05/01/2020
THE BASIC BLANKET -some stories
A dry, heavyweight pure wool blanket, water to sip from a flask and with which to wet a corner of the blanket for breathing, are basic to survival in bushfires. With these alone, many people have survived the most terrible conflagrations.
Here are some of their stories:
The classic 1939 Black Friday basic blanket survival story is that of George Sellars. Fifteen men perished at a Matlock timber mill in a bushfire as bad as any on earth but he survived with just a pure wool blanket on a small patch of cleared ground. Sellars wrapped the blanket around him and breathed through one corner, which he dipped in a small container of water. Sparks constantly singed the blanket but he beat them out. For two and a half hours he stayed like this, while horses screamed in their stalls, the mill and its timber stacks flamed like a furnace and his mates who had hidden in the sawdust heap died.
On Ash Wednesday 1983 Stan Armistead of Bambra, deep in the Otway Ranges which on their other side sweep down to the sea at Victoria's famous Great Ocean Road, stayed beneath a pure wool blanket with his dog Lass as the holocaust raged all round, and saved both their lives. His home, high on a ridge with a magnificent view of pine forests below, had ignited and he was already wearing protective clothing when he ran with a wet blanket to a burnt paddock. The ground became uncomfortably hot, the blanket singed and coals piled up around him, but he shook them off and knelt there, cradling Lass in his arms, until the ash in the air cleared. Both man and dog survived unscathed.
On Black Saturday 2009 a young mother save her own life and her baby's at Kinglake by sheltering on a patch of lawn beneath a pure wool blanket, with her baby in her arms, as intense fire rage in the forest around her home.
Also on Black Saturday, 2009, a 90 year old man at Callingee, in Gippsland, saved himself by wrapping himself in a pure wool blanket and lying in a horse trough.
In 1983 two people trapped in the Cockatoo bushfire huddled in a gutter under a woollen blanket and survived. Next to them another couple under a synthetic blanket died.
A woman whose car had caught fire in a road accident had had a pure wool rug over some items in the boot. They were the only things untouched by the fire.
Pure wool resists fire and chars slowly. It may blacken, but it will not burn if in contact with direct flame for only a few seconds or if a burning ember falls on it. Sparks which fall onto it die out. The heavier the wool, the slower to burn. The blanket must be dry. wetting it counteracts its natural ember extinguishing properties.
If you are not sure whether a blanket is pure wool, cotton, or synthetic blend, test it in a safe place by dropping a lighted match onto a corner. If the material curls up, melts or ignites, or a hole appears in it, it is not pure wool.
Textured fibreglass, such as in Firestop blankets, will smother flames, but any protection from radiant heat depends on its weight.
A person crouched low or lying flat, face down, beneath a pure wool blanket breathes the least smoky air and receives the pockets of fresh air which come along from time to time. The head should be covered, either by the blanket, or a strong, brimmed hat, and the ground around you cleared of flammable vegetation.
The theory behind the basic blanket, is the basic theory behind all `containment', (shelter) from bushfire for safety and survival: starve the flames, shield the body, moisturise your body and your surroundings. That is: Be Cleared, Be Clothed, Be Contained.
The basic blanket can be built up into a full bushfire survival kit.
(The picture is of George Sellars, a reconstruction created for the newspapers. In the event, he more likely crouched beneath the blanket, than stood as shown in this photo of 1939, especially as he related how he had covered his nose.)
