This post is sponsored by Nuffnang.
As soon as we drove up and over the little hill, out of suburbia and towards home, I saw it: a big column of brown and grey smoke rising from the far side of the mountain.
I caught my breath as I tried to continue making conversation with my kids, not wanting to frighten them at this stage. I debated silently whether I should pull over and check the FireReady App to find out more about the fire, or just keep going home, and decide what to do from there.
We were only ten minutes from home so I kept driving, and kept talking, but I was also making a mental list of things I needed to do when we got back.
What things were already in our fire ready box and what did I need to add?
When and how do I tell the kids? I know they are already anxious about fires, but better to prepare them early than rush them right?
And most importantly…. will we leave? And if so when?
We live on ten acres, surrounded mostly by grassed paddocks and a handful of other houses. We are about 8kms from the base of very heavily forested mountain range. The talk in our small town is not about ‘if’ the mountain will burn, but ‘when’. So we’ve been preparing for the potential of a fire since the moment we moved here, but when faced with the very real possibility it is always scary.
We are prepared to stay and fight if we absolutely have to, but our fire plan is to leave, and to leave early.
But knowing when to stay and wait and watch, and when to leave, is a question that haunts me constantly.
And it haunted me as we arrived home and I checked the FireReady App, and looked at the wind, and put on the radio.
It haunted me as I made dinner and quietly packed the last few essentials into our fire ready box.
It haunted me as I texted a friend in the city to double check they would be ok for visitors if we decided to go and as I jumped on twitter to get some more information from locals and @CFA_Updates
How do I know when is the right time to leave?
I know we want to leave early. The thought of driving through fire, or ember attack, or even smoke, scares the pants off me. Fires can move fast, roads get closed and I want to be far, far away by the time any of that is anywhere near our house.
As I am often home alone with the kids my husband and I sat down and decided on some cut off points to help me make the decision if I ever needed to.
“If there is fire here, here or here, just leave.”
“If there is fire here or here and the wind is blowing in this direction, or it is a severe fire day, just leave.”
“If there is fire anywhere within a 50km radius watch and be ready to leave.”
These are not hard and fast rules, they may not be perfect, and they won’t work for everyone, but we need to make the best possible decision for our family based on our own needs and local information.
We can’t rely on someone else to tell us what to do so it helps me to have already sat down and discussed our options and made some decisions well ahead of time. Not having to make the decision in the moment, when I am anxious and already second guessing myself, is important – planning and being fire ready is really important.
The wind changed at around dinner time that night and pushed the fire back on itself so the fire fighters were able to contain it, and any risk to us passed. I kept an eye on the CFA web site and an ear on the radio throughout the night and breathed a sigh of relief as I heard rain falling as I finally went to bed.
As I sit here and type this the fire is still burning in some places not too far away from us, so we are still watching, we still have our fire box packed and we are still ready to leave if we need to.
Do you have a fire plan?
How do you decide when is the right time to leave?
For more information and to keep up to date on any fires in Victoria check out the CFA Website, their facebook page and follow them on twitter. Or check local fire services in your area.
{disclosure: I was compensated for writing this post.}
A very important message. Stay safe.
We live right next to state park and on any hot windy day we watch the CFA app closely. We have priority boxes – one that travels with us whenever no one is home, another 3 that are ready to be put in the car and then another 3 empty boxes for if we have more time to pack more. So far this summer both cars have been packed full just once but we didn’t leave as the wind changed.
The hardest thing is how to explain what is happening to our five year old.
One piece of advice that I was given was to take something with your address on it – so that after a fire has passed you can be let back into your area by the police.
That is a great tip!
In our fire ready box we have all kinds of documents, plus someone told me to take photos of various important documents and store them somewhere safe so we have emailed some images to my parents who store them on their EHD for safe keeping
I think you are very wise with your plan.
But OMG if the worst were to happen to your house I swould totally weep with you for that beautiful kitchen!
Seriously hoping it doesn’t come to that.
I know! LOL
So many people have asked us if we would really be ok to walk away after we have spent so many years and so much hard work on our (not yet finished) house. And yep… we’d be devastated to loose our house, and my dutiful bench top especially, making that decision and walking away is part of choosing to live where we live… so let’s hope it never happens!
A wise plan. Things are only things. Stay safe. xxx
Oh my goodness. I can hardly begin tio imagine how stressful it must be living with that threat day to day. Stay safe.
Im glad you have a plan and are safe kate.
We live in semi rural, lots of houses all around – but we still had a grass fire scare very very near our house over the holidays. I still remember how scary it was for all of us.
Wow, that’s so scary. We don’t have fire issues out here, just tornados. I think the fire thing is scarier….
Even the idea of a tornado scares me! I guess it is all about what you know and are prepared for!
Kate, that’s so frightening. I think you are doing all the right things to be cautious. It’s just not worth the risk
Scary stuff. I would love to know what sort of this you pack in your fire ready box. Have you done a post on that?
Our ‘always packed’ box has important documents, first aid kit, bottles of water, winding torches and a change of underwear and long sleeved, covering clothes for everyone. We also have space in that box for the things we’ll need to chuck in last minute like medications, the external hard drive and the digital radio.
We also have another box with the plan to add the things we’d like to take if we have time, but are not essentials – so things like laptop, ipad, chargers, snacks, games/books etc.
On the two occasions this season that we’ve had a mild risk we’ve made sure our first box was ready to go and pottered around filling the second box as we checked on conditions and waited to make the final decision.
You can also read more about it at Super Kawaii Mama who also wrote a sponsored post for this series – here’s is on exactly this topic. http://www.superkawaiimama.com.au/2013/02/25/how-fire-ready-are-you-what-to-prepare-and-pack/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+com%2FIuOQ+%28Super+Kawaii+Mama+2.0%29
oh I should add that all of our printed/paper photos are already stored at my parent’s house in the city. We store all other digital images on our EHD (as well as copies on CD at my parents) which we plan to take if we can.
Thank you so much for taking the time to share Kate. This is really helpful information.
Hi Kate, we had the same situation about a week ago, we have the same plans as you. To me stuff is just stuff and you can get it back. But knowing when to leave and when to wait is the hardest part, also difficult when you don’t want to upset the kids, mine are already very aware of fires and it kinda freaks them out.
It is really hard knowing what and when to tell the kids.
My big kids are all hyper aware of fire danger because they practice their bushfire plan at school and know that they won’t be at school on severe or code red days… so we’ve found being upfront and honest is best, even though I wish I could just not say anything as usually it ends up as a non-event, thankfully.