SOAP BOX: So you think you're not at risk?

IT'S only recently occurred to me that given the right conditions several of the homes I've had on the Coast could be at risk.

FIRE RISK: Sippy Downs residents were evacuated last week when a fire broke out in scrub near Statesman Cct. Picture: Patrick Woods

WHEN I was a kid my brother and I would go to the Blue Mountains during holidays to visit our cousin.

West of Richmond things were scrubby and dry, and hot.

My aunt and uncle were long-term members of the local bushfire brigade - they had to be. The mountains were often plagued by deadly bushfires - rural homes came under threat.

I remember stories of the precious belongings being sent away with the grown-up children while my aunt and uncle stayed behind and watered the house and blacked out spot fires that erupted as embers blew into the yard.

I've never imagined having to do anything like that; I've never thought about what I would do if a bushfire threatened my home.

It rained a lot where we lived as children, I can't recall there ever being a bushfire in the area.

Since I've lived on the Sunshine Coast my homes have always been in the suburbs, and suburbs don't burn down from bushfires, do they?

It's only recently occurred to me that given the right conditions - the conditions hot, dry, fuel-heavy, we're dealing with now - several of the homes I've had on the Coast could be at risk.

I've lived in streets that backed onto national park, and patches of forest and scrub like those we've seen burn recently.

We need to change the way we think about bushfires here and each make our own action plans, because you don't need to live "in the bush" to be at risk from bushfires.