Bushfire Report

Issue 70 NOVEMBER 2010




Residential boundary fences in
bushfires: How do they perform?
                                                                                                                            Testing of different
                                                                                                                             types of fencing
                                                                                                                             was conductied
                                                                                                                             at the NSW Rural
                                                                                                                             Fire Service
                                                                                                                             Experimental
                                                                                                                             Testing Site at
                                                                                                                             Mogo on the
                                                                                                                             south coast of
                                                                                                                             NSW in 2005.




                                                                                                  BACKGROUND
SUMMARY                                                                                           The findings from post-bushfire
The potential for residential fencing systems to act as a barrier against radiant heat, burning   investigations show the importance of
debris and flame impingement during bushfire is of the utmost importance to those whose           design and building materials for houses
homes rest in bushfire-prone regions. A 2005 testing project involving the Bushfire CRC           exposed to bushfires in Australia. CSIRO
and the CSIRO has revealed that different types of fencing can play an important part in          research has shown that the majority
defending homes against the threat of bushfire. Anecdotal evidence existed to suggest             of houses, including fencing systems,
that steel fencing offerered greater protection to residential housing against bushfire than      destroyed in bushfires usually survived
alternative materials because of its non-combustibility. The Bushfire CRC (with BlueScope         the passage of a fire front, but burnt
Steel Limited and CSIRO Bushfire Research) set up a project to research and investigate           down during the following few hours due
the performance of residential boundary fencing systems through small and full-scale              to fire spreading from ignition caused by
experiments looking at flame and ember propagation in fences, fences as barriers to radiant       burning debris (Leonard 2003; Blanchi
heat and flame, and toxic gas emissions from fencing systems. The full results of this research   et al. 2004; Ahern et al. 2004; Chen &
is being used by relevant agencies to influence how building codes and planning guides are        McAneney 2004).
developed, to provide advice to residents on the level of risk an individual property faces,
and to help develop education programmes for local communities.                                   A survey and studies after the 2003
                                                                                                  bushfires in Canberra, for instance,
ABOUT THIS PROJECT                                                                                showed very high levels of house loss deep
Project D1 Building and Occupant Protection was part of Bushfire CRC                              into the urban environment (Leonard
Program D: Protection of People and Property. Researchers involved in                             2003). Similarly with the 2009 Victorian
the project acknowledge the financial support of BlueScope Steel and                              bushfires (McAneney 2010). Destroyed
collaboration with the NSW Rural Fire Service.                                                    homes showed strong clustering. Most
                                                                                                  houses were ignited by ember attack and/or
Author: Justin Leonard (right) is a Bushfire Research Project Leader with
                                                                                                  house-to-house ignition. In fact, the post-
CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems. For more information about this research
                                                                                                  bushfire investigation in Canberra showed
contact Justin Leonard at [email protected]
                                                                                                  that in 50% of cases, the bushfire attack

© Bushfire CRC Ltd 2010
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