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Escaping underground: the eerie new age of bushfire bunkers — With concrete walls, flame-proof doors and wine racks, bushfire bunkers offer the promise of safety, at least for those who can afford ...

Escaping underground: the eerie new age of bushfire bunkers

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/29/escaping-underground-the-eerie-new-age-of-bushfire-bunkers

With concrete walls, flame-proof doors and wine racks, bushfire bunkers offer the promise of safety - at least for those who can afford them

Escaping underground: the eerie new age of bushfire bunkers — With concrete walls, flame-proof doors and wine racks, bushfire bunkers offer the promise of safety, at least for those who can afford ...::With concrete walls, flame-proof doors and wine racks, bushfire bunkers offer the promise of safety - at least for those who can afford them

23 comments

jet

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No real mention of the main enemy, oxygen..... A brush fire can deplete the local oxygen levels even if your nice and cool underground.

paintbucketholder

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These are basically small concrete boxes sunk into the ground. They're only meant to stick out a bushfire for a few hours.

You could probably just keep a few bottles of oxygen or a carbon dioxide scrubber stashed in there, just in case. If you can spend $10,000 on one of these bunkers, spending a few hundred more isn't going to make a difference.

Anything longer than a few hours would get dicey anyway without room to move around, without room to stash water or food, without a toilet or beds.

pinkdrunkenelephants

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They could put in a bunch of high-O2 producing plants like mother-in-law's tongue and be relatively okay-ish.

umbrella

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is a bunch of plants in a small bunker sufficient for making enough o2?

serratur

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AstridWipenaugh

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No, you need 7-8 full-grown trees to offset a single person's respiration. https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/how-many-trees-does-it-take-to-produce-oxygen-for-one-person

Kusimulkku

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Anything longer than a few hours would get dicey anyway without room to move around, without room to stash water or food, without a toilet or beds.

Water I get, especially if it gets warm, but the rest sound weird. It won't be comfortable to be sitting around for extended amount of time with your stomach grumbling but surely you can manage more than a few hours?

topinambour_rex

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It is said that you have 6 hours of air for 4 people.

Kusimulkku

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That sounds shit. Where am I going to find three other people?

fishy195

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How are they with temperature management as well? These destructive fires get insanely hot, I've seen these fires turn vehicles into nothing but puddles of of metal. I would be concerned that these would just turn into underground ovens.

nonailsleft

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Even with huge temperatures, it doesn't take that much to isolatie from them. Especially when it's for a relatively short period

datelmd5sum

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Many cars are filled with very flammable stuff.

Valmond

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Hah, like you'd notice!

xkforce

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Excellent news for the rich: they can fuck up the environment as much as they want and sit comfortably in their apocalypse bunkers. At least until the global ecosystems collapse to an extent that not even they can hide from it I guess.

RaoulDook

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Thousands or more of Americans already have similar tornado shelters and that's all good. Has been the status quo since the days when electricity was new.

There's nothing you can do to stop tornados, so a bunker is the best place to be in one.

0x0

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Different requirements though, you skip a tornado by going underground and waiting for it to pass over you.

In a wild fire, extreme heat and lack of oxygen can be a concern, so a simply tornado shelter wouldn't cut it.

Chetzemoka

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Deep history shows us that underground creatures are the ones who survive extinction events. Underground is the safest place to be in a catastrophe, apparently.

TenderfootGungi

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These are similar to tornado shelters in the US. Several of my neighbors have them.

They even make some that are basically a porch and steps with a hatch to open and climb in.

They are also common with cheap housing like trailer houses.

Fades

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In a true apocalyptic setting, this would just be collecting resources for the strong and powerful. I don’t think the rich would stay in power for very long.

The guards and servants will turn if not before groups from the surrounding areas raid the place.

That said, if I had the money and land it’s a provocative idea in these fucked times. The thing is the rich have been working on this shit for a long time now. They know society is likely to collapse again.

Tire

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Most soldiers don’t turn on dictators. At least not as much as we’d like them to.

autotldr

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This is the best summary I could come up with:

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The bunker at the Brogers Creek property he owns with his partner delivers him back to his childhood in North America during the Cuban missile crisis.

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When fires came to within 500 metres of Greg and Chantal Roger’s Hunter Valley, NSW, home in early 2020, they were waiting to take delivery of their bunker, which seemed a logical addition to their bushfire armoury after moving from Sydney in 2019.

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And the likes of the United Nations have been warning of the bigger picture for years: The lowest income countries produce one-tenth of global emissions, but are the most heavily affected by climate change.

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In a study published in Fire journal in August, the authors argue that it is time for the federal government to take a more active role in promoting clear and consistent approaches to bunkers across the country.

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Prof Clive Williams of ANU’s Centre for Military and Security Law has argued that it should be possible to design and install a mass-produced structure, similar to Anderson shelters used in the second world war, to withstand bushfires for under $1,000.

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Swiss company Oppidum advertises underground bunkers – optional majlis (sitting rooms), parking, staff quarters, swimming pool and gym – starting at US$8m.

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The original article contains 1,513 words, the summary contains 231 words. Saved 85%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

nodsocket

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Permanently Deleted

pinkdrunkenelephants

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That's going to be less and less possible as climate collapse really kicks in.

nodsocket

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Permanently Deleted

pinkdrunkenelephants

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Tell that to the entire global south and large swaths of the U.S. in like 10 years.