In 2020, bushfires in Australia killed 34 people. With flames hot enough to melt metal and smoke thick enough to turn day into night, bushfires are terrifying, chaotic and unpredictable. If you’re unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, then knowing how to survive a bushfire may be the difference between life an death. Especially as weather experts predict that fires will get bigger and more disastrous as our climate changes. So in this 5 minute read, we share how to prepare for, live through, and recover from a bushfire, to give you the best chance of survival.

How to survive a bushfire: TL;DR

Always evacuate a bushfire wherever safe to do so. It’s your best chance of survival. If you can’t, then in order, here are 9 steps to take, to improve your chances of surviving a bushfire before, during and after the event:

Preparing for a bushfire

1. Make an bushfire survival plan or bushfire evacuation plan
2. Prepare a Bushfire Emergency Kit.
3. Prepare your home.

During a bushfire

4. Execute your bushfire survival plan (to stay and defend) or bushfire evacuation plan (to evacuate).
5. Have your Bushfire Emergency ?
6. Evacuate early. Avoid getting caught in the open or in your car during a bushfire.
7. If your plan is to stay, take the actions listed down below to defend your home.
8. Take shelter as a last resort.

After a bushfire

9. Reach out for support – physical, financial and mental.
10. Contact your insurer.
11. Recover any belongings you can.

The Mallacoota firestorm – a lesson in bushfire survival

In 2020, under blood read skies, 4000 peopled gathered on the beach as a raging bushfire approached a small community of Mallacoota. The town is hemmed in by fire and it is suddenly too late to leave.

Day had turned to night under smokey skies and visibility was less than 80%. Protected from the fire front by a ring of fire trucks, the instructions to survive were clear: get into the ocean and get underwater if the fire trucks sounded their sirens.

Without food, power or water the community of Mallacoota waits, terrified.

At last, relief. There’s a change in wind direction and the fire front moves on. Darkness lifts

Water supplies to the township are restricted and all water must be boiled.

The Australian navy is dispatched to evacuate residents by sea and deliver food, water and fuel as fire continues to leave the township isolated.

With fires still raging in the area and a sky black with smoke, it takes 3 days to get everyone out to safety. By boat, helicopter and plane.

300 homes are lost. Thousands of people left traumatised.

This is the reality of surviving a bushfire in Australia.

Preparing for a Bushfire

The key to surviving a bushfire is to prepare before one strikes. Before the bushfire advisories and warnings start. Before bushfire season even begins. You can even start now.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to protect yourself and your loved ones. Here are 11 simple steps to help you get prepared:

1. If you plan to stay and defend your home, create a Bushfire Survival Plan that outlines what you will do before, during, and after a bushfire.
2. If you plan to evacuate, create a Bushfire Evacuation Plan.
3. For either plan, make a contact list of family, friends, and neighbours to check on and communicate with during and after a bushfire.
4. Pack a Bushfire Emergency Kit that includes food, water, first aid supplies, protective clothing, and a battery-powered or hand crank radio.
5. Prepare your home by clearing gutters, removing flammable materials from your yard, and installing fire-resistant screens on windows and doors.
6. Make sure you have adequate insurance coverage for your home and belongings.
7. Stay informed by monitoring the news and weather reports, and signing up for emergency alerts.
8. Identify safe zones in your community, such as community centres or designated evacuation areas.
9. Practice your evacuation plan with your family, including pets.
10. Consider enrolling in a first aid or CPR course to prepare for potential injuries.
11. Stay vigilant and report any potential fire hazards to your local authorities.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late – make a Bushfire Evacuation Plan today

The first step in surviving a bushfire is taken well in advance of anything ever happening. That step is to have a plan in place. This plan should include your evacuation routes, the emergency supplies you need to grab (like your Bushfire Emergency Kit), and your communication arrangements with family, friends, and your home insurer.

Identify at least two evacuation routes and practice them with your family. Make sure everyone in your family knows where to go and what to do in case of a bushfire. Remember, roads may be blocked or impassable during a bushfire. This is why it’s important to have alternate routes planned.

Review your Bushfire Emergency Kit and stock up on any depleted emergency supplies. You should have enough supplies to last for at least three days. Make sure you have fully charged batteries for your radio, so you can stay informed about bushfire conditions and updates.

Tune your radio into the local ABC channel, for the best and most up to date local news.

Prepare your home. Clear gutters, remove debris and flammable materials from around your home. Remove fuel loads. This can help prevent a bushfire from spreading to your property. If you have a garden hose, make sure it’s long enough to reach all areas of your property.

During a Bushfire

When we think about fires, we think about avoiding the flames so we don’t get burned. But knowing how to survive a bushfire requires more knowledge than that. You also need to protect yourself from smoke and radiant heat.

Smoke can cause serious health problems, especially for children, the elderly, and people with respiratory issues.

Radiant heat is another bushfire risk to be aware of. Radiant heat can be felt 150 meters away from a bushfire and cause indirect burns to your body and skin. The best way to avoid it is to shelter behind something non-combustible.

In the chaos of a bushfire, a cool head and a clear plan can mean the difference between life and death.

Here are some tips to help you stay safe:

1. Stay calm and focused. Panic can cloud your judgment and make it harder to make good decisions.
2. Monitor the news and weather reports for updates on the fire’s movement and potential hazards.
3. If you are under threat from a bushfire, activate your bushfire survival plan or follow your evacuation plan.
4. Put on the protective items (clothes, masks, gloves, shoes) in your Bushfire Emergency Kit.
5. Cover your mouth and nose with a damp cloth to protect your lungs from smoke and ash.
6. Stay low to the ground to avoid inhaling smoke and to protect yourself from the intense heat.
7. Use any available water source to wet yourself down.
8. Cover up with a woollen blanket.

