Everyone should be prepared for bushfire

Everyone should be prepared for bushfire

All the social distancing restrictions we are now facing with COVID-19 means we need to think a bit differently about how we engage with communities and share fire safety information.

One of the implications is that it may be harder to meet people face-to-face to share fire safety information with them. An alternative may be to share links to TFS webpages and/or copies of publications by email or social media. Here are a few of the resources available on the TFS website, the TFS School Fire Education website and the TFS Bushfire-Ready Neighbourhoods website.

AlertsList and AlertsMap are the best sources of up-to-date information about bushfires in Tasmania. Community members can find information on alerts and warnings for bushfires that are burning out of control. They can also tune into their local ABC radio. During bushfire season you can recommend that people keep up-to-date with the forecast Fire Danger Ratings and when Total Fire Bans and Permits are in place.

Bushfire: Prepare.Act.Survive includes videos and information about planning to leave Early or stay and defend and property preparation for bushfire. You can share a link to the online tool to help people create their Bushfire Survival Plan, or to download copies of the full booklet, the leave early checklist and the stay and defend checklist. You can also share videos about the eight aspects of preparing a Bushfire Ready Property.

To help people get a sense of the impact of bushfires in Tasmania, you can share a link to the ’67 Bushfire Story Map containing stories from Tasmanians who lived through the devastating 1967 bushfires.

In terms of Bushfire-Ready Neighbourhoods (BRN), there is information about the program, upcoming events, and copies of past newsletters. There are also a number of useful videos about BRN activities; Guide to burning heaps safely; Emergency Alert - Be Warned. Be Informed.; and Auslan - Bushfire presented byTASDeaf.

Community Bushfire Plans are available and show details about the location of Nearby Safer Places.

There is useful information about Building for Bushfire, including information on Bushfire-Prone Areas in Tasmania, as well as a range of resources about construction and development in bushfire-prone areas.

For primary school aged children, there is information about the School Fire Education program aimed at teachers, parents and carers as well as TFS Kids which has games and resources aimed at young children.  Disaster Resilience Education Tasmania has resources for school teachers (aimed at years 5-8) to teach about the fundamentals of disaster resilience and developing safe communities.

Bushfire-Ready Carers has resources for volunteers, carers and home and community care workers for their support of residents’ preparation for bushfires. Community Phone Tree Networks has information about setting up a phone tree in your area.

There are many publications available to share on the TFS website. These include publications on home fire safety, bushfire safety, bushfire safety posters, building safety, and vegetation management (you need to scroll down towards the bottom of the page to find them). There are also bushfire safety and home fire safety publications and other useful resources (such as factsheets and guidelines) on the BRN website. You can order hard copies of many of these publications and other giveaways if you need them.

If you can’t find the information or a publication that you want to share in your community, please contact your Community Development Officer to see if we can help
or call 6166 5544.

Brett Patterson
Community Development Officer, North West