Sad news comes our way today- and we’d hate to be bummers right after the Christmas season but bushfires continue to ravage the country, with the coming heat wave this weekend threatening to aggravate situations further.
If you are by any chance living in NSW or south-eastern Australia, make sure that you’re all prepped up for any bushfire related incidents in your area.
We’ve done a blog post related to the bushfires, and this guide should help you prep up and stay safe during one such event
We have a couple more recommendations to help keep you safe and help you prepare for so many different things that could happen in a bushfire, especially if you’re in a vehicle.
#1 Leave early
Bushfires can rage for days on end and will consume everything in sight. Make sure that you have all your gear prepped up in your vehicle, and your aforementioned vehicle is also all well-prepared.
For that, you should leave days before the fires start raging in your area’s general vicinity; make sure you keep an eye on your local news alerts and your local government’s alerts related to the fires.
We mentioned it before, but make sure that your tires are of the right condition- make sure you have a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) that can monitor the temperature of your tires, along with its inflation level. Make sure that you have spares before leaving as well- you wouldn’t want to be stranded before an actual bushfire.
#2 Pack The Essentials
A battery-operated radio, a thick wool blanket and plenty of bottled water, along with some canned food goes a long way. Make sure that you keep this in your vehicle if you live in a fire-prone area, and make sure that your vehicle is in good condition at all times.
These essentials might very well save your life, so take extra care and attention to packing these things.
#3 Make sure that you have a strong lighting solution
Fire means smoke. And if you’ve noticed, plenty of areas in the country are engulfed in so much smoke that it’s even tough to go outside.
With smoke comes decreased visibility, and that’s one of the biggest problems when it comes to driving away from the fires, even during the day.
If you’d like to pierce through the smoke created by the fires, make sure that you have a strong lighting solution for your car. Installing extra mounted LED lights can help and if your budget allows for it, do check out our laser driving lights that can pierce a great amount of distance even in inclement weather conditions, and even in very thick smoke.
Being able to see in such a weather condition is imperative to survival, and make sure that you’re getting the best when it comes to vehicular lighting if you’re living in such an area.
#4 Stay tuned to the news even when driving
A reliable car DVD player that enhances the digital signal of any radio station you tune in to is great to have but is not entirely necessary; but do make sure that you have an alternative method of reaching the outside world for news.
Make sure that you have a battery-operated radio for when you need to turn off your car’s engine to ensure your safety, but still need to hear about local news.
Here are but a few of our recommendations, but don’t forget to always check your government’s local website or social media feed for updates.
For more general guides on how to survive bushfires and how to stay safe, make sure to check these following websites:
https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/plan-prepare/staying-safe-in-the-car
bushfirecrc.com/sites/default/files/managed/resource/fire-note-8-vehicles.pdf
https://www.cfs.sa.gov.au/site/prepare_for_a_fire/preparing_yourself_for_a_bushfire.jsp
https://www.cfs.sa.gov.au/site/prepare_for_a_fire/emergency_kits.jsp
