Bushfires evoke a primal fear in most Australians. We’ve all seen firsthand the loss of life, property and precious biodiversity. So why are so many of us unprepared for bushfires? Is it information overload? Pages and pages online about how to prepare for a bushfire. It’s daunting. So my goal with this round-up article is to get you better prepared for bushfires without slogging through hours online. Here is a 5-minute read on how the experts say to prepare for a bushfire down under, and how to survive if one comes.

How to prepare for a bushfire – the expert rundown

I want you better prepared for a bushfire after reading this 5 minute article than when you began. So let’s summarise.

‘Success depends on previous preparation.’

– Confucius

The expert advice says that bushfire survival comes down to good preparation and decision making.

Here are the 6 key take aways from our bushfire experts on how to do both well:

1. Know the local bushfire risks, ratings and warnings – Did you know that fire danger ratings changed in 2022? Learn the new ones down below.
2. Plug into them – download the BOM App. Follow your local fire emergency services on social media.
3. Write down your Bushfire Emergency Plan – use a template if you don’t know how.
4. Prepare a Bushfire Emergency Kit – use this checklist to save time on what to put in it.
5. Prepare for bushfire smoke (read this article on the health impacts of wildfire smoke to learn why)
6. Prepare your home for bushfire season.
7. Practice your Bushfire Emergency Plan.

You can also prepare for a bushfire by knowing beforehand the dos and don’ts of surviving one. But before we run through this, we’ll talk about the type of danger you’re preparing for and the 11 critical facts to know about bushfires.

This will motivate your preparation.

What happens during a bushfire?

The words ‘terrifying’ and ‘bushfire’ are often heard together, for good reason.

Knowing what to expect during a bushfire – the risks you face – can help you prepare. Physically and mentally.

• Bushfires are traumatic. They’re physically and mentally exhausting.
• In a bushfire it can be hard to see, impossible to breathe, frighteningly noisy, and unbearably hot.
• The physical risks from a bushfire are heat stroke, burns, smoke inhalation, and in extreme cases loss of life.
• There’s also mental trauma, loss and grief to contend with.
• Then there is the the property, asset, animal and biodiversity loss.

These impacts on our well being, property and environment stem from 3 causes of bushfire damage:

1. direct contact with flames,
2. ember attack, and
3. radiant heat.

Knowing these risks focuses you on what you have to lose, and the importance of bushfire preparation.

11 fascinating bushfire facts to help you survive

Bushfires are unpredictable beasts. But these 11 common facts that about bushfires can help influence your behaviour and save your life:

1. Most fires in Australia start from lightning
2. Fire fronts can stretch for several kilometres and fires spread rapidly, especially in dry gusty conditions.
3. Embers can float kilometres from the fire front and start spot fires that turn into new fire fronts.
4. The radiant heat from a bushfire can burn your skin from 100 meters away.
5. Bushfires travel faster uphill – the steeper the slope the faster the spread.
6. A change in wind direction can dangerously change the size of the fire front.
7. Ember attack is the most common way houses ignite during a bushfire.
8. Radiant heat (indirect heat through the air) causes the most human and animal deaths in bushfires.
9. Bushfires can cause their own storms, with lightning igniting new fires.
10. People tend underestimate the speed of and overestimate the distance to a bushfire – both are dangerous.
11. Most homes in high-risk bushfire areas are not defendable on catastrophic (fire rating) days.

What to do before a bushfire

According to CSIRO research, there 4 key things that can determine your survival during a bushfire:

1. Fire severity,
2. Weather conditions,
3. Proximity to fuels, and
4. Decisions you make.

Preparing for each of these beforehand will help you survive. Here is how you can do it:

1. Fire severity:

• Know Australia’s new fire danger rating system and when ‘fire season’ occurs in your area. Fire danger ratings changed in 2022. Here are the new ratings:

• Fire season is different across the country, depending on where you live.

2. Weather conditions:

• Learn about bushfire weather – strong winds, dry weather, changing winds and lightning can all add to bushfire dangers.
• Know Australia’s bushfire warning levels and what they mean.

3. Proximity to fuels:

• Prepare your home for bushfire season. Use the checklist below.

4. The decisions you make:

• Make a Bushfire Emergency Plan to help with decision making
• Agree your Fire Danger Rating trigger and Bushfire Warning trigger to evacuate to safety (more on this below)
• Prepare a Bushfire Emergency Kit
• Talk to your family and practice your plan.

How to prepare your house for a bushfire

If your home is at risk of bushfire, you need to prepare each year for bushfire season. Take these extra steps to prepare your home if there are bushfires burning in your area.

Is your house in a bushfire zone?

Where your home is located determines its bushfire risk. If this describes where you live, consider getting your home bushfire ready asap:

• your suburbs meets grasslands – newly developed suburbs on the outskirts of cities.
• your suburb meets the bush – same as above.
• you live near coastal scrub – if you live by the beach, is there fire risk between you and the water?
• your home is among rural paddocks – dry, brown grass over 10cm can easily catch fire and travels at 25km per hour.
• you live among or near dense or open bush / forest –

Remember, if your home was built before 2009, Bushfire Attack Level ratings didn’t apply to your build. Your home construction is more susceptible to bushfire risk.

