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Leave when it's safe. When I grew up in southern California, I experienced evacuations first-hand. You're not going to be able to fight 40 foot flames with a garden hose. I knew people who left too late, couldn't get out, and hand to stay huddled in their bathrooms, covered in water, praying to make it. Do your best to prepare hour house before the first start (clear debris, no dry weeds/timber, safe roof), but leave! Though, interesting to note, there's now some sort of foam stuff you can spray all over your house. Now that I might put on the house if I had time...

Leave. This comes up every so often. It is sad to lose everything or almost everything, but you have a choice what you're going to grieve over - your stuff or your life. It is foolish to stay, pardon my honesty. Take your life, the lives of your family and your pets, and if you have any time at all, pack the freaking car, and then GO! If you don't have time to pack the car, it won't matter. People make weird choices in fire emergencies and there will always be something you wish you could have taken but didn't. Last month, someone hit the fire alarm by accident when she was moving out, and I stuff my cat in her carrier, put on my coat, grabbed my phone and went. Maybe my wallet was also near that I threw in my pocket. I left behind my expensive purse (that I love so much and was so proud to treat myself to a couple months ago, on clearance, at that) which was also hanging near the door, and lots of other fabulous stuff. One of my neighbors was out on the sidewalk with a small dog under one arm and a 12-pack of Christmas-edition beer under the other. BEER.

Just go.

Definitely leave, WITH my pets.

I hope Mother Nature at least calms the wind for those poor people in Australia.

Leave. I have a family to think about. They're worth more to me than any material possession.

Coming from the South and dealing with a lot of hurricane aftermath firsthand, always always always leave early. It's a pain, it's scary, it's sometimes completely unnecessary, but when that 1 in a million chance actually occurs . . . You will be glad you left when you did. Not to mention that the earlier you leave the easier it is, and the more hotel rooms are available.

Someone once hit the fire alarm in my building a few years ago, and I had the "What matters to me?" mad-grab moment. I stuffed my laptop and power plug into a bag, my purse, my bag of stuff for my college classes (which I always left packed up together anyway), and a photo album I happened to spot on a table as I was rushing out the door. I found it a very interesting experience!

I'd load up the car and leave - There's a reason we pay for Fire Insurance, but it doesn't cover the lives and health of ourselves and our family.

Just leave. I was in a house fire years ago, and I remember running down the apartment stairs barefoot, in a flannel nightie, grabbing the cat and the birdcage as I zoomed to stand in the snow outside. Fortunately no one was hurt, we lived about three blocks from the fire station, but it was a night I'll never forget.

Leave early. No house or material possession is worth losing my family, my dog, or my life over.

leave with your life intact!

You leave. I went through the Oakland Hill firestorm back in the day and I'll never forget standing vigil at the top of our hill all night watching the flames get closer. The neighborhood had designated spotters to sound the alarm if we needed to go; we were NOT waiting for the officials to tell us. They had their hands full elsewhere.
We were lucky; our house was on the other side of a large cemetary that stopped the fire. The groundskeepers turned on all their sprinklers to create a fire-break and give the firefighters a chance. 100 yards from us on the other side, everything was gone.
Leave. Forget anything but the pets and go.

Been there. You make sure your family is safe. You gather your pets and their supplies. You throw a few things in a bag for overnight if you still have time (remember medications) and then you leave -- after closing up the house according to fire department recommendations. Don't wait for the evacuation order. Get out while you can and forget about all your possessions. They don't matter.

leave... i used to live in tornado alley and now i live on the east coast where hurricanes are.... just leave and be safe

I read that the Australian policy of 'stay and defend' has been very successful in the past, for those who knew what they were doing and had prepared their properties - it's just that this time around, the force and speed of the fire was more intense than has ever been encountered before and that's why so many have died.

However, the authorities are still saying that 'stay and defend or leave early' will remain the official line, but are suggesting mandatory evacuation for the children and the elderly, and are talking about introducing new warning systems (such as mobile texts).

Zhahira: Word.

And I'm surprised this is even a question.

