From life support to life saving

Peter Weare understands the concepts of heat and gas exchange and life saving bunkers from World War II.
In the wake of Black Saturday, he hopes to bring his $1000 version of the Anderson Bomb Shelter to the community for fire protection.They come on the back of a truck in four parts and can be quickly installed, if you use an excavator, for less than $1000.
– Peter Weare
BERWICK’S Peter Weare is noted for his work on hyperbaric chambers and with bringing the chamber to Berwick.
And many people will have seen him tinkering with the Pioneers Park steam clock at Berwick, one of only three in the world.
His work on hyperbaric chambers began when he was head hunted to help with a deep sea diving support team.
Hyperbaric chambers are now well known for their work in healing injuries by using a high pressure oxygen system.
He became involved in this form of trauma treatment while helping with divers and control of decompression sickness, known as the bends, something divers fear.
He also designed a method of isolating helium from oxygen in breathing systems so that the expensive helium could be re-used after being mixed with oxygen.
He started his working career as a nurse so it seems a natural progression that his engineering skills would be toward life saving gadgets and machines.
Peter now wants to have fire shelters as a normal part of homes built in fire prone areas.
Just after the Ash Wednesday fires in 1983 he asked fire authorities to consider introducing the war time Anderson Bomb Shelter as a safe haven from wild fires.
But this fell on deaf ears.
Peter was born in London during 1941 and knew nothing but war as his awareness of life grew.
One thing embedded in his childhood memories was being taken into the bomb shelters when the sirens sounded.
“The shelters couldn’t protect people against a direct hit but they protected us from the incendiary bombs and saved thousands of lives.
“I vividly remember the bombing and the houses everywhere around on fire,” he said.
He said the shelter was specifically designed at about two metres by two metres by two metres and would comfortably house four people until the raid was over.
“They come on the back of a truck in four parts and can be quickly installed, if you use an excavator, for less than $1000.
“They are covered with dirt, can have the choice of a tunnel so that there are two doors, and are extremely efficient,” he said.
Peter has added a heat resistant closed circuit television system to replace the war time periscope.
“There is a ventilation shaft with a fan, and thermometers to register the external heat so that people know what is happening outside.
“The amount of protection depends on the amount of earth put over the shelter and the whole system is easy to build,” he said.
Peter said he took a display to the Berwick Show to explain to the public how important the shelter was during years of bombing in England.
They are easily made with a galvanized iron inside lining covered with earth and could be built on a shared basis with neighbours.
Peter said it became routine for them to go into the shelters each night as the bombing raids came over.
Once the war was over he attended the Eden Road School and at age 11 passed an entry exam into the Gypsy Road School where he excelled at making things in the machinery workshop.
“When I left school I found that lathes were not available to me and took another pathway in life.
“I became a registered nurse at the Epsom District Hospital and later worked in a Kent hospital until I became a district nurse.
“I had two patients who were making model steam engines.
“One was losing his eyesight and sold his workshop to me for 25 pounds.
“I was then able to make mechanical aids to help lift our patients.
“I made a water lift to get one chap in and out of bed.
“This worked by hooking it into the mains water pressure,” he said.
Peter entered a competition for new gadgets to help nursing and it won first prize in the national finals.
He was approached by a diving company to work out a system that would allow divers to stay under pressure for longer periods.
“They wanted them to be in that situation for three weeks and I was to manage the systems.
“When everything was working well I became bored so I acquired a lathe and made little steam engines.
“During this time I also worked out a way to isolate used helium from oxygen so that we could re-use the helium.
“I was working in Mexico and in 1980 they asked me to come to Bass Strait and I was based at Sale in East Gippsland.”
Peter would travel to Sale through Berwick to work on a diving system and came to like the place.
He was later moved to South East Asia and then the Alfred Hospital invited him to look at its hyperbaric systems.
“I was hired as a life support technician so I call myself a life support engineer,” he said.
If the government takes up his idea for fire shelters he could be seen as a life saving engineer.
Peter said plenty of plans existed for fire protection bunkers.
He said they did not need to be elaborate, nevertheless, he has designed a few improvements into the Anderson version.
“You don’t need new carpet on the floor,” he said.
Community interest in the provision of some type of defence for people living in bush and fire prone areas is growing and Peter believes his idea could provide a low cost protective system.
With more and more people living in the bush in close communities increased loss of life to wildfire is certain to rise if on-site havens are not made available.
Peter said it was imperative that the government looked at his proposal and took some action.