There are maps and reports available that can tell you if you live in a bushfire prone area. In Victoria, you can hop online and order a Bushfire Attack Level Report to find out the bushfire risk to your property.

Local and state governments like the WA government have bushfire management overlays. These can also help you determine whether your home is bushfire prone.

If you are in a bushfire zone, here are the steps to prepare your home, according to or fire and emergency services:

How to prepare your home for bushfire season

Depending on where you live and the bushfire risk in your area, you may be required to build a firebreak around your home. Read more about how to make a firebreak to protect your home (and the firebreak requirements in your area) in this article: ‘How to make a firebreak to protect your home.’

Steps to prepare your home BEFORE each bushfire season:

1. Clear gutters of leaves, twigs and debris – an ember could cause these to ignite
2. Remove overhanging branches within 10m of your home
3. Prune branches and shrubs and mow grass around your home
4. Clear pathways and access points to your home from vegetation
5. Make sure your hoses are in good condition and reach around your home unimpeded
6. Put a cover on your woodpile
7. Remove woodchips from around your home and lay pebble instead.
8. Clear land downhill from your home. Mow it and if you can irrigate it. Fires travel uphill fast.
9. Think of places you can strategically store water, around your home. In ponds, troughs, and 44 gallon drums for example.

If you plan to stay and defend your home in a fire:

1. Check your fire fighting water supply – 10,000 litres of water is the minimum recommended by fire services.
2. Have a firefighting pump ready – it needs to be protected from radiant heat and on a back up power supply. We recommend a portable power station as with these you don’t have to store large amounts of highly flammable fuel at your property to run a fuel based generator.
3. Prepare your firefighting equipment: you should have buckets, a ladder, mops, old towels, a rake and shovel, gutter plugs, torches and a battery or crank radio ready.

10 steps to prepare your home for bushfires in ‘Watch and Act’ Warning

Take these 10 steps if there is a bushfire burning or bushfire ‘watch and act’ warning in your area:

1. Move flammable items such as cars, equipment, and caravans away from your home
2. Move animals to cleared paddocks or inside
3. Turn off the gas and move gas cylinders away from your home. Point the valve on your gas bottle in the opposite direction of your home.
4. Block your down pipes with downpipe plugs and fill your downpipes and gutters with water
5. Install ember guards over any vents in the exterior walls of your home.
6. Fill the sinks and bathtubs with water
7. Close all doors and windows or metal mesh screens and block gaps with a wet towel or rag
8. Get out and turn on your battery operated radio
9. Fill your car fuel tank
10. Park your car out of the garage faced towards the road.

If you’re staying to defend your home, your bushfire preparation checklist includes more things:

1. Ready your hose, water supply and fire fighting equipment
2. Connect and roll out your hoses.
3. Prime your pump and connect it to either your mains or backup power supply
4. Set up a ladder under the manhole inside.
5. Put a torch in the roof cavity to look for embers entering.

How to prepare yourself for a bushfire

The ABC TV show ‘Big Weather‘ did an interesting experiment about the bushfire preparedness of Aussie families.

They gave 2 families 10 minutes to evacuate a bushfire and told them to grab everything they needed.

The results were disastrous.

Panicked decision making led to a car full of mainly sentimental items. While photos and keepsakes are important for recovery, they’re not going to help you survive a bushfire.

This is why personal bushfire preparation begins with a Bushfire Emergency Kit.

A Bushfire Emergency Kit is a survival kit you put together beforehand. It has everything you need to help survive a bushfire. All ready to grab and go in one bag.

You can build a custom Bushfire Emergency Kit from this list.

Or you can use a generic evacuation kit, like an Emergency Go Bag, and just add specific items for bushfire survival.

Having a survival kit ready will reduce the panic you feel in an evacuation. You’ll feel more in control. And your odds of surviving are better if you’re prepared.

How to prepare yourself for bushfires in your area

The best way to prepare yourself for an imminent bushfire is to cover up your skin. Put on protective clothing like it’s a suit of armour.

Cover every inch of your skin and head.

And only ever wear heavy, natural fibres – wool, denim and heavy drill cotton are best.

Here’s a list of clothing you should have prepared at home as part of your Bushfire Emergency Kit:

• Long sleeved pants and shirt
• Leather boots with a thick sole (no runners)
• Goggles
• A P2 mask
• Broad brimmed hat (to protect your head and embers falling into your clothing)
• Protective leather work gloves.

Secondly, have bottled water ready and drink plenty of it in the lead up and during a bushfire.

Lastly, double check your bushfire survival plan. Make sure you are clear on what steps you’ve committed to take, and when, for your own safety.

What to do in a bushfire

1. Execute your bushfire emergency plan
2. Evacuate outside the danger zone – when your trigger to leave is hit
3. If you are staying, defend your home.
4. Take shelter as a last resort – if the bushfire is upon you.

Let’s look at what you should do for each step.

Why you MUST have a Bushfire Emergency Plan

The CSIRO research shows that early decision making is critical to your survival in a bushfire. Panicked decisions make for poor decisions.

