Wendy

Last I heard was that neighbours had seen her and the kids go back to the house. The house didn't survive, and although not confirmed they believe his family are dead.

I hope someone else has had some news since and I am wrong though.

Geelong Gent

My daughters school has a bunker in their campsite and can house about 300 of which the cost was less than $400k

We are about to start on a basement (so similar costings) for less than $100k and it will be 175sqm at a depth of 3 metres.

I think therefore that it should be cost effective (perhaps a FHBG like grant for home owners in the bush?)

jad n rich

Oh no

Wendy

News about funding from the Government:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/...aster-victims/

jad n rich

On the bunker subject, In qld many estates/councils now require water tanks as part of the building code. Often people dont like the look of them, so huge tanks are dug in, under the house, quite common.

Its not that costly if done at excavation, ( well unless you have a load of rock, etc ) if that can be included in the building code, they could easily enforce bunkers. I guess the problem was ( up till now ) people just didnt believe how fast/huge/dangerous/unpredictable bush fires are.

Wendy

Just been looking and found the following clip. They have found up to 9 bodies in the house as they had sprinklers installed and it was considered one of the safest houses in the area.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/play...7lifestyle&ch=

Geelong Gent

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news...ectid=10555940

Kiwis from Whakatane

jad n rich

Watched the Sam update, thanks poor man, so many tragedies, but he just stuck in my mind as he seemed so hopeful they were still up there alive.

Wendy

I know, poor guy. There's just nothing you can say is there, words just don't seem to cut it.

dalhousie

Thee velocity of these fires was staggering, and has brought back vividly, the horror of the Ash Wednesday fires. And watching the poor victims on television has been heart wrenching, and quite terrifying.

The CFA has for a number of years made fire fighting experts available in our community to give talks and advice on how to survive a bushfire. Preparing the property, what to do before and when the fire front approaches, and what to do after the front passes and this advice has been invaluable. The CFA offers a crucial amount of advice, information and assistance to people living in high risk areas, but this is not always taken up by the public. We have attended many pre-fire season information sessions and in all cases less that ten people have turned up to the meetings and this is in a town of 900 permanent residents, with a very large weekend population, and where the Ash Wednesday fires went raging through in ’83.

If there is a fire in our area, we will stay; it would be suicidal to try and travel into a town 20 minutes drive away through a heavily forested area. We consider we have made a good effort to protect our lives and property to the best of our ability, We know we cannot expect any immediate assistance from the CFA, as they will have their hands filled protecting the township. However we feel safer on our property – with the measures we have taken – than we would in the township and would definitely resist being forced to leave

Our fire bunker cost us around $2000. It was dug into clay and it’s unlined. After 18 months the walls are still damp. We worked with an experienced “bunker” builder and the costs were as follows:

Bunker Builders wages (one week) $1400.00
Cost of digging the hole by a backhoe operator approximately $500.00.
Scoria for the spoon drain around the perimeter of the roof cost $20.00.
We cut down a large tree from the property for the roof beams.
We already had roofing iron spare on the site and we used the soil from the excavation for the final roof covering. We used an ordinary heavy duty door covered with corrugated iron as an entrance door. As the door was underground it did not need to be fireproof. My husband worked for a week with the bunker builder and probably another week or so after that putting in the door and the steps (cut into the clay) down to the bunker entrance. The bunker is 3.5m x 4m and 2.6m deep. The roof is about a metre below the level of the driveway so actually the bunker is 3.6m into the ground.

There is plenty of air in this bunker for a few hours, you only need to be in a bunker for 15 or so minutes, under “normal circumstances” (if you could call a bushfire normal) But with a fire the ferocity of this recent one it may be longer. One thing you have to be aware of in a bunker of this type is, when it‘s not in use always leave the door open. This allows the air to circulate. Iron is used as part of the construction and it can rust and of course the rust will use up the oxygen in the enclosed space.

I don’t really know what the price would be if you had it professionally built, but ours is fine. It’s deep and cool and I feel safe with it.

dalhousie

emelems

Is there a list or anything compiled or due to be compiled so people can check if someone is missing?

Em x

moneypenny20

Last I heard there was just a phone number to ring to find people but you have to hang on for ages obviously.

Geelong Gent

Thanks for that very interesting on your bunker build.

Any idea what time frame maximum one could use? ie too account for the house above and besides to be burnt to the ground?

Was wondering if a sprinkler system mounted through the centre of the house to keep the roof and subsequent external walls would be effective? Hence question of time to see how much water flow would be required?

Wendy

Didn't work for poor Sam's family and friends (see video above where you posted the news article to same story of the NZ woman who died). They all went to her house because they had sprinklers, but they all perished - up to 9 people were in there.

Geelong Gent

Perhaps more than sprinklers were needed?