Water supplies and firefighting equipment
Prepare your house for a bush fire by organising sufficient Water Supplies and Fire Fighting Equipment.
Things to consider include:
- Check water, taps and hoses. Ensure that hoses with metal fittings are long enough to reach all sides of house when attached to taps.
- Heavy duty hoses with wide-spray nozzles, if possible.
- Reserve water supplies from tank, dam, or swimming pool, if possible, since mains water will be in high demand. Try to store water during winter months.
- Gate valve fitted to water tank (a 38mm Storz coupling will assist the Rural Fire Brigade).
- Have gate valve to fit portable pump as well.
- Regularly check petrol or diesel portable pump, if you have one, to ensure it starts easily.
- Install a sprinkler system in your garden and on roofing, if affordable.
- Gather buckets (preferably metal), mops, spray backpack units, ladders, rakes and shovels in one place for ready access during a fire.
- Battery operated radio and torches in case of electricity failure.
Is your property prepared against bushfires and grass fires?
- Clear ground fuels around the house (long, dry grass, dead leaves and branches, thick undergrowth)
- Reduce Fire Fuels - Take a trip to the tip
- Plant a combination of fire resistant plants on your property
- Clear gutters
- Ember-proof house and sheds
- Join the Static Water Supply (SWS) Marking System
- Ensure roofing is firmly fixed
- Prepare firebreaks (a well watered lawn can act as a firebreak).
- Keep pasture growth down
- Install screens or shutters and enclose underfloor areas if possible
- Screen vents into the roof space with fine wire mesh
- Remove flammable items from around the house (eg. door mats, woodpile, and obvious flammable materials such as paper, boxes, crates, hanging baskets, wooden garden furniture etc)
- Vent LPG gas tanks away from the house
- Compile emergency phone list and leave near phone
