Self Preservation in Grassfires

As a CFA firefighter we are trained to go into burnover drill.

However, that is not really going the help you unless you are on a tanker or have a slipon :)

Alternatively, I would be ensuring that I keep "On the black" or a nice large cleared area with no fuel. Then protect yourself from any raident heat with a fire blanket. These are made by creswick woolen mills and are available on-line.

20 years CFA

If you had time then the normal procedure is to start a fire on the SIDE THAT THE FIRE IS COMING FROM.

That is a 'backburn' it will hopefully not cross the track and in wildfire conditions move fairly quickly towards the oncoming fire and give you protection.

If you were to light the fire on the other side, anything might happen, including having you sandwiched between fires!

If I was caught by surprise with a grassfire moving very quickly I guess I'd decide on one of two ways of escaping. ... maybe three.

1. Move to the widest part of the track. Park in the middle with lights on. Shut all windows. Get down under blankets or clothing to protect from radiant heat and hope for the best. As soon as the fire front has passed get out. If the car is in okay condition and will run... drive on to burnt safer area. If the car is on fire, hopefully escape by foot to a burnt area. Keep covered.

2. Drive straight at the fire wall and hopefully get through to the burnt side before you burst in to flames.

3. Race off down the track hoping to get to away.

Numbers 2 and 3 have killed a lot of people. Number 1 sometimes ends in death.

If you had a little more time and a shovel, you could extend the track width with bare earth exposed.

Hi Al

I have no firefighting accreditation.

I have had to face an oncoming grass fire in some paddocks though.

The grass was not very thick and the flames sort of licked across the ground
maybe 1 ft tall, leaving patches of flames where ever grass was thicker.

I could see past them and smoke wasn't that thick.

Didn't have a lot of time , maybe 1 minute , as the burning bits were less than 10m wide I chose to drive across.

Only took a couple of seconds.

Not sure what I would have done if it had been bigger, but if I could see the other side I probably would have driven as well.

In the Black Saturday fires , we also had to drive across paddocks, no fires , but thick smoke.

GPS in dead reckoning mode , proved very helpful to keep driving in a straight line.

I have no formal fire training but survived on my land on Ash Wednesday when the fire came through.
If you decide to drive through the fire front choose your spot before the front arrives, flat ground with no fallen logs etc , position your vehicle so you only have to go straight ahead, because the fire is moving you will have no sense of direction, or speed, like taking of from the lights with a large truck on both sides and a blanket over the windscreen. As others have said try to stay calm. Modern vehicles with plastic fuel lines leaves you with about 50% chance of loosing the vehicle so consider this before you drive in long grass. Eric.

Over 40 years on stations where we had to be own brigade. This also includes some years in a rural brigade down the Diamantina, but there was never enough grass there to burn...but I digress.

Feel it would be better to be in a position where one could walk/drive away from the fire front, rather than resort to a dash into the flames, or doing a runner, and causing damage to your transport. While lighting a back burn might be illegal, at the time, if it was deemed necessary, then do it.

In most grass country it is easy to see a big fire (spinifex smoke is black, Mitchell or Flinders grass smoke is white) from quite a distance away, and a hasty reteat made. Otherwise a sudden fire, like some one using a welder/angle grinder near long grass, can promote panic, and some poor decisions made.

Couple of other things with grass fires is no matter how still the winds are, they always intensify greatly, once the fire starts.. Also there is a lot of radiated heat, well in advance of the actual flames, that one would need to get through, before hitting the fire.

All scary stuff, and hope no one has to make that call, to pull on the fire itself.

Bob.

Thank you everyone. It would seem then that starting a burn-off on the lee side of the track as a refuge zone is not considered a good idea.

Not too sure about driving straight through the firewall unless I was sure that the terrain was free of obstructions.

As for clearing with a shovel, well maybe sometimes but in Robin Miller's Mt Dare area?..........

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just found out today graduate girl from work went in the i/2 ultra marathon (50k) at El questro and was caught in a fire now in hopital critical but stable condition

Alas, the very thing we have been discussing has just occurred near El Questro......See Link