Fire: What you can do to protect your home

Dry conditions are expected to continue into spring, prompting Fire and Rescue NSW to remind householders of what they can do to protect their home.

Fire and Rescue NSW Duty Commander Inspector John Moore said a few important steps could mean the difference between saving and losing properties in a serious fire event.

“It starts with picking up combustible items such as firewood and plastic chairs and moving them to a safe, secured area like a garden shed,” Inspector Moore said.

“The cleaning of leaves from gutters and homes is also important. In a bush fire, as we’ve seen recently, embers will move with the wind and they’ll lodge in the gullys and valleys of your roof and roll down the metal or tile surfaces and accumulate in gutters where there may be combustible material. 

“You can also replace your plastic mesh fly screens with a metal mesh. There is a cost to that, but it’s not exorbitant and they’re available from any good hardware store.

“If you’ve got a fire sprinkler system, make sure that’s active. Some residential homes in bush fire-prone areas do have a sprinkler system and you can activate that before you leave.”

Inspector Moore reminded residents who planned to stay and defend their property to take appropriate steps to protects themselves.

“A well-prepared home can involve a home owner who may be willing to stay and defend their property, but you can only do that, if you’ve got personal protective equipment for yourself,” he said.

“We’re looking at not fighting the fire on the roof of the house with a garden house in shorts and a singlet.

“We’d like you to have long cotton pants on, long cotton sleeves, some face protection in regards to the eyes as a lot of injuries are embers in the eyes, and a dust mask to take the particles out of the air as well.

“Smoke does contain gases, which can overcome you, and we’d like you to not be in the heaviest of the smoke in that part of the fire.”

He also advised residents to maintain, where possible, vegetation around the home.

“Home preparation involves keeping the lawn short and green, if possible. It’s a bit hard in these drought conditions at the moment,” he said.

“It’s a matter of reducing anything combustible from the edge of the home, outwards towards any bush land that may be there.”

If there is a pool, water tank or dam on the land, residents are encouraged to place a Static Water Supply sign at the front of their property to advise firefighters.

“It’s a great alternative water supply for us when things go bad with water mains and having availability of those static water supplies is a critical thing for us,” he said.

“Firefighters are actively going out there, door knocking, looking at aerial maps and inviting people to put these signs on their properties.”

For more advice on preparing your property in a fire, visit the RFS website here.