Hi Jordan, any chance of more details of your bunker please. Is it a shipping container buried under dirt or an underground nuclear threat type of bunker?
Kryn
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Hi Jordan, any chance of more details of your bunker please. Is it a shipping container buried under dirt or an underground nuclear threat type of bunker?
Kryn
It seems we have something in common, I'm a Brigade Chief of a volunteer fire brigade. You are dead right that most homes burn down post fire front and as you would no doubt realise preparedness is the key - fuel modified zones, hazard reduction burning and basic fire fighting equipment on hand. One thing we seem to have in our favour in Tassie is that our councils are more open to hazard mitigation - I've heard some of the mainland councils are absolute idiots when it comes to removal of vegetation.
I got a bit concerned about your plans before I knew you actually had some idea of what you were letting yourself in for.
It's a reinforced concrete block cube set into the sloping ground a few metres from the house.
There's 60cm of concrete, Hebel block and earth above the ceiling. I might increase it.
I checked out some other bunkers around here, including a commercial one based on a concrete water tank.
That is buried almost to the top of the tank, and has an horizontal hatch entry and steel ladder.
I think it could be safer, as in the heat of the moment people might rush to get into it, and get hurt if they fall down the ladder.
So mine has a side entry door.
Am definitely in the "leave and live" camp.
We simply are not present on the high risk days.
Cannot see the point in risking our lives in order to save the insurance company some money.
Having said that, can see that if something snuck up and surprised us, then some sort of bunker could be useful.
One of my neighbours got his 15 minutes of fame 10 years ago by using the area in between his concrete water tanks as a bunker where he retreated whilst the fire came over https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUtI1luHoeYer - meanwhile we had skedaddled at the first sign of smoke on the horizon, and ever since 2009 we don't wait to see smoke on the horizon, we just leave early in the morning on the high risk days.
Definitely - after 2009 fires we had a massive humugous dead tree that was clearly going to be an ongoing hazard dropping branches and blocking our driveway - arborist condemmed it but the local council pulled rank and told us to get an arborist to hollow out the biggest branches to create a habitat for wildlife. We couldn't believe this decision but decided to play along to show willing.
The various arborists we talked to fell about laughing saying that the job was both impossible to do and even if it was possible to create those habitats somehow, it would be too dangerous to be working up in that tree - took a long long time - approx 1 year - for the council to admit they were wrong and give us permission to fell the dead tree. Required discussion at monthly council meetings with our case being argued by an experienced arborist.
I will stop ranting now - you hit a nerve with that comment - gonna go and calm down a bit. Yes lotsa stupidities in the vegetation/fires/ local council / permits to chop down a tree >4" thick area.
That's about what I thought. Strange how the officious bureaucrats are never around when it hits the fan though. I feel the same frustration when working with Parks and Wildlife on a bushfire, it takes hours of negotiation and procrastination to reach a decision, by which time, the window of opportunity and the fire front are long gone.
I installed butterfly sprinklers on my roof and I'll be staying. No way am I going to fry in my car because some idiot has jack-knifed his horse float in the middle of the road. Where I live we are unlikely to get enough warning to leave early.