[LINK] No cash for phone alert system

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2009-02-18 at 14:53 +1100, Birch, Jim wrote:
> escape routes.  The radiant heat levels and force of the ember attack
> make firefighting impossible and houses to burn so quickly that they may
> not provide a temporary refuge from the fire front.

Except that they generally do - even when preparation is poor and time
to execute plans very short. Dixon's tale is a classic case in point.

He made LOTS of mistakes. Why wasn't the firepump already running? The
house already wet? Plastic buckets?!? Plastic garden hoses?!? No hoses
inside the house? No smoke masks inside the house? Keys not in the cars?
No gloves to hand? Cars not parked for a quick getaway?

Well, no-one can think of everything; I'd probably do no better.

And in spite of it all, in spite of the mistakes, he'd done enough,
prepared enough. The fire came and went and he and his family survived.
Because they had a plan, they worked around the bits that went awry, and
the house lasted long enough. It lasted just long enough. The plan
worked and they survived.

What an experience. What a brave, brave family.

Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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