Community safety and engagement

Presentation at the Research Forum of the 2013 Bushfire CRC and AFAC Annual Conference in Melbourne.

Evidence from several sources indicates that during the 2009 Victorian bushfires (Black Saturday), many couples did not have a bushfire plan, others failed to execute their plans and some members of couples perished. Whilst there were many cases of successful couple decision-making, there were also apparent failures of survival-related couple decision-making. In this study, transcripts of 29 interviews with members of different households conducted following the Lake Clifton bushfire (WA, 10 January 2011) were analysed to examine couples’ long term bushfire planning and preparation.

The full proceedings from the 2012 Research Forum are now available. Held as part of the annual conference in Perth, the Research Forum focuses on the delivery of research findings across different disciplines for emergency management personnel who need to use this knowledge for their daily work.

Fire Note 112: This Fire Note outlines research investigating why many residents of bushfire prone areas delay their decision to defend or evacuate in response to a bushfire until the day of a fire. The research examined several plausible reasons for such a delay stemming from decision avoidance research. This Fire Note discusses the research findings, as well as the opportunities and obstacles to overcoming the problems associated with decision delay.

The Bushfire CRC has produced an e-book for parents on how to talk to children about bushfire preparation and safety.

The book is based on the PhD research of Briony Towers from RMIT University, which has been presented in many research and industry forums in recent years.

The book is designed as an interactive PDF which can be read on a computer or any tablet device. It can also be printed.