Ember attack

[Ember Attack]

The following may be distressing to some viewers.

During a bushfire, embers will reach your home long before the flames do.

Ember attacks are the most common way that houses catch fire.

Embers are burning leaves, twigs and pieces of bark. They help the bushfire spread by starting spot fires ahead of the main fire front.

Short distance ember attacks happen when leaves and small pieces of bark are blown from burning trees. The intense shower of sparks that forms fills the air with hot burning embers which will land on nearby vegetation and properties.

The hot embers can easily land and get into your clothes and burn your skin, eyes, and airways.

Small fires will start all around you, and quickly become uncontrollable.

The resulting chaos creates confusion, as the fire seems to come from many directions, meaning it will be difficult to make good decisions about your safety. The experience will be physically exhausting, and emotionally traumatic.

Long distance ember attack is caused by large bushfires that generate intense heat.

As the hot air rises, it forms a column of smoke that sucks in air like a vacuum, increasing the intensity of the fire. The updraft in the column lifts embers like large pieces of burning ribbon bark, hundreds of metres into the air, where strong winds can carry them many kilometres beyond the fire front.

On Black Saturday, embers travelled more than 30 kilometres ahead of the main fire.

When these embers land, they often start fires where leaves naturally accumulate, like in gutters, doorways, and garden beds.

So, while you might think you're safe when a bushfire is far away, embers can fall from the sky and land around your home long before you even know there's a fire.

But remember, your home isn't the only thing under threat during an ember attack.

By the time you realise the danger, it might be too late, as escape routes become jammed.

Embers can also start fires on roads and block them completely, making late evacuation dangerous or impossible.

That's why leaving early, before a fire starts, is always your safest option.

[Ember Attack]

Vision taken from inside a firefighting vehicle driving down a suburban street on the edge of Canberra. It gives a real life understanding of what it is like being caught in a severe ember attack. Masses of embers can be seen blowing across the road from left to right. Visibility is extremely low due to the amount of smoke and it appears to be night time even though it is the afternoon.

A garbled radio message can be heard but not understood. The camera moves to film outside the right hand window where all that can be seen is a vast amount of orange light as embers flash past. In the background trees and nature strips can be seen completely alight with fire.

The scene the cuts to looking out the left side of the vehicle at cars driving through an intersection with headlights beaming through the smoke and embers flying around. The sky is dark and orange. 

[Someone on the two way radio]
"there is nothing we can do now."

The next scene looks out the front of the vehicle as it speeds as fast as it can given the low visibility. All outside is dark and orange with embers flying into the windscreen and fire is all around. The vehicle's siren sounding loudly.

The video cuts to a scene taken a little later from a vehicle driving down the same street. It is a little brighter now, and fire can be seen clearly on nature strips and around houses.

Next we see it has become dark again as smoke thickens while the firefighting vehicle continues to drive with it's siren sounding loudly.

The video ends as we look through very thick, orange lit smoke at flames coming from the roof of a house.