It’s happened again, the most horrible bushfires in Australias history with (at the time) 183 deaths.  There’s all sorts of blame being thrown around over these fires, and apart from those deliberately lit, was there ever any way they could have been stopped or their effect lessened.

I’m far from being an expert, but that Saturday was extraordinarily hot, in fact the hottest on record and the winds were 90 to 100 Km per hour, and probably even worse in the fire areas.  I’m convinced that mo matter how much fire reduction had been done in the bush, no matter how many new fire tracks and breaks had been put in the bush, these fires would have been just as severe on this day.

Fire breaks will have no effect when winds are 100 Km per hour or more, as embers can jump even the largest breaks.

So if we cannot stop the fires, how do we save lives?

I said after Ash Wednesday that there should have been strategically placed dugouts located around all population sites in these fire prone areas.

After Black Friday, almost 70 years ago, because so many timber workers lost their lives, dugouts had to be built around all the mill sites in the bush.  Inside each of these dugouts was a heap af hessian and a 44 gallon drum full of water.  How do I know this? Well in the sixties I was a scout who loved bushwalking and hiked throughout the hills around Warburton, Powelltown and Gembrook.

Even today there is still an odd dugout to be found, in fact just recently, on a 4WD trip to Big River, we came across one and went inside for a look around.

We used to live in Cockatoo and always thought, four large dugouts placed around the town with large car park areas, would mean people could stay and fight the fires around their homes, then at the last minute make for the safety of a dugout.

But after these latest fires I think we can do even better.  We still need these large dugouts around towns so tourists and those living on small town blocks have somewhere safe to go, but it should be made mandatory that all people with at least one acre have to put in a dugout or underground fire shelter when they build.

This may involve an extra expense, but the same was said about septic tanks when people had to put them in.  The way I see it is that every property that has a dugout, could be protected by its owners until the very last minute and then they can head for the safety of the dugout.  I have already heard one story of a couple who had such a shelter in their backyard and survived.

This way people would not have to flee onto dangerous roads at the last minute, their valuables could be placed in the dugout, thus not only saving themselves, but their memories also.

With the large dugouts, someone said “who would maintain them so they are usable in an emergency”.  That seems pretty easy too.  Simply place them in the hands of the CFA.  Each dugout would have to have some lockable doors, like a jail, to stop vandals ruining them, and it is up to the CFA to make sure the hessian and water are kept in good condition, and on days of total fire ban, each dugout would be opened in case of an emergency.

Once again, I make no assertion of being an expert, I am an ordinary Spare Parts Manager who has loved the bush all his life.  With a Royal Commission coming up, we are going to need all the ideas, that everyone can come up with to try and prevent this horrible loss of life in future fires.  We will never be able to stop the fires, but there are certainly things we can do to prevent such a tragic loss of life.

See you out there!

Tip:

Track Condition There are all sorts of track conditions that you will encounter in your 4x4. Unfortunately there is very little you can do about this, except to perhaps fill in some rutted sections to make them a little easier. So, to overcome track conditions it is up to the other four elements above.