Firefighting Equipment For Home Bushfire Defence

Defending your home is incredibly dangerous and not a decision to be taken lightly, so having the right gear to protect yourself and your property is essential. Your local fire authority will be able to provide guidance on this front, and your local Irrigear Independent Experts stock the products you'll need.

Firefighting Equipment For Your Home Protection System

Protecting your home will be a two part effort. To prepare for this, you will need to ensure you have the right equipment for building and property protection. This includes:

A Good Firefighting Pump

Your pump is the heart of your firefighting system - it gets the water where you need it to defend your life and home. For this reason, a quality firefighting pump is the crucial first piece of equipment you should be selecting when acquiring firefighting equipment for your home protection system.

Some pumps will be designed as dedicated firefighting units, while others will be multi-purpose pumps that simply happen to be suitable. Regardless of which option you select, your pump should only be used for home protection to ensure that it isn't otherwise occupied (and therefore more difficult to access) if needed.

Ideally you’ll generally want to select an engine driven pump for this purpose, as they do not rely on external power.

Generator

Speaking of external power, it often goes out in an emergency situation, and given the fact that it's necessary for communication, as well as some forms of firefighting equipment, you'll want to ensure that you've got a backup system ready to go the second the mains power taps out. A generator is the most reliable way to manage this, as even an off grid solar system could find itself running into issues during a bushfire, as ash and smoke could reach you days before flames, therefore restricting your system's ability to create and store power.

Water Storage

If you're going to defend your property, you're going to want to have access to multiple water sources to draw from. Dams are great, but they often require water to be moved a significant distance before reaching the home, a delay that could be deadly in an emergency.

For this reason, we suggest having a dedicated water supply close to your house, as well as water storage for your vehicle if you'll be taking your firefighting efforts around the property. This allows for near instant water delivery while also helping your pump work more efficiently as it won't have to pull water through pipes or hose across long distances.

Sprayer (Fire Sprinkler)

In addition to your manual spraying efforts, fire sprinklers can play a significant role in protecting your home. One of the biggest factors in whether a building will survive a bushfire coming through is reducing the likelihood of leaves and other flammable items igniting. In this case, a properly configured sprayer system will be your best friend. These fire sprinklers will require their own supply system and pipework, so be sure to chat with your local Irrigear Independent Expert about how to best align the system with your needs.

Firefighting Equipment For You

In addition to the firefighting equipment you’ll need to help protect your home and property, you’ll also want to ensure that you’ve got the right tools to protect yourself while you’re working to keep everything safe. This includes:

Shovel And Rake

A big part of your role in protecting your home and property will be putting out spot fires that have sparked from embers coming before the front. You don’t want to waste water on these if you don’t have to, so having the ability to clear up any leaves (the rake) or other debris or squish out sparks that threaten to catch alight (the shovel) will make your efforts both easier and safer.

Fire Extinguisher

While water is your best defence against most potential threats during a bushfire, you may need a fire extinguisher if something that cannot or should not be extinguished with water catches alight. The type of fire extinguisher you need will depend on the materials present, so be sure to check with your local fire authorities for tailored advice.

Fire Resistant Clothing And Steel Toed Boots

When you’re trying to save your home and property, the last thing you want to be worrying about is whether your clothes are going to combust or your feet are going to be burnt or otherwise injured. While fire resistant clothing and steel toed boots won’t completely prevent injuries, they greatly reduce your chances of suffering serious harm making them a key piece of equipment when you’re going up against a bushfire.

Radios For Communication

Finally, mobile networks may become congested, unavailable or unreliable in an emergency situation. Clear communication when managing your bushfire defence can literally be the difference between life and death, so a more reliable method must be available.

This is where radios come in. Designed to operate independently of cell networks and Wi-Fi, radios can be lifesavers. Just be sure that they’re kept fully charged and that everyone is tuned to the same channel/frequency.

Bushfires are wild, dangerous and unpredictable. They can do significant damage in a short period of time and are not a natural phenomenon to be taken lightly. Always follow the advice of authorities and leave early when safe to do so. If you decide to stay and protect what’s yours, or if you want to leave a fire fighting system running while you’re gone, it is vital that you have the right firefighting equipment for home bushfire defence and that everything is properly maintained so it works when needed. Remember, always design your defence plan in collaboration with local fire authorities, and always leave early if advised to do so.

Your local Irrigear Independent Experts can help you design the ideal firefighting equipment system, and while you’ll hopefully never need it, if you ever do, you’ll be incredibly glad that it’s there.