfire can also ignite a house, while the heat created from a bushfire can ignite surfaces without direct flame contact or embers, and can damage parts of the house making them vulnerable to embers.
The following resources will help guide your thinking about modifications you can make to your house to prepare it for bushfire.
*Note that even well-prepared homes can be destroyed by a bushfire. Survival must be your main priority. Leaving early will always be the safest option.
Preparing your garden
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In many cases of house loss from bushfire, embers ignite vegetation in the garden which then spreads fire to the home. That’s why maintenance and garden design, particularly in the immediate vicinity of the home, can increase the chances of your house surviving a bushfire. This doesn’t mean clearing all of the vegetation around the home. There are ways to adapt your garden to make it more resilient to bushfire without losing the things you love most about it.
Check out the following resources for ideas on how to prepare your garden for bushfire.