UWA graduate Dr Anna Wright has a bushfire property management strategy for preparedness aftr finding herself deeply affected by the 2003 Canberra bushfires. Her bushfire bible is The Complete Austalian Bushfire Book compiled by Joan Webster.
Survivor stories include: A family who survived simply by getting under a woollen bed quilt which had been thoroughly soaked with water. They survived the passage of the fire though they lost their house. The importance of wet wool cannot be over-emphasised.
Anna shakes her head at news images of people fighting fires in shorts singlet and thongs! She has tailored the ultimate fire fighting fashion statement: a coat made from recycled woollen blanket. Complete with hood and Velcro fasteners it is designed to be worn sopping wet. Goggles mask and heavy duty gloves are stored in deep pockets and it all hangs in the porch…waiting.
Anna’s hills home has a two-storey skirt of aluminium mesh across the first floor back verandah and roll up blinds of the same material adorn every window. The evaporative air-conditioner sports a mesh cover. They are all but invisible. The mesh blinds have amazing properties in reducing radiant heat and preventing windows breaking and so keep embers from blowing in.
[It strikes me reading this that aluminium mesh is exactly what we need across our back windows in summer to stop the sun glare heating the house. Wonder where it can be gotten from.]