We have an evac. bag packed and ready with all our personal papers, one copy of each bill, a few unframed photos, etc., ready to grab on the way out, in the event of a natural disaster. It's one less organizational thing to worry about when driving down the road toward a suddenly uncertain future.

I'd pack up the cats and flee. I'm allergic to smoke, so fighting a fire would not be my best course of action.

I used to live in a neighborhood that was a little too close to an extremely fire-prone area. I won't do that again, even though it costs more to live in a less dry area. There comes a point when constant wheezing becomes unbearable.

Aussie here. Watching the news it's devastating, especially since my father-in-law is a firefighter, seeing firefighters breaking down because while they were doing their job protecting other peoples homes and LIVES their houses burnt to the ground while their wives and children where inside. LEAVE THE HOUSE!

In the areas where bushfires are common it is true that houses are built with sprinkler systems for the outside of the home, often built in brick and steel to avoid fires and regular bulldozing of fire breaks around the yard perimiters do help.But with extreme winds, very low humidity and temperatures over 40'C (104'F) it's almost impossible to protect your home and not get hurt. Now hundreds of homes with all these innovations are still mere ash now, while their occupants are being found by the police forensic teams, and sniffer dogs.

Ba Bye

I'm an Aussie and live in the state where these fires have been happening. In a lot of cases, stay and defend has worked, however, as the news has been saying- this was an extremely unusual occurrence in that the fire was so fierce and moved so fast.

Another Victorian - The paradigm isn't nearly as simple as it seems. Often, as was the case here, the fires are in thick bushland, and in remote country areas. The roads are not always sealed (which can make travelling at speed difficult and dangerous), can be littered with fallen trees and other debris, and unless there is sufficient warning; being trapped on the road is almost always fatal. Buildings offer the best protection from the radiant heat. Staying to defend a propety or house is not simply about protecting material possessions. A well prepared home can successfully defend themselves, (and people have in this instance), the critical point is early preparation. With the speed at which these fires spread, too few people were aware of the conditions on the day, and the danger that the weather presented, and unfortunately for many people, they were caught out. Its a terrible tragedy that hopefully will lead to be alert systems and better responses to immediate threats in the future.

I don't think I've ever agreed with Family First, but this time I do - Fielding recommended that those in fire-prone areas (like those in areas of thick bushland that haven't been burnt since the 1930s with very narrow access roads) get government subsidies to build fireproof shelters. People in Tornado Alley in the US have shelters, why shouldn't people in bushfire-prone areas?

And stricter council regulations would be good, too. I don't know about Victoria, but up in Sydney, places in the 'flame zone' HAVE to have clear areas around the house and can only use non-combustable materials. Sure, that wooden house might look lovely, but it's going to go up if anyone so much as smokes near it.

In that case, staying would be better. And unless you can get out, it's usually safer - these fires were just so fast and so ferocious that you were a goner if you stayed or if you left. People that would normally leave just had no time because they came up so FAST, and those who stayed were helpless - it was just far, far too huge to fight. Freak conditions. Should have never happened. Horrible stuff, all around.

Like the last few posters, I'm in Melbourne. I can only echo what they and the earlier posters said. Definitely, if you knew your life was in danger and you knew you could safely get out, it'd be sensible to go. But the conditions on Saturday were so unpredictable that people got caught up in it unexpectedly -- many of them didn't get to make a conscious decision to stay or go. Even in the city, the weather was extreme -- it was painfully hot (46.5 degrees, which I think is about 117 in olde-worlde speak?) all day, and when the cool change came in the evening it was accompanied by incredibly wild winds. Stories have been coming out of people who were told on Saturday afternoon that they were out of the fire's path, but who half an hour later found themselves engulfed. And then there were others who tried to leave, but -- because the fires were moving so quickly and so unpredictably -- were cut off or trapped or overtaken on the roads.
That isn't to say it isn't worth thinking about in advance -- if we live in fire-prone areas, it can't hurt to have a plan in place.
But the stories coming out of these fires are so awful, and so many plans proved so useless. Just dreadful.

I wonder if they can somehow encourage people who are rebuilding to use rammed earth or something that might be safer from fires.