New guidelines for building bushfire-prone areas

摘要

Fire protection is a very important part of bushfire mitigation and takes two broad forms. Active systems comprise the application of "water, generally, by either manual or automatic means. Manual application can be by either the fire brigades or property owners during the bushfire, but there is a certain degree of risk associated to people untrained in fighting fires. Automatic means can be by water sprinklers or sprayers and although there is a range of systems in use, there are currently no Standards covering these for bushfire application. The second form is the application of passive systems and this involves design and construction of buildings located in bushfire -prone areas. Australian Standard AS 3959, Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas, has been under development for some 22 years and is intended to prevent the entry of burning embers from entering a building or accumulating in such a way that would promote ignition. The Standard also addresses heat that radiates from the bushfire and, in recent stages of development, now goes further in an attempt to offer fire resistance to building elements (walls, roofs, windows, doors etc) from direct flame contact.