From AFAC CEO Naomi Brown:
Dear Colleagues
The AFAC position ‘Bushfire and Community Safety’ (‘Stay or Go’) expresses a nationally endorsed position on advice to the community about their safety and property protection during a bushfire. The paper provides guidance on good practice for managing community safety during bushfires. As such it provides a cornerstone in the agencies’ approach to working in partnership with communities to deal with the bushfire threat.
Over the last 4 years the Bushfire CRC has undertaken significant research on this national ‘stay or go’ position. The research has validated the advice contained in the position. The research has identified a broad range of evidence supporting the advice and has explored a range of other issues such as the legal situation in different jurisdictions and has undertaken a number of case studies looking at community response in major bushfires. While the research has supported the position it has identified a number of implementation issues that need to be