Fire Danger: Leaving Early on Extreme/Code Red Days WIth Preschoolers

[Miss.September]

My DH is the same. Previously I argued with him about "where to?" It is all well and good to tell people to leave, but there are many with no where to go. It would be great if one of the safer areas opened up the local sports stadium or similar on those days. I would even pay for somewhere like that.

DH and I had extremely heated discussions about this. My arguement was that many people live around their families, so potentially their safe spots, being family and friends' homes would also be in danger. He said that they could go to the shopping centre, etc. I responded with asking about pets. What are you supposed to do? Sit in the car on a stinking hot day? Safer than being in a fire, but dangerous in it's own regard. We have never come to a conclusion.

OP/ZF - You are always welcome to come to me. And if mine isn't safe, my dad lives in Glen Waverley, so you and the kids are welcome there too

[Emma09]

I second that OP.
And also you too PAC.



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[OceanPrincess]

Aw. Love you gals. Likewise Pac.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Awww thanks hun, same here to you girls, plenty of room for pets aswell here. Your always welcome!


Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

[HotI]

you can look up your town 'town protection plan' on the cfa website. There is one for Woodend, and the 3 recomended evacuation places are sunbury (37km) melb (69km) or bendigo (82km).

[Kazbah]

Our plan is to take everyone to our SiL's house (with a granny flat at the back!) including animals. On hot days, it's to go to the local library - 100m from home - and enjoy the aircon. If anyone's in the Yarra Ranges, please contact me, it'd be great to liaise - specially with animals.

[Ginger]

Hey Emma can I ask how you set the cfa app to send warnings about fires near your home? I have the app on my iPhone but can't work out how to do it. Thanks

[Emma09]

Ginger- PacRacMG's lovely DH set mine up for me....
I'm hoping he can give us some instructions through PAC???

[Miss.September]

No problems. I'll get him to post in a little while.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I just set my fire watch zone, it says it will use push notifications to advise within 5km of me.

In the top left, the second icon, click it then click fire watch zones, click add zone then use the map to set the zones, I zoomed in right to my address.



Sent from my iPhone, more than likely while I should be doing something else!

[fionas]

you can look up your town 'town protection plan' on the cfa website. There is one for Woodend, and the 3 recomended evacuation places are sunbury (37km) melb (69km) or bendigo (82km).

Thanks HotI! That's interesting because the CFA told us Kyneton or Gisborne for nearby places and those are both closer than Sunbury. I've ruled out Melbourne pretty much because I'm a new driver and have driven there once on NYE. Getting there is fine, getting around the city will be stressful for me because I'm not used to driving in city traffic. Bendigo is do-able though.

[Miss.September]

I just set my fire watch zone, it says it will use push notifications to advise within 5km of me.

In the top left, the second icon, click it then click fire watch zones, click add zone then use the map to set the zones, I zoomed in right to my address.

Yep, that's it. On mine, I have my house and also my mum's place. You can do multiple zones which might be helpful if you have multiple escape routes - will make it easier if you know in advance that one is blocked by fire (but not necessarily by a fallen tree or something IYKWIM).

[LionsandBears]

Can you do a fire drill type thing? Maybe put an emergency bag together and plan a drive to Sunbury or whatever. It will make you more familiar with the drive and see what works or doesn't.

[fionas]

Can you do a fire drill type thing? Maybe put an emergency bag together and plan a drive to Sunbury or whatever. It will make you more familiar with the drive and see what works or doesn't.

Have half-done the emergency bag and planning a drill on Weds. It's not the drive to nearby places that concerns me it's what to do for the entire day once we're there. On Code Red days, we'll be gone early in the morning and won't be returning until after dinner - that's a long time to entertain a 4-year-old and 1-year-old and the nearby places don't have places like caravan parks that we can stay in.

On Severe Days I'll monitor the situation and go to somewhere nearby (Sunbury, Kyneton or Gisborne) if there's a fire within a bulls roar of here. On Extreme Days, I'm not sure ATM whether to monitor or do the same as for Code Red days and just go to a caravan park/motel in a regional centre. DP says monitor but I'm not really comfortable with that - easier said than done to be checking the CFA website and listening to the radio when you're busy with two littlies. And I don't altogether trust the CFA warning system.

[HotI]

do you know anyone in the CFA who can give you a heads up if their pager goes off with something in the area?

[fionas]

No - we're fairly new to the area and TBH they'd have much higher priorities than us even if we did know someone. We're in an extreme fire danger area BUT we're on the edge of town in a fairly suburban street. About 1-2km from us is where the small acreage/heavily forested area is and those are the houses that would be in the firing line.

[fionas]

Sorry - semi-obsessed with this ATM as this is the first fire season we've faced.

I'm just confused by the "leave early" message. Code Red days are no-brainers - we'll be off without monitoring to see if there are any local fires. But on Extreme and Severe days - what does "leave early" mean? Does it mean monitor and watch and if so how close does a fire need to be before getting out? I looked up info that told me that wildfires can travel up to 10km/h and grassfires (which are the bigger threat this sesaon) can travel at 22km/h. So does that make "early" anything within a 25km radius. I'm fairly happy with that as I don't want to be in a situation where I have to actively monitor every five minutes. Too stressful. I'd rather just get out.

Have put in a call to the CFA for clarification.

[Miss.September]

If it was me personally, I'd be looking at how many exit routes I have and what the wind was doing. If I had numerous ways to leave my street and area, then I would feel fairly confident in staying put, listening to the radio, but being ready to go if need be. If the winds were high, then I'd probably be a bit more anxious. Fire might travel faster, trees might fall and block routes. But if it was one way in or out, then I'd treat it as a code red day and leave early.