Storing and Disposing of Cleared Brush: Tips for People Who Live in Areas Prone to Bush Fires

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If you live in a bushfire prone area, you are typically allowed to clear some trees and brush from your area without a special permit. For example, in New South Wales, you can clear trees within 10 metres of buildings on your property and brush within 50 metres of buildings. However, once you clear the brush you need to ensure that you store or dispose of it carefully.

1. Store piles of firewood far from your home and other buildings.

If you decide to keep the felled trees for firewood, you need to store the wood outside the 10 metre safety zone around your buildings. This helps to protect your buildings from the flammability of these materials. For example, if a fire were burning in the bush around your home, you want to ensure it doesn't jump from the bush to your firewood and then, to your house. To protect your home, store the firewood outside of the safety zone you have cleared.

2. Don't leave piles of grass clippings, branches or other debris.

In addition to storing firewood safely, you need to store the piles of debris that are generated as you clear brush, safely. These piles are a fire risk in the same way that a pile of wood is, and ideally, you should move them away from your home and dispose of them quickly.

3. Use metal rubbish bins.

Even if you decide to keep the large logs for firewood, you are undoubtedly going to have several piles of rubbish. So that the rubbish doesn't sit on the ground acting like a fire hazard, you should hire a metal skip to dispose of it.

In some cases, if you only anticipate having a small amount of rubbish, you can hire canvas skips, but you should not doing this if you are clearing brush in a bushfire-prone area. The metal simultaneously helps to protect fires from escaping the bin and prevents fires from entering the bin.

4. Close the lid on your bin.

To further protect the contents of your bin, make sure that you hire a bin with a lid and that you close it when you are not using the bin. The closed lid adds a metal fire barrier to your rubbish. It also prevents leaves and debris from blowing out of the bin and slowing down your clearing efforts.

5. Don't throw cleaners or other chemicals into the bin.

If you have hired a skip to put brush into, you may also want to take the opportunity to clear a bit of unused rubbish out of your home. In most cases, that is completely fine. However, if you are throwing away old cleaning products, cans of paint or other items that may be combustible, don't put them in the skip with the brush. If they explode, the brush is the perfect fuel for a fire. Instead, throw those items out separately, and ideally, take them to a hazardous waste recycler.

For more information or assistance, contact a professional bin hire service.


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