How to survive a bushfire outside

Just like the weather, bushfires are unpredictable. Which means your best laid bushfire evacuation plan may not come to pass. So it’s important you can adapt. And that you know what to in a bushfire, no matter what scenario you are confronted with.

If you are caught outside during a bushfire, here’s how to increase your chances of survival:

1. Move to safety: If you can move to a place of relative safety (like a clearing, or the beach) do so as quickly and safely as possible. Look for clear pathways and avoid areas with dense vegetation or other potential fuel sources . Stay away from powerlines, fallen trees, and other potential hazards.
2. Seek shelter: If you are caught in the open during a bushfire, seek some kind of shelter to protect you from direct flames. Look for a building or other structure that can provide protection from the flames. A shelter made of non combustible material is best. Examples are a brick or concrete building. You could also shelter in a ditch, or a large body of water.
3. Stay low: If you are unable to find shelter, try to stay as low to the ground as possible. This will help you avoid smoke and heat, which can be deadly during a bushfire.
4. Cover up: If there is a water source nearby, cover yourself with a wet blanket or wet clothing to protect yourself from the heat. This can help prevent burns and keep you cool.

Remember, knowing how to survive a bushfire outside requires quick thinking and a willingness to adapt. Use what is around you to protect yourself as best you can.

How to survive a bushfire in a car

Taking shelter in a car during a bushfire is not recommended. Your odds of surviving are only slightly higher than surviving one out in the open. If the car has direct contact with flames, it becomes immediately untenable to survive inside it.

Sheltering in a car is a last ditch, high-risk survival strategy.

There are some things you should do to avoid becoming trapped in a car, during a bushfire. The first thing is to have a bushfire evacuation plan. The second, is to execute that plan early. Get out and to a safe area before the fire warnings come.

Because people caught in cars during bushfires are often those trying to evacuate too late.

If you are caught in a car during a bushfire and have no other options, here’s what the latest research says to do, to give yourself the best chance of survival:

1. Park in an area clear of vegetation. If you can, park behind a wall or rocks.
2. Face the vehicle towards the fire front.
3. Securely close all windows and doors.
4. Turn the car off. Wind up the windows and shut the air vents.
5. Get down as low as you can in the car. You must at a minimum get below window level. The best position to be in is huddled down into the footwell of the car, if you can.
6. Cover up with a woollen blanket from head to toe. With any luck you will have grabbed your Bushfire Emergency Kit before you left home. Your kit should have a woollen blanket and water in it. A woollen blanket will help protect you from radiant heat, flames and noxious gases released as the car burns.

Studies have shown ambient temperatures in car to reach 300 degrees in a bushfire. That’s simply unsurvivable.

In the same car, the temperature in a footwell, under a woollen blanket was closer to 40 or 50 degrees. Most of us can survive that kind of heat.

How to defend your home

Defending your home during a bushfire is also pretty damn risky. You need to be very well-prepared, able bodied and ideally have experience in bushfire management. Fire services also suggest you need 2 able bodied persons working together to defend a property.

The first question to ask yourself is: Is my home defendable? It helps to have fire protection systems already installed in your home. Like steel window shutters, fire retardant construction materials (in sarking, roof cavities, walls, gutter guards, ember screens etc), back up power, dedicated water storage and water pumps.

Without these things, you’re likely fighting a losing battle to try to defend your home from a bushfire.

You also need to have a Bushfire Emergency Kit ready and to prepare your home before the bushfire hits, if you plan to stay and defend. Read this article for more tips on how to prepare for bushfires at home.

It’s almost always safer to evacuate early and let emergency services personnel handle the situation. But, if you are staying to defend your home, the experts recommend taking the following steps:

1. Have your Bushfire Emergency Kit handy.
2. Review your Bushfire Survival Plan.
3. Put on your protective gear from your kit.
4. Fill your gutters and downpipes with water.
5. Use your hose and sprinklers to hose down your roof and house.
6. Patrol for embers and extinguish them on landing – rake dirt over them, beat them with a wet rag or hose them out.
7. Turn on sprinklers to help fight embers.
8. Take shelter inside when you feel radiant heat on your ears and skin.
9. Close all windows and doors to your house.
10. Place wet towels to seal any gaps to the outside.
11. Take shelter away from windows, in an internal room. A concrete or brick room is best.

After a Bushfire

Rebuilding After a Bushfire: What You Need to Know.

Surviving a bushfire is just the beginning. The road to recovery can be long and difficult. Here are some of the things you should do, in the aftermath of a bushfire:

1. Reach out to family, friends, and neighbours for emotional and other support.
2. Reach out to charity organisations to help meet your immediate needs of food, shelter and clothing.
3. Contact your insurance company to start the claims process.
4. Seek professional counselling or therapy to process trauma and grief.
5. Apply for government assistance programs, such as emergency housing or financial aid.
6. Make sure your property is cleared for safety before you venture back in.
7. Collect and find storage for belongings from your home that made it through the fire.

Conclusion

Recap: how to survive a bushfire in Australia. Preparation, quick thinking, and a willingness to adapt can increase your chances of staying safe, no matter the scenario you’re faced with. Remember to make a bushfire survival plan or a bushfire evacuation plan and have a Bushfire Emergency Kit ready. Always evacuate as early as possible and carry a woollen blanket and spare water in your car in bushfire season. Only attempt to defend your home if you are well-prepared, your home is equipped and you have experience in bushfire management. During a bushfire, stay calm, follow your plan, and prioritize your safety. And finally reach out for support and resources to help you recover and rebuild afterwards.