TheBanyanTree: The edge of the inferno

[Peter Macinnis]

On 12/01/2013 18:11, Janice Money wrote:
> For a moment there I thought Peter might have been talking about property
> owners being allowed to carry out cool weather burn offs to reduce the fuel
> loads on their farms and along the road sides.  Now I'm not so sure.


I'm not so sure about property owners doing their own clearing, but the 
land managed much better under firestick farming, over many thousands of 
years.  Fuel reduction in some form is absolutely essential as a first 
step, but with smaller properties at least, it needs to be done on a 
larger scale than single properties.

The point is that we need mosaic burning as much as control lines: small 
fires let the wild animals escape, and it maintains habitats, because 
our plants all have ways of regenerating after fire.  The biggest need, 
though, is for better engineering.

In danger areas, you need sprinklers on the outside, using shielded 
pumps and water supplies, steel shutters to hold off the radiant heat, 
and a great deal more.  I have a cousin who has a house on an exposed 
point at Wentworth Falls (Blue Mountains, Australia), and I have looked 
over their system.  So, incidentally, have enough of the neighbours and 
local Rural Fire Service people for the good engineering ideas to be 
known, and for others to set the system running at a time of need.

Not every place needs the cousins' level of protection, but some homes 
do.  It's science, technology and engineering.  With just a touch of 
architecture.

peter