Fire & Emergencies

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Video: Kelwyn White from the RFS tells you the preparation basics – watch the short video here.

Rosedale’s terrifying 2019-20 bushfire taught us important lessons: the safest options is to LEAVE EARLY. But the more you have prepared your home, the more likely it will survive a bushfire or ember attack. 

Here are some hard-learned tips on how to protect your home…

Before the season

• Arrange for the removal of branches that overhang power lines and your house.
• Rake leaf litter, bark and twigs well away from walls and from under your house
• Install metal flyscreens on all windows and vents.
• Install metal gutter guards and have plugs available to block downpipes.
• Install roof sprinklers. 
• Select fire resistant and retardant plants for your garden.
• Locate garden beds away from your house. Keep a well-maintained area around the house and sheds. Use stones or pebbles for landscaping near the house instead of mulch.
• Avoid wooden fences. 
• Store flammable items like petrol, gas cylinders, wood stacks and paint away from the house. Direct the pressure valves of gas cylinders away from your house.
• Have hoses that are long enough to reach around your house with good quality spray nozzles.
• If you have a pool or water tank. put a Static Water Supply (SWS) sign on your property entrance, so firefighters know where they can get water
• Ensure your home and contents insurance is adequate and paid up.
• Prepare and emergency survival kit.

When fire is predicted

• Clear and remove all debris from the roof and gutters. Burning embers that land in gutters can set your home on fire. Have gutter plugs accessible so that gutters can be filled with water. 
• Block any gaps in windows, doors and cladding where embers can enter the house.
• Fill water tanks. Prepare fire pumps and ready sturdy hoses that will reach all the way around your home. Place super-soakers or buckets of water with dippers at each corner of the house to put out embers which land on the ground.  
• Charge mobile phones and other devices. Check the batteries in your portable radio.
• Remove combustible material from around and under your home, e.g. door mats, wood stacks, leaves, paint, jerry cans, outdoor furniture, plastic pots, pet beds and children’s play equipment. 
• Check that everyone understands your Bushfire Survival Plan.

Planning for an Emergency is a guide adapted from the Tomakin Associations guide and updated for Rosedale after the New Year’s Eve fires. Download it here.

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Bushfire Alert Levels indicate the level of threat from a fire. Remember – don't wait for a warning. Some fires start and spread so quickly there may not be any time for a warning. If you get a Bush Fire Alert, take it seriously – don’t risk death or injury to you or your family.
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Our independent fire officer provides advice on how Rosedale should manage fire risk and how we should invest the generous GoFundMe and community donations after the 2019 New Year’s Eve fire. 

The fire officer has set up a group of community volunteers (dubbed the ‘Rosedale Rovers’). The volunteers will not fight any future fire front – that’s a matter for the professionals, the Rural Fire Service. Malua Bay Rural Fire Brigade is providing training in equipment and fire safety, so that the volunteers are ready to assist firefighters in the mop up after a fire. A small band of locals worked for weeks after our fires putting out smouldering logs or mulch.

We’ve invested in a number of firefighting pumps, fire reels and water tanks that can be fitted on utes and trailers. The tanks are housed in a shipping container at the end of Tranquil Bay Place, filled and laid out around South and North Rosedale in October each year and stored again the following May.

If phone and internet collapse again in an emergency, we now have a number of UHF radios to help us communicate. Until those donated UHFs came we resorted to notice boards, word of mouth and a vehicle patrol with tooting horns! 

Our close relationship and regular communication with the RFS mean we can continue to send members advice by email or newsletter about fire protection.

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