If you're not aware of it on the news, the South East corner of Australia has been in a prolonged drought and now an early bushfire season. A ceramics artist knew two weeks in advance the fires were headed his way and had foil coated his house walls to reflect heat and rigged a sprinkler system for the house. In case of emergency he built a kaowool coffin on the back of the property and was forced to use it when the road caught fire within three minutes of the first smoke being visible, making escape by car impossible. He crawled inside the "kiln" with a fire blanket, water and an extinguisher for 20 minutes while the firestorm passed overhead. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-22/tales-of-survival-from-balmoral-bushfires/11822210
Stupidly lucky in fact, these fires are the worst in Australian history and have burnt much more surface area than the fires in Brazil even: 3.65 million hectares so far. Fortunately we have US and Canadian firefighters helping out along with aerial firefighting equipment like the 737 jet waterbomber.
