Rising from the backyard of Noel Carr's bushland home are two strange-looking structures that resemble extraterrestrial pods.Unusual, yes, but in the event of a bushfire, the 84-year-old Rural Fire Service veteran says he would trust them with his life.The pods are home-made fire shelters, built to protect Mr Carr and his wife, Avril, from an ever-present peril.The couple's 2.5ha home adjoins the Royal National Park and has had several narrow escapes from fire over the three decades the Carrs have lived on Darkes Forest Rd."I actually got this property after two homes and a fire truck were razed during the fires of 1969; no-one else wanted it," he said. "Since then, we've had three fires pass through here."The roar in a fire is the thing that frightens you. The roar is out of this world."Mr Carr said he built his first pod in 1989 after acquiring the specifications from a CSIRO scientist.This "prototype", which accommodates up to eight people, was built using a tough plastic frame, rabbit-proof netting, builders' foil, a layer of cement, more netting and a finishing layer of cement.The buildings are rounded to deflect fire embers and painted white to reflect heat.The interior is kept cool by a 166-litre steel drum of water that sits inside.During the weekend's high temperatures, Mr Carr said the interior of the pod was 10 degrees cooler."These shelters can go through any fire and survive. You jump inside; quite often the fire front is gone in about 10 minutes," he said.Despite his confidence, Mr Carr said his shelters were yet to be put to the test.When fire ravaged the Royal National Park in 2003, it narrowly missed the property.Mr Carr, a retired radiographer, said he had tried to interest former NSW Rural Fire Commissioner Phil Koperberg in having the shelters mass-produced, but without success. He believed the shelters may have helped to reduce the death toll in Victoria's devastating weekend fires.
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