Building in Bushfire Prone Areas

Running Head: BUILDING IN BUSHFIRE PRONE AREAS
Building in Bushfire Prone Areas
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1BUILDING IN BUSHFIRE PRONE AREAS
The Black Saturday Bushfires in Victoria; it’s cause, aftermath and the
Victoria Royal Commission provision
On 7th February 2009, the Australian State of Victoria went suffered through a series of
bushfires, termed together as the Black Saturday bushfires because it happened on Saturday. It
can be taken as Australia’s worst bushfire tragedies. The main reason behind such disaster is
high bushfire weather condition which took away hundreds of lives from the heart of Australia.
In the bushfire, it has been surveyed that almost 180 people died, 414 were highly injured due to
the fire. There were 400 more fires subsequently on the day(abc.net 2018). Since then, taking
into consideration, the day and its aftermaths, the date is widely referred to as Australia’s Black
Saturday.
The structure of more than 3,500 buildings were completely devastated causing damage
to few places. The most affected towns were Kinglake, Narbethong, Flowerdale, Marysville,
Strathewen were highly damaged due to the event (Orr 2018). The reasons behind such fires can
be attributed to the climate change in Australia in summer 2009. It has been surveyed that the
temperature of Melbourne broke records by exceeding 45 degrees Celsius (113.2 degrees F) on
30th January, considered to be the third hottest day in the History of Australia (Orr 2018). The
southeast part of Australia where the majority of population resides is susceptible to fires. This
area experiences the Mediterranean weather, rainy in winter and hot-dry inn summer. Rains help
to grow greenery but the parching heat waves and draughts invite fires. The strong wind helped
to spread the fire around.
It has been observed that most of the houses which were within 100 meters of the
bushlands were burnt down and the houses which were within the 700 meters of the bushlands

2BUILDING IN BUSHFIRE PRONE AREAS
got affected by some way or the other. First of all, the building premises needs to be kept clear
up to 40 meters (Kelly et al. 2016). Having less shrubs around will reduce the propensity to catch
fire. The garden should also be kept clean of dry leaves and the plants should be regularly
watered to avoid dryness within the leaves (Cao, Boruff and McNeill 2015). The roofs of the
houses are not supposed to be made of fire-leaned materials. It is better to use concrete roofs.
The modern fire shelter can also be used as survival safeguard. It is made of two layers of
aluminum and silica between the air gap. It absorbs the convective heat and reflects the radiant
heat and protects the user from fire.
The disaster like Black Saturday bushfires became a catalyst for the Victoria Royal
Commission to change some strategies. The commission decided to examine the surroundings of
the State of Australia. The final report helped by spreading the bushfire warnings identifying the
risk, by distributing the knowledge among masses of how to relocate under such fire conditions.
The ‘stay or go’ policy enables the majority to stay or leave since not all houses can defend fire
(Handmer and O’Neill 2016). A special technique to build houses in bushfire prone areas is
provisioned by the Victorian government. These steps would be helpful in eradicating further
damages and deaths caused by bushfires.
Wye River/Separation Creek fires; the scenario, the cause, intensity of loss
and the success/failure of the Bushfire construction provision
The location of Separation Creek is in the coastal area of Shire of Colac Otway, Victoria,
Australia. It is a small village situated on the Great Ocean Road, which also connects Wye river
with the place. On 25th December of 2015, the Wye river bushfire burst out and rapidly spread
out all over the place. The fire probably sprang up from a lightning strike (theguardian.com