Burnover Incidents in Personal Fire Shelters

Personal fire shelters, in the form of lightweight reflective ‘A tents’, were first developed in the 1950’s. Early failures in testing led to their withdrawal from the Australian market, although they have since been widely adopted in the United States. Personal fire shelters have been mandatory equipment for Wildland firefighters in the US since 1977 and have been credited with saving nearly 300 lives. When threatened, the firefighter pitches the shelter on a patch of barren ground and lies face down inside, holding the edges down with the handholds. With practice, a shelter can be deployed in around 30 seconds. Fire shelters have been deployed many times in the US, most often when ground crews are caught by fire in forests. They appear to provide good protection in moderate intensity burnovers, but may not ensure survival in a severe fire.

Fatalities also occur if fire overtakes the crews rapidly, when conditions are too windy for deployment, or a suitable clearing is not available. It should be noted that whilst personal fire shelters are excellent radiant heat reflectors, most are not flame proof and require an area of clear mineral earth for deployment. Such safety zones must be prepared in advance, or naturally occuring, for there is unlikely to be time to prepare them once threatened. This makes them an unreliable protective device in many fast moving Australian grass and bushfires.