Fire Shelter Design – Will I have enough Air inside?

Having enough air inside your fire shelter is one of the critical factors and this is the top question we get asked all the time!

One way to work out how much effective breathable air you have inside your fire Shelter is based on the air volume and oxygen usage rates for average people.

Our Fire Proof Shelters are 2.5m x 2.4m inside and this equates to 9.51 cubic metres of air volume inside. The average adult uses 1 cubic metre of air every 2 hours therefore this results in the avarage family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children) being able to comfortably stay in the Fire Proof Shelter for up to 4.7 hours without needing more air.

Form experience we know that the average fire front passes in 20-30 minutes give or take, which gives you plenty of air and a good margin for error!

**IMPORTANT POINT** Beware of any Fire Shelter or Fire Bunker that is smaller than 8-9 cubic metres of air volume, the reason is you may have additional people who need to escape the fire, also if you don’t check the effectiveness of the smoke seals to make sure they are forming an airtight seal then you have NO WAY to know if the fire will suck out some air from your fire shelter reducing your oxygen!

“All the figures for available air time are based on people breathing at a relaxed resting rate! This is NOT the case for emergency situations, people are under extreme duress in a Bushfire situation and their breathing rate goes up dramatically thereby reducing the oxygen levels significantly and much faster than anticipated.”

There is absolutely NO DOUBT the larger the fire shelter or Fire Bunker the Better!

It’s for this very reason we now have TWO Fire Shelter Sizes!

The Standard Size is 2.7m x 2.4m

The Large Size Fire Shelter is 2.7m x 3.3m (This is double the Air Capacity of the standard Fire Proof Shelter)

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