T fiture

The weekend was about reconnecting people to supplies that gave them basicamenities: showers, shaving facilities and toilets and sanitation.

bushfire standards

The plumbing community cametogether in the wake of theVictorian bushfires to help rebuildinfrastructure and lend a supportinghand. Jonathan Jackson looksat the human faces behind therebuild as well as technical aspectsplumbers need to be aware of whenreconnecting water and gas.

onstruction of buildings inbushfire prone areas (AS3959-2009) is the new Australian

Standard rushed through after thetragedy of the Victorian bushfires inFebruary 2009. The Standard is primarilyconcerned with improving the ability ofbuildings in designated bushfire zonesto better withstand fire attack, therebybetter protecting residents.

The Standard covers improvementsto design and construction and tacticsto minimise damage of buildings.The measures set out to improveconstruction, and can be used as a

guide for those who wish to voluntarilyadopt such measures where regulatorycompliance is not mandated.

The Standard also covers methods oftesting for building materials, elementsof construction and systems subjected totests. Before construction requirementscan be determined, it is first necessaryto determine the Bushfire Attack Level(BAL) by an assessment of the subjectallotment and classified vegetationimpacting on the site.

The new Standard provides anexcellent overview of what measures theconstruction industry can implementin the time it takes to rebuild bushfireaffected areas, however the impact ofthose fires required immediate action.

The first groups to offer specifictechnical help in the Kinglake area wereSwan Plumbing, Chadoak Plumbing andDrainage and Reece.

Chadoak sent a team of 35 plumberson the weekend of 14 February andworked in conjunction with SwanPlumbing, who donated 90 pumps andcollected rural fittings from all their

stores to enable connections to occurquickly. The two companies bandedtogether to distribute pumps, fittings andassist residents with plumbing advice.

Chadoak's Brian Brandenburg sayswhen they arrived on site you could heara pin drop among 35 tough blokes suchwas the devastation of the area.

"Our original brief was limited toinstalling water pumps and generatorsand moving generators around,"Brian says.

"Once we got there, we foundpeople were crying out for things likeconnections to sewer lines whichhad melted completely. Basic waterconnections were gone and people whorelied on water tanks had no water."

Anonymous donations of water tankshelped with the demand, and overthe course of the weekend the boysat Chadoak managed to assist 208residences with their plumbing needs.

"We didn't take up parts for that sort ofwork," Brian says.

"We had 30 vehicles up there and ineach vehicle we had stock stuff, but wewere bone dry of supplies by the end ofthe weekend."

The weekend was about reconnectingpeople to supplies that gave them basicamenities: showers, shaving facilitiesand toilets.

The plumbers were not there torebuild; those tasks must be based uponthe new Standard as well as insuranceassessments — but they were forced togo beyond their call of duty for the sakeof basic humanitarian aid.

"We had to instruct residents how touse pumps and generators; there wasa lot of instructional support especiallywith generators as people tended to blowthem up," Brian says.

"Every house there had melted pipes.Bore pumps had to be hauled from 20mbelow the ground and they were bloodyheavy. We had the local bore contractorwho repairs them giving us specialist >

5 2 PLUMBING CONNECTION I WINTER 2009

Left. Basic water connections were gone and people who relied on water tanks hadno water. Right. Pumps had to be installed and residents instructed on the use of thegenerator because they were wiring up generators to the switchboard and burning them.

RAIN

Everything Wa

advice, but they had lost their housesand tools and vehicles as well."

Leading the charge in Kinglake was

Chadoak's Greg Miles."When we first got up there we were

briefed by who we thought was the localplumber, however he was the only plumber

in town and he'd travelled up fromMelbourne to fight his brother's house fire.He said the houses are standing and in the

main street are concrete tanks. What wehad to do was disconnect the downpipesand spouting that goes to the tanks before

it rained so the tanks didn't get tainted."The fire obliterated all plastic and the

pumps and piping were gone.

"Where possible we reconnectedthe sewer bore so people could have ashower and use the toilet," says Greg.

"We found the concrete tanks were

still okay; houses were still standingbut without power and water. So we had

to install pumps and instruct residentson the use of the generator becausethey were wiring up generators to theswitchboard and burning them."

The heat had melted the plumbing outof the brick walls, so plumbers found

themselves taking out the bricks tore-establish the plumbing. Generators

were delivered to people without and

when those people had restored power,the generators were taken to otherresidences that were yet to be connected.

Greg says they only concentrated on thehouses they knew could be habitable.

From his experience, Greg believes

certain things could be done to proof

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35 Chadoak employees gave up their time to help people reconnect to generators andwater supplies and found more to do than they bargained for.

Swan Plumbing generously donated80 new water tanks to ensure Kinglakeresidents had basic water supply.

the area, although he does say that theferocity of this particular blaze wouldhave been hard to combat no matterwhat measures were installed.

However for his mind, Greg believesthat plastic tanks need to be concretetanks buried underground and thereneeds to be a better filtering system sotanks don't get tainted.

"The thing with plastic and plastictanks is that the flame followed the pipeinto the ground and burnt the pipessubterraneously."

If he had his way, Greg would call forno PVC pipes to be exposed at all andconcrete water storage tanks to be a partof the internal make-up of the building.

As for gas, he believes there should bea two pipe system.

"LPG was the gas available andyou've got to install LPG in accordancewith regulations. If you point your tankstowards the house, all you're doing isencouraging the house to burn down.There were cylinders outside that weretoo close to the houses; maybe inbushfire prone areas there needs to be atwo pipe system where the main tank isout by the road."

Those looking to rebuild in the affectedareas need to work closely with licensedplumbers and builders to ensure they meetbuilding code Standards, unfortunately forthese areas the local handyfnan will be outof his depth and unlikely to make repairsbased on new specifications.

While it is understandable that peoplewant to reclaim their lives as quickly aspossible, it is important that nobodyrushes in without first inspecting thearea, inspecting the damage to the homeand then taking the necessary steps toensure rebuilding is done safely.

Areas of building that must be takeninto account now are: the level ofvegetation surrounding the property,construction requirements for specificstructures including garages and noncombustible roof structures, windows,masonry and shutters.

There are other considerations thatcould be implemented at design stage

and may also be common sense,particularly with regard to plumbing. TheStandard does say that roof penetrationsincluding ventilators, evaporative coolingunits, vent pipes and supports for solarcollectors shall be adequately sealedat the roof to prevent gaps greater than3mm. The material used to seal shall benon-combustible.

Evaporative cooling units shall befitted with butterfly closers at or near theceiling level, or the unit shall be fitted

A note left for the boys explaining thesituation and what needed to be done.

with non combustible covers with a meshor perforated sheet, with a maximumaperture of 2mm, made of corrosionresistant steel, bronze or aluminium. NB:Vent pipes made from PVC are permitted.

The Standard does not providematerial requirements for gutters,with the exception of box gutters anddownpipes. If installing box gutters theyshould be non combustible and flashedat the junction with the roof with noncombustible material.

If gas pipes and exposed water pipesare above ground they should be metal.

"There's a lot more plumbing workneeded to be done in the area and itshould be reinforced that it needs tobe undertaken by a licensed plumber,"Greg says.

It was a harrowing experience for allinvolved, but encouraging that so manymembers of the community, plumbersand plumbing companies, governmentofficials and army operatives could bandtogether to help bring basic sanitationback to the area.

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