Change cultural attitudes towards bushfires – or a repeat of ‘Black Saturday’ is likely

A ‘Community Fire Safety Maturity Grid’ could be the answer!

By Kelvin Blackney MASSE, FSIA, RSP (Aust)

The tragedy of Victoria’s ‘Black Saturday’ bushfire is highly likely to be repeated unless there are attitude changes whereby people take greater personal responsibility for fire preparedness.
The Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission’s interim report released 17.8.09 with 51 recommendations http://www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au/Interim-Report is intended to be implemented before the 2009/10 bushfire season.
If the recommendations are put into practice, there’s no doubt Victoria will be better prepared than on February 7 2009.
An area of concern, however is with Recommendation 7.2 that calls for more useful advice being given to people within bushfire prone areas and the CFA give consideration as to how it should advise residents about the defendability of their homes.
The Safety Institute’s National Technical Panel made the point in its submission to the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission on 18.5.09 that: “Consideration should be given to how a positive community fire safety culture can be developed in Victoria. Read the Full Article on page 4 of the SIAWA Oct 09 Journal