I'm full of admiration for those who stay and fight the fires defending their property, I suspect it's the right thing to do and eases the burden on the already stretched CFA, as long as those who stay are properly prepared to do so.
Having said that I probably wouldn't stay and would ask my family to leave, and clear out the pets(horses, dogs, cats, etc, etc..). Primarily I'd leave because we might be more of a burden than assistance, so staying is the wrong thing to do.
But then it's horses for courses, a slow moving ground fire in calm conditions is relatively dependable and ember attack is your property's main problem, but if the fire is crowning or if the winds are high you can't be out fighting the fire front, you have to shelter until it passes then do your work in pretty hazardous conditions to minimise damage if you can. So you need to be fundamentally in good health, a few too many people survive fire fronts then have strokes or heart-attacks in the aftermath.
Governments spend millions and billions fighting fires and rebuilding, but you can't get a grant to build a fire shelter/bunker or add a sprinkler system to your house! Yet they'll fund your solar cells or lithium(explosive in fires) battery retrofit. It's a very odd situation in a country like Australia, we a carbon blip on the global scale, not even a fart on China or India emissions! Our priorities are all wrong, and our carbon emissions critics won't differentiate between regular per-capita consumption of resources and the continual rebuilding from fires, they do not want to acknowledge that they'd rather slight us as wasteful!
Having said that I probably wouldn't stay and would ask my family to leave, and clear out the pets(horses, dogs, cats, etc, etc..). Primarily I'd leave because we might be more of a burden than assistance, so staying is the wrong thing to do.
But then it's horses for courses, a slow moving ground fire in calm conditions is relatively dependable and ember attack is your property's main problem, but if the fire is crowning or if the winds are high you can't be out fighting the fire front, you have to shelter until it passes then do your work in pretty hazardous conditions to minimise damage if you can. So you need to be fundamentally in good health, a few too many people survive fire fronts then have strokes or heart-attacks in the aftermath.
Governments spend millions and billions fighting fires and rebuilding, but you can't get a grant to build a fire shelter/bunker or add a sprinkler system to your house! Yet they'll fund your solar cells or lithium(explosive in fires) battery retrofit. It's a very odd situation in a country like Australia, we a carbon blip on the global scale, not even a fart on China or India emissions! Our priorities are all wrong, and our carbon emissions critics won't differentiate between regular per-capita consumption of resources and the continual rebuilding from fires, they do not want to acknowledge that they'd rather slight us as wasteful!
"Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck ....... Ruck, ruck, ruck, ruck"