Can a fire truck actually get to your house?

Every summer there are houses that crews drive past because they can't safely get a truck up the drive and back out again. It's a horrible thing to think about and it's usually fixable in a day with the right gear.

What a truck needs

Victorian bushfire planning provisions give a decent guide to what access should look like, and it's worth measuring yours against it. Roughly, you're after a trafficable width of about 3.5 metres, vertical clearance of about 4 metres, a surface that will carry a heavy vehicle in the wet, grades a truck can pull, and somewhere at the house end for it to turn around. Long drives want a passing bay or two.

Then there's the bit people always miss. Gates. A tanker will not fit through a 3 metre farm gate on an angle, and it won't wait around while someone hunts for the key to a padlock.

The common problems we fix

Overhanging branches are the number one. A drive that suits a ute has a canopy at about 3 metres and a truck needs another metre on top of that. We lift the crowns along the driveway and clear the shoulders back so the width is real, not just the wheel tracks.

After that it's washouts and soft spots that will bog a loaded truck, no turning area at the house, and entrances too tight to swing into off the road. Widening an entrance, shifting a gate post and grading a proper turning area is straightforward work and it changes the outcome.

While you're at it

Put your house number where it can be seen from the road, on something that won't burn. If you've got a static water supply, make sure the fittings suit CFA equipment and the tank is accessible from a hardstand, not down the back behind a fence.

• Bushfire planning provisions, access and water supply

  The Victorian standards for property access, widths, clearances and water supply.

• Your property preparation, CFA

  CFA guidance on preparing a property, including access and water.

Rules, overlays and mapping change. We check the links in this article regularly, but always confirm the current requirements with your council or the relevant Victorian department before you clear anything.

Got a job in mind? Send your address and we'll come out, have a look, and put a written quote together. No obligation.