by Janette Peel

Created on: December 20, 2008   Last Updated: March 08, 2012

Wildfires can be a most frightening experience when it is threatening your home and family. Being prepared with a properly planned and managed garden, you may actually reduce the potential damage and go a long way to fire-proofing you house from wildfires.

Designing and managing the vegetation around your home can be the difference between loosing your house to wildfires or not. Houses usually burn down as a result of sparks and embers landing on your house and sparking fires. You can improve the chances of your home surviving wildfires by following these simple safety tips.

Fire safety tips to survive:

Position low fuel areas around the house. Driveways, pools, green lawns, graveled areas or cultivated soils can help protect your home

Plant trees away from the house so branches will not hang over the roof and drop leaves in the gutters that will ignite if burning embers come in contact with them. Endeavor to keep trees and shrubs two meters apart to discourage a continuous canopy which could carry fire to the house. Regularly clear the gutters and eaves.

Consider the direction of the wind as this indicates the most likely direction from which the wildfires approach. Now plant trees to provide a non-flammable windbreak where the fires are expected to come from. This will reduce the wind near the house decreasing the fire's intensity and the rate at which it spreads. It will also intercept burning embers carried by the wind.

Ensure good access to water for fighting wildfires.

Plan well in advance for the safety of all family members, young, elderly, disabled or visitors. Be organized and pre-packed. Decide who goes and who remains, where you will stay, how you will travel and how you will make the decision to leave.

If you stay ensure everyone wears protective clothing and footwear. Drink plenty of water, tie a handkerchief over your mouth and nose and use wet towels to hang around your neck.

Fill baths, sinks and buckets with water for extinguishing small fires and for drinking.

Listen to the radio for news of the fire's progress, rather than calling emergency services.

Keep heavy-duty torches handy and make sure you check their batteries.

Ensure all hoses have heavy-duty wide spray nozzles.

Keep a list of fire and emergency numbers near each phone in the house.

Reduce fire fuel:

Your trees and plants provide fuel for fires. However, it is the finer fuels such as dry grass, leaves and twigs that act as a conduit connecting the fire with other fuel sources.

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