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Grant Council to discuss fire bunkers

Posted on October 28, 2009, 7:07am and updated on October 29, 2009 at 7:28 am

Potential development of private fire bunkers will be on the agenda for next week’s Grant District Council meeting with the State Government anticipating a step-up in development of the facilities.

Department of Planning and Local Government chief executive Ian Nightingale has written to council, warning there are no recognised standards for the shelters.

The State Government’s bushfires taskforce handed down 63 recommendations in August aimed at improving South Australia’s preparedness to manage future bushfire risks.

A key recommendation was providing councils with assistance in dealing with enquiries associated with development of bunkers.

“Since the Victorian bushfires there has been considerable interest in bunkers because of survival stories in the media,” Mr Nightingale wrote.

“However, there were also a number of people who died in bunkers in the Victorian fires.”

He said a national building standard for bushfire bunkers was still at least six months away, but has supplied council with cautionary notes to assist local government with enquiries in the meantime.

“The cautionary note is designed to clearly advise members of your community that the construction of a bunker cannot provide a guaranteed safe refuge from a bushfire,” Mr Nightingale wrote.

“However, if construction is being considered then they need to understand that this is a very complex area of building development and should involve qualified building professionals that have some knowledge in bushfire behaviour, structural and building design and materials and fittings that are fire resistant.”

Grant District Council chief executive Russell Peate said the notes would be discussed at Monday’s meeting.

However, he said council had not received any applications for development of bunkers.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said, explaining council would liaise with the CFS and authorities if permission was sought for a fire shelter in the area.

“Maybe with the greenness still here, people don’t see the threat yet,” he said.

Spokespersons for Wattle Range and Glenelg Shire councils said they had also received no applications for development of fire bunkers.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Grant Council to discuss fire bunkers”

  1. Robert Stewart on October 28th, 2009 9:21 am 1

    Mr. Nightingale has listed the bureaucratic specifications but has forgotten the 50 hour survival pack of food water and the most valuable of all — compressed air. There is a fire bunker subject on Forum describing the death of the mother and her 2 children who jumped into the swimming pool and died, not from drowning, but from asphyxiation because the fire consumed the oxygen

  2. Robert Stewart on October 28th, 2009 9:29 am 2

    As a former Consulting Engineer to Insurers in Asia for many years, I suggest the Council get a fire underwriters opinion as part of deliberations as to what the specifications should be for insurance cover. Some of the bigger fire companies already have them but I am not at liberty to suggest anyone..

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