Title: Learning activity: Construction & Bushfire

Construction & Bushfire

- Bushfire
- Wildfire

An interwoven and essential part of Australia’s ecology.

Impact on national parks, farmland, local economies, lives and the built environment.

Controls on construction in bushfire designated areas since1980’s.

Restrictions on development within bushfire designated areas are applied through the two stages of development approval:

1. Building Rules Consent
2. Planning Rules Consent

For Building Consent - Minister’s Specification applies.

Construction requirements are under

- Building Code of Australia and the SA Variations to BCA.
- Australian Standard 3959-2009 “Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas”
- BCA specifies Bushfire Controls in Volume 2
- Requirements for Class 2- 9 buildings are less specific but a requirement for their onsideration in Class 2 and 3 Buildings exists.

Q: The Planning Consent process controls aspects of the development including:

(select all that apply)
- water for fire fighting (correct)
- construction of subfloor spaces (correct)
- access to and from the site for vehicles (correct)
- location and setback from vegetation, including minimising threat of fire from vegetation by management of the site (correct)

Planning Requirements

In South Australia bushfire controls exist in both planning and building consents.

Q: Strikes in a massive storm are capable of lighting a fire.
A: true

Fill in the missing words

Q: Gusts of the wind from the storm drive low-lying flames up the [...] of the trees into the uppermost branches.

It is now transforming into the most dangerous type of wild fire, called a [...].
A: trunks; crown fire

Q: In a bushfire, how high flames can reach up to
- 40 meters (correct)
- 10 meters
- 20 meters

Q: What drives the fire from one tree to the next tree?
- Wind (correct)
- Leaves

Fill in the missing words

Q: The [...] zone is the most hazardous place where the fire fighters can be caught in the fire and that is the area of [...] to the side of the fire front.

A fire can swing around suddenly if the wind changes [...] and create a new completely larger front of fresh fuel to burn. Any fire fighters in this zone have a little or no time to [...].

As the two fire fronts join, the perfect [...] is born.
A: dead man; unburnt land; direction; escape; fire storm

Q: A self-sustaining unstoppable firestorm can rise to a temperature around:
- 2000 degrees celcius (correct)
- 200 degrees celcius
- 5000 degrees celcius

Q: A perfect fire storm is born when
- the two fire fronts join (correct)
- the fire rises up through the trunks of the trees
- the fire swings

Choose the correct statement.

Credits: How a bushfire and wildfire storm forms - Part 2; by tektrek; Published on Nov 30, 2011; source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHw60gabwP8

Watch the video and answer the questions.

Q: In South Australia, restrictions on development within bushfire designated areas are applied through the two stages of development approval:
- Building Rules Consent (correct)
- Planning Rules Consent (correct)
- Performance Solution

- Drag the words into the correct boxes

Q: For [...] - Minister’s Specification applies.
[...] are under:
[...] and the SA Variations to BCA.
[...] 3959-2009 “Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas”.
BCA specifies [...] in Volume 2.
Requirements for [...] buildings are less specific but a requirement for their consideration in Class 2 and 3 Buildings exists.
A: Building Consent; Construction requirements; Building Code of Australia; Australian Standard; Bushfire Controls; Class 2- 9

Credits: Sampson Flat fire in the Adelaide Hills; by Eugene Klaebe, ABC News; January 3, 2015.; source http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-03/sampson-flat-fire-in-the-adelaide-hills/5998562