Homeowners as Firefighters
Here is a short article from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. It is about allowing homeowners to stay and protect their homes from fires instead of evacuating.
The ACT Volunteer Fire Brigades Association says healthy, well-prepared people should be allowed to stay and defend their homes from bushfires.The Government has rejected a call by Civil Liberties Australia to change laws that make it an offence for people to stay and defend their homes when ordered by police to leave.
The association's Pat Barling says many houses were saved during the 2003 bushfires by home owners who stayed behind.
I've never really put much thought into a question like this. Here are a few things that come to mind:
1) People need to realize that if they stay behind to protect their property, the fire service can't guarantee their safety.
2) Firefighters spend many hours preparing themselves and their equipment to meet the challenges of wildland fires. How much training will the homeowners have and will they be prepared? My guess is that most of them will not be trained or prepared.
3) Will people that stay behind cause problems that will impact the safety of the firefighters?
If a homeowner has some training, has purchased the proper equipment and PPE, and has prepared their property to mitigate fire damage, then I don't see why they couldn't stay to protect their property.
Any thoughts from the readers?
UPDATE: Here is a post from a blog called debitage on this subject. Read it.
