Important conversations to have with your community about preparedness

Important conversations to have with your community about preparedness

Now is the time for our communities to finalise their preparedness plans.

It is important you have conversations with your communities about bushfire planning and its importance from a community safety perspective.

Over the last few weeks, I have presented to communities and groups around northern Tasmania about bushfire preparedness.

The priorities are ember-proofing homes, building a defendable space and preparing a bushfire plan that takes Fire Danger Ratings into consideration.

We recommend that staying and defending in SEVERE ratings and above is NOT a viable option.

Take the opportunity to talk to people about these important preparedness measures. Consider people’s ability to stay and defend, giving primary consideration to:

• Physical and emotional capacity
• Availability of sufficient firefighting equipment
• Available water supplies
• Ask, what are residents’ triggers to leave?
• If they intend to leave early, what is their plan if they are
  unable to leave early because of the fire situation?

David Cleaver, Community Development Officer North