With one million plus homes in the urban interface around Australia’s major capital cities, it’s critical that we start acting now to get prepared for the coming summer. Lessons of last year teach us that a combination of global warming and consistently higher temperatures mean we can reasonably expect another catastrophic fire season from hell.
One company, Australian Pump Industries is preparing to double its production of high pressure fire pumps and to send out tens of thousands of fire survival guides early this year.
“We know that the volunteer brigades are doing the best they can all around the country”, said Aussie Pumps; Product Manager, Brad Farrugia. “There’s no way they can contain or even backburn the huge amount of fuel that survived last year’s fires. That fuel load is now bigger than ever, thanks to the recent rain”, he said.
The fire survival guide is continuously updated by Australian Pump based on the feedback from fire authorities and users. It shows how to prepare house, farm, outbuildings and even deals with crop and stock protection.
Properties around power lines are particularly susceptible and Ausgrid;s Chief Operating Officer, Trevor Armstrong said that this year’s bushfire safety program has more importance than ever. Ausgrid is already using two helicopters to patrol power lines as one of the most efficient ways to take preventative action against powerline generated fires.
The biggest issue we have is the huge number of “blockies” or “tree huggers” who like to live on the outskirts of the big cities and towns, amongst the trees. We can’t blame them. It is a wonderful environment except when the fires come. If we learnt lessons from last year’s horrific season, it’s the need for precautions to be taken before the fire season hits.
Aussie’s fire survival guide is a good start. At least then, forewarned the homeowner or farmer can take the necessary precautions based on the “lessons learnt” from the past. Australian Pump’s Fire Chief and Mr T twin impeller fire pumps really performed in last year’s fire season. The company produced record numbers of product, cleaning out Honda Australia of their firefighting engines.
“The production team were magnificent! They put heart and souls into getting those pumps built and shipped promptly. Even after those extraordinary efforts, we couldn’t produce enough products to satisfy demand”, said Farrigia
“The reason people love our fire pumps is because of the five year warranty and the quality of their components. We don’t skimp on materials, design or engineering. We put everything we have got into this product because we relate to the people whose properties and lives are maybe on the line”, he said.
Further information on the Aussie Fire Chief and the Aussie Survival Guide range from their website. There is also a series of movies there including five reasons that show why the Aussie Fire Chief is a superior product and better value than any other pump on the market, both in Australia or anywhere else in the world. The company is justly proud of the support it gives to both professional and volunteer firefighters and the efforts it makes to keep the people safe.
For more information, go to www.aussiepumps.com.au