Fire risk tips

In this video clip, Grant Pearce from Scion’s Rural Fire Research Group at the University of gives fire safety advice to people going into rural areas.

Point of interest: What are some key things you can do to reduce fire risk in rural areas?

Transcript

GRANT PEARCE
If people are going out into rural areas, either tramping or camping, there are some key things they can do to be much more fire conscious and limit the chances of perhaps lighting a fire and it getting away on them.

They should just be cautious about the use of fire. They should check what the fire restrictions are in an area before they go into that area and see whether they are allowed to light fires or, in fact, whether there is a total fire ban in place.

If they are lighting fires, they should, wherever possible, use designated fireplaces, such as around picnic areas and campgrounds, and if they do have to build their own campfire, then they should make sure that that fire is fully extinguished once they are finished, and in particular, they should take the efforts of dousing that with a billy of water or whatever. When you are building a campfire where there is not designated fireplace then, yes, you should make every effort to clear all flammable material from an area of several metres around the fire and even try to contain the burning embers to an area by placing stones in a circle around.

Acknowledgement:
Edward McMullin