By the author of the acclaimed The Complete Bushfire Safety Book, this new edition of Essential Bushfire Safety Tips deals with people’s fears and concerns following Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and a maze of new official safety policies. Its concise and straightforward style clears a path of understanding through the tangle of conflicting opinions and misconceptions. It identifies the shortcomings and likely adverse repercussions of some of these policies, defines the actions necessary for people to stay safe during a bushfire – and their homes to remain intact – and sets out safe procedures. Included are new chapters on township protection; shelters, refuges and bunkers; as well as new information on choices of safe home bushfire strategies; protective house design, furnishings and gardens; protection of animals; and first aid. Set out in easy-to-access bullet points, it demystifies bushfire behavior, explains how to prevent a bushfire from destroying houses, details the safe way to act at each stage of threat, describes weather factors and safe burning-off, details the benefits and hazards of staying, non-defensive sheltering, and evacuating, and how to make the decision on which course is best for you.