A Bushfire Emergency Plan takes the stress out of any ‘on the spot’ decision making.

All you have to do is execute your plan. Follow the steps, A to Z.

Fire emergency services in all states recommend having a Bushfire Emergency Plan if you live in one of the bushfire zones we list out at the top of this post.

Here’s a great bushfire emergency plan template from the CFA.

Use it prepare your family’s plan. The template steps you through how to plan for a bushfire. It helps you write down your plan so that all you have to do when SHTF is stick to your plan.

Your bushfire emergency plan should include alternate evacuation routes and where and how you will shelter if caught at home.

How to prepare for a bushfire evacuation

The next step, when things start to get real on the new fire danger rating scale, is to evacuate.

Leave your house prepared as best as possible and move to an evacuation centre or other accommodation outside the danger zone.

It’s your best chance of survival by far.

Here’s detailed look at How to prepare for wildfire evacuation – covering both your family and your home. You can also check out our Wildfire Evacuation Checklist. Remember, when the time comes rational thought goes out the window in favour of panic. That’s where a checklist like this comes in handy.

Or here’s a shortlist of steps to take:

1. Monitor fire danger warnings and social media
2. Put on your protective clothing
3. Turn off the utilities and move flammable items like gas bottles away from home
4. Prepare your animals and livestock
5. Grab your bushfire emergency plan and bushfire emergency kit and pack your car
6. When your fire danger rating trigger is hit, evacuate by car
7. Be prepared for unforeseen circumstances – have a Plan B prepared and alternative evacuation route. Execute your Plan B.

How to stop a bushfire – expert tips for defending your home

Do not stay and defend your home on catastrophic fire danger days. It will be undefendable, say our firefighters.

Only stay and defend your home if your property is built for bushfires and you are physically able and well prepared to fight the fire in tough and scary conditions.

You also need the right fire fighting equipment. The CFA says that defending your property requires a minimum of 2 fit adults, 10,000 litres of water and a fire fighting pump on backup power.

Don’t stay and defend your home if you have underlying lung conditions or people with special needs in your home.

Here is what the experts say to do, if you are staying to defend your home:

• put on your protective gear
• fill your gutters with water
• use your hose and sprinklers to hose down your roof and house
• patrol for embers and extinguish them on landing – rake dirt over them, beat them with a wet rag or hose them out
• use sprinklers to help fight embers
• take shelter inside when you feel radiant heat on your ears and skin.

Sheltering from a bushfire – what CSIRO research says

CSIRO did some research looking at bushfires in Australia between 1901 and 2011. They found that the leading cause of death from bushfires (40%) after 1965 was sheltering inside.

It’s no wonder the strong advice these days is to evacuate early.

Sheltering in your home is an absolute last resort. It is risky and you could die.

If you are caught at home in a bushfire here is how the experts say to shelter at home:

• shelter inside on the opposite side of the house from the fire
• choose a room with 2 exit points
• try to put a solid concrete or brick wall between you and the fire
• always keep a clear view of the fire outside
• stay away from windows – these can break with radiant heat
• if you must exit, move to already burned ground.

As an absolute last resort measure if all other options are exhausted, you could also seek shelter in:

• A stationary car in a cleared area,
• A ploughed paddock or reserve, or
• A body of water (such as a beach, swimming pool, dam or river)

Here’s an entire post on How to survive a bushfire if you cannot evacuate and are stuck in this life threatening position. It’s a sobering read, but bushfires are unpredictable beasts. So a little knowledge here might just save your life.

Travelling to bushfire prone areas

Did you know that around 10 percent of lives lost to bushfires between 1901 and 2011 were people travelling through the bushfire zone?

Bushfire preparation is important for everyone. Even if you don’t live in a bushfire zone.

If you’re travelling into a bushfire zone during local fire danger season, you still need to know what to do.

You’re unlikely to have a bushfire emergency plan if you’re just travelling through. So it’s important you stay informed. Follow the local fire services. Talk to locals in the community.

Because you’re likely to be unprepared, your best chance at surviving is to leave the danger zone early.

What NOT to do during a bushfire

Don’t:

• fail to plan and prepare
• rely on a warning to evacuate – stick to your bushfire plan
• leave evacuation too late – there may be a point at which the decision to leave is taken from you by the fire
• make decisions based on a fire truck turning up – what if one doesn’t or can’t?
• ‘wait and see’ during a bushfire – research shows indecision can be fatal.
• shelter in a dam, swimming pool, or a water tank unless it’s a last resort. Doing so leaves your face, head and lungs exposed to radiant heat and smoke.

Conclusion and next steps

Preparing for fires can seem daunting. We hope this roundup of how to prepare for a bushfire has simplified the steps and saved you time. There might seem like a lot to do, but don’t be overwhelmed. Remember how to eat an elephant? One bite at a time… Just focus on doing these 5 things starting today, to better prepare yourself:

1. Learn the bushfire risks, ratings and warning system
2. Connect to weather & fire services with the BOM app and social media
3. Write down your Bushfire Emergency Plan
4. Make a Bushfire Emergency Kit, including protective clothing
5. Prepare your home for bushfire season.