In a bushfire mulch can become one of the most dangerous fuels on your property, especially when it’s right beside your home.
Mulch is a popular choice for ground cover in garden beds around houses and properties.
It’s considered to be good for the plants and a simple.
An easy way to give your garden a finishing touch.
The fire produces intense, long lasting heat right where you don’t want it—against walls, windows, decks and vents.
Heat from burning mulch can crack glass and ignite nearby building elements such as weather boards, decks and underfloor structures.
In a Sydney fire the embers ignited the mulch immediately beside the wall of a newly built (BAL-29) house.
The mulch burned hot and long enough to melt indoor blinds through toughened glass.
Without that toughened glass, the windows likely would have cracked, allowing embers to enter and ignite the home.
Consider hard landscaping like stone, gravel and compressed aggregate finishes, concrete, crushed rock, brick or stone paving and also high-quality artificial turf.
Even non-combustible surfaces collect windblown leaves and debris which can ignite and create a surface fire on top of hard landscaping.
Frequently remove leaves during the bushfire season and particularly on or before a Total Fire Ban day.
Where the wind drives leaves is where the wind will drive embers.
