Summary
- Defending your property will be hard physical work before, during, and after a fire.
- You may need to keep working for hours or even days without rest.
- Expect to have trouble seeing, breathing, and thinking clearly while you are defending your property.
- Do not expect a fire truck to come help.
- Be ready to leave early if an Extreme or Catastrophic Fire Risk is predicted.
- Make a detailed bushfire survival plan that includes backup options in case things go wrong—your house may catch fire, or you could become trapped.
- If you're away from your property during a bushfire, do not return to defend it.
Do you have what it takes to stay and defend?
In the days before you stay to defend your property, make final checks to be sure you’re ready for an incredibly tough and dangerous situation. During a bushfire, it may be hard to see, the air will be filled with smoke, the noise will be overwhelming, and the heat will be intense.
These extreme conditions can make it hard to think clearly and stay calm. If you’re worried about whether you can handle it physically or if your home and garden aren’t properly prepared, your best option is to leave early—before it’s too late.
Ask yourself and the people you live with:
If you can't answer these questions with confidence, it’s safest to leave the area early—while you still have time.
Overestimating your abilities could cost you your life
Many people believe they can handle more than they actually can and often regret staying behind. Working in extreme heat while wearing heavy protective clothing can lead to serious health problems like heat exhaustion, heart attack, organ failure, and stroke.
Only stay if you are extremely well-prepared. If you haven't spent enough time, money, and effort getting ready for a bushfire, it’s safer to leave early. Defending a property is physically and mentally demanding, even for trained firefighters.
Be prepared to change your plans if your circumstances change
Reconsider staying if your situation changes and makes it unsafe. For example, if you are injured or have been sick recently, it might not be safe to defend your property. You need to be fit and able-bodied to protect your home well.
Consider changing your plan on days of Extreme Fire Danger
Think carefully about your plan to stay and defend if an Extreme Fire Rating is predicted. Defending a home on an Extreme day carries a high risk of death, serious injury or trauma.
Never stay to defend your home on Catastrophic days
If a Catastrophic day is coming, secure your home and leave the night before or by 10 AM on that day. Houses are not built to withstand fire on Catastrophic days.
Checklist
How to defend your property when a fire is nearby
Patrol for embers outside your home
Before the radiant heat gets too intense, patrol the outside of your home for embers, as they can land well in advance of the main fire front. If you find any, put them out immediately using a wet mop, backpack sprayer or hose.
How to defend your property as the fire front gets closer
You might experience ember attack or see embers falling from the sky as the fire front gets closer. When you feel heat on your ears or the back of your hands, go inside right away. Take any plastic firefighting tools with you, like hoses and tap connections.
Follow these steps:
- turn on the sprinkler system (if you have one)
- check the fire's progress by peeping through a window
- patrol inside your home for embers, including in the roof space
- keep listening to the radio for updates
- drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.
Actively shelter inside your home until the fire front passes
Stay inside your home until the fire front has completely passed. You should stay there for at least 20 to 30 minutes while the fire moves through. Actively sheltering means staying alert—constantly watching how the fire is progressing and defending your home by finding and putting out any embers or spot fires that ignite.
As you patrol for embers and spot fires, pay close attention to the roof and underfloor spaces, as these are common places where embers can settle and start new fires. Keep watching how the fire is moving outside and be ready to act quickly if any new fires start.
When the fire front passes, it will be incredibly hot, dark and loud. Your house may be hit by flying debris, and windows might crack or break. Remember, you can't control what's happening outside, and the intense radiant heat means that you cannot survive out there.
What to do if your house catches fire
If your house catches fire while you are inside, you must act quickly.
Here’s what to do:
- Close the door to the room that is on fire
- Move to the other end of the house, closing all doors behind you
- Get outside to burnt ground as soon as you can
- If you can feel high levels of radiant heat, find another building to shelter in or go to a last resort option
- Taking shelter in a stationary car in a clear area, a ploughed paddock, or a body of water may also protect you from radiant heat.
Peter's story - survival mode
Peter, an off-duty police officer, and his son, chose to stay and defend their home. They were confident that they had prepared well, and actively sheltered in their home when the fire front arrived.
Standing where his house once stood, Peter describes what happened when their house caught fire. He explains what they did to protect themselves from the intense radiant heat when forced back outside. They were no longer defending their property, they were fighting to save their lives.
[Peter's Story - Survival Mode]
[On screen text]
Warning. This video contains descriptions of real bushfire experiences involving people risking their lives. It may be confronting for some viewers.
Prepare for Radiant Heat and Smoke
[Peter - Callignee resident]
With two layers of clothes on a hat, neck wrapped up, gloves on, thick socks and boots. I was impacted by radiant heat that is intolerable. I was later told that that got up to 1200 degrees.
So unless you can shelter yourself, put a wall between you and the radiant heat, you'll burn to death. That's the reason why we went inside the house, is that the radiant heat outside. We couldn't have survived in that radiant heat. The methodology of remaining inside the house as a fire event goes over the top of you, particularly if you've got a long house and you can close doors, you keep moving back down the house.
It takes about 20 minutes, so I'm told, for a house to be completely gutted. A fire event takes between 2 and 5 minutes to go through. In my case, I shut one set of doors against the fire. I had no more to shut, but I did remain inside the house for probably 5 to 8 minutes, and even though the house lit up, it still was protection for us as we shut the doors and remained inside as the fire event went over the top. If we'd been outside, we would have perished.
I was expecting the windows to go black and fracture slightly, and perhaps to start shattering. When the firestorm hit us, that certainly happened. We watched the windows go brown and then black within the space of about 30s, and then literally the house imploded. Immediately came to the realization the house was lost.
So then we've gone and got the provisions that we that my son had set aside the water bottles, the lanterns, and we waited as long as we could inside the house because the firestorm was going over the top of us. So that was the vapor fire as it rolled through. We left the house on the eastern side through a glass sliding door, and we sheltered in an alcove area, which was, there's a concrete plinth up there and sat there. Because at that stage the fire was around us, 360 degrees in the air and 360 degrees on the ground.
So we sheltered on that concrete area for about five minutes, and then the house had really lit up from the inside. And I said, Tim, time to go to the concrete tank. So this is where we took shelter, leaning up against the wall, protecting our faces, breathing through the towels, I had my water bottle and the lantern down here. This is where the lantern started to melt.
So my son and I moved across, burning ember beds round the other side of the tank and ended up here. Here you can see the remains of the variegated pittosporum and it was quite large. And then we simply knelt behind it. So we crouched there with towels over our face behind this big stump.
And that's what protected us from the radiant heat. And when the fires were going through and I was sitting there, I couldn't even see the watch face in front of my face. I couldn't tell the time it was that acrid. And yeah, so that tree really saved our lives. And the tank.
[On screen text]
After the fire
[Peter]
So when the smoke began to clear and it was still coming through in waves, but we could see reasonably well and there wasn't the ferocity of the flames. So we went for an inspection around the home block, could see that there was nothing left. The house was gone, my machinery shed was gone and the hay shed was gone.
All infrastructure around here was gone. There was nothing left standing other than the concrete tank.
[On screen text]
Defending your home can be extremely dangerous. You may be risking your life and still not save your home.
Do not get trapped in a room without a way out
Make sure every room you use for shelter has at least two ways to get out. Bathrooms are not good for sheltering because they usually have only one door. If that door gets blocked by fire or heat, it can be hard to escape.
Also, many bathrooms have frosted windows that make it hard to see outside. During a bushfire, it’s important to know what’s happening around you. Always try to have good visibility and at least two ways to exit in every room you use as a shelter
How to defend your property once the fire front has passed
You will still need to actively defend your property for hours and even days after the main fire front has passed. Fires nearby may still be burning, and embers may continue to fall.
Here's what to do:
- patrol the interior of your home—including checking the ceiling space—for embers or small fires
- patrol the outside of your home—including checking under the house and any decks—for embers or small fires
- if it's safe, check on your pets and animals
- check to see if your power and water are working
- if you can, reach out to your family and friends, and check on your neighbours.
Be very careful before going outside
The levels of radiant heat may still be very high and potentially fatal. Use your best judgement to decide when it is safe to go outside.
Focus on putting out embers and small fires close to your home to prevent them from spreading. Remember that big trees might burn for many hours and can be hard to put out. People have been hurt or killed by trees or branches falling.
If you're away from your property when a fire happens
If you're away from your property when a bushfire starts, do not return to try to defend it. This applies to holiday homes and rental properties. Going back into a bushfire area is as dangerous as leaving at the last minute.
Explore what you need to know about defending your property
Resources
CFA Fire Ready Kit
Our Fire Ready Kit is an essential resource to help you plan for survival. It covers the basics—how fire behaves and how Fire Danger Ratings work—through to the practical steps needed to prepare your property before bushfire season.
The kit also explains what to do if a fire is in your area and you can’t leave. Downloading this resource is an important first step in getting prepared.
Defending your property - Bushfire survival planning template
This template is designed for people living in bushfire-prone areas. This template helps you make a clear bushfire plan, prepare different plans based on Fire Danger Ratings, and check off important tasks to get your property ready throughout the year.
If you choose to stay and defend, the template also guides you through the actions needed to actively defend your home and helps you understand the serious risks and unexpected problems that can arise, even if you are well-prepared.
Page last updated: Thursday, 30 July 2026 1:49:38 PM