Treated Pine: The hidden dangers and what you can do about it
Treated pine is a significant fire risk and health hazard during and after a bushfire
Treated pine is cheap and widely used for retaining walls, decking boards, deck support structure, support posts, trellis, fence posts and garden edging.
Risks
Why and how does CCA treated pine become a hazard in a bushfire?
The pine’s treatment chemicals make it readily ignitable by embers
It burns to completion
Once ignited it is unstoppable unless you put it out at every location
Embers landing on a treated pine retaining wall is likely to burn that wall right down into the ground
It could then ignite any nearby flammable material
When it burns the smoke is toxic
After the fire the green ash is long-lasting and toxic to land and waterways. It is also dangerous to come in contact with as the toxins are readily absorbed through the skin and airways if the green ash becomes airborne on subsequent windy days.
CCA treated pine is simply not suitable near a home or shed in bushfire prone areas
The combination of treated pine and mulched garden beds was an invitation for embers to burn this home down. See next image
In a bushfire prone area don’t use treated pine near your home or shed
If your house already has a treated pine retaining wall replace it with concrete sleepers
Replace other treated pine structures with steel members or in the case of decking surfaces use either bushfire rated wood composite decking boards or cement sheeting
Work outwards from the area closest to the home
Treated pine edging replaced with steel edging
Before: 75 x 200mm treated pine edging
After: 6mm x 150mm steel edging
Steel edging used for creating garden steps. Image Owen Gooding
