How a one minute check reveals your home’s risk of bushfire
What is your home's unique bushfire risk rating? Our website has calculated the potential bushfire risk rating of every home in Australia. The free tool shows the potential risk of a bushfire doing damage to your home, if a fire started in the area.
Residz Team 4 min read
Do you live in a bushfire-prone area? If you live in a city you might be shocked to discover you possibly do.
We’re here to help you find out. Our website Residz.com has calculated the potential bushfire risk rating of every home in Australia. The free tool shows the potential risk of a bushfire taking hold, spreading and doing damage to your home, if a fire started in the area.
Some areas expecting above-normal fire risk
Bushfires are a normal part of the landscape, and predicted to become more severe, more frequent and an increasingly common part of life, according to Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC). For the 2021-22 season it predicts below normal fire potential for ACT, NSW, and Victorian areas recovering from the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. However, above normal fire potential exists over WA, south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales (NSW). In a warning to homeowners, AFAC’s seasonal outlook says destructive and deadly fires can still occur during normal bushfire seasons across Australia.
Sydney and Melbourne residents in line of fire
Prior to the horrendous Black Summer bushfires, research showed that even in built-up Greater Melbourne, 223,000 people lived in LGAs at high risk of bushfire. Sydney and surrounds had 318,000 residents in council areas facing high bushfire risks, mostly in the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Gosford areas. Hundreds of thousands more homes are at medium risk. Fire is a real issue for many city dwellers unaware of the risks of a leafy backyard.
South Australia and Western Australia at risk
South Australia’s Country Fire Service states on its website all people living in suburban fringe areas of Adelaide and regional South Australia are at risk of bushfire. The WA Department of Fire and Emergency Service declares over 90% of WA is bushfire prone.
“Bushfires can happen anywhere and at any time,” it warns on its website.
Queensland and Tasmania heightened risk
Queensland recently held a Get Ready Queensland week, after the Bureau of Meteorology announced a heightened risk of cyclones, bushfires and flooding for Queenslanders this summer through to autumn 2022. And, a report by Zurich insurance study declared Tasmania had entered a “new era of bushfire risk” and tough fire seasons were predicted for the coming years.
Protecting your home
Checking your home’s bushfire potential risk on Residz.com is just the first step. Next is taking action to reduce your risk and prepare for emergencies..
Some of the actions you can take are set out in the Rural Fire Service checklist. They include:
- Clean your gutters of leaves and twigs
- Install metal gutter guards
- Repair damaged or missing tiles on the roof
- Install fine metal mesh screens on windows and doors
- Fit seals around doors and windows to eliminate gaps
- Enclose the areas under the house
- Repair or cover gaps in external walls
- Attach a fire sprinkler system to gutters
- Keep lawns short and gardens well maintained
- Cut back trees and shrubs overhanging buildings
- Clean up fallen leaves, twigs and debris around the property
- Have hoses long enough to reach around your house
- If you have a pool, tank or dam, put a Static Water Supply (SWS) sign on your property entrance, so firefighters know where they can get water
- Check and maintain adequate levels of home and contents insurance. Ensure it is up to date.
Each home’s unique risk potential
Bushfires don’t affect all homes uniformly. The building materials on the roof and walls, flammable vegetation around the house, and the proximity to, and amount of, fuel on roads and in parks all contribute to one home being more at risk of bushfire damage than another.
It’s important to discover your home’s free bushfire risk potential rating so you stay safe this bushfire season.
Free assessment of your home
Finding out if your home is at risk is as easy as plugging the address into Residz.com. It takes under a minute, and once you’ve selected your property you can see the risk rating written on the screen. Here you can see a suburban Sydney home with a potential bushfire risk of 7 out of 10.
Click on the rating, and you’ll get information about a few of the many factors that were used in the calculation. You can see it’s got only one close neighbour but is close to flammable vegetation.
Getting together a Bushfire Survival Plan is a good idea no matter where you live when it’s bushfire season. It helps reduce the uncertainty and anxiety around what you and your family will do if a threat arises, says the Victorian government’s Better Health site. Preparing now, as we officially enter fire season, means you'll know what to do well before you ever smell smoke or hear the fire sirens.