On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 9:38 AM, Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
On Thu, 24 Jan 2013, Peter Ross <Peter.Ross@bogen.in-berlin.de> wrote:
> > Expense is the reason I've seen cited, that combined with the fact that
> > it's not fashionable.  In an Australian summer a basement is a really
> > good thing, you install your favourite entertainment things and spend
> > the hottest part of the day avoiding the heat.
>
> I wonder how save it is to hide if you are surrounded by a fire.
>
> Basically whether it becomes too hot or you are running out of oxygene
> inside. Or other risks I did not think of..

Oxygen is the issue.

I've heard reports of people going back to their hotel room for their luggage
and dying from smoke inhalation while their luggage survives...

There's no reason why you can't have a basement with an external door, that's
not an uncommon design.  One of my friends has such a basement, I think that
he needed to have a separate exit to have it considered as a separate office
(rather than part of his home) for tax benefits at the time.  With such a
design you could hide in your basement while the main fire passes and then if
your home catches on fire you could escape.

 
I have just read a book Disasters That Changed Australia by historian Richard Evans. In his book he talks of the Black Sunday fire of 1932 and how 6 mill workers were killed in the high country. I quote....

"After six mill workers were killed in the 1932 fires, the Victorian Forests Commission began to urge mill owners to establish a safe refuge fo their workers, in the form of a dugout. This was to built in a cleared area and topped with a thick layer of earth..." page 107

"The men, woman and children of the little mill settlements sheltered in dugouts -- where dugouts had been built. There, people were reasonably safe..." page 108 

He goes on to say that the dugouts had risks but like a lot of wildlife that sheltered in dugouts or burrows it was the safest option from a fire, he talks of men being boiled alive in water tanks and others burying themselves in sawdust piles at the mills to try and get away from the heat.

Richard Evans has a PhD in history from Monash and is a research fellow at Swinbourne, he is very passionate about Australia's history with fire so has researched it a great deal. The book "Disasters That Changed Australia" is published by Victory Books, Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN 978-0-522-85649-1

It is a good book and covers many natural and man made disasters that shaped Australia, I really enjoyed reading it even f it was in dead tree format and I had to get used to turning pages as it didnt have turn buttons on the side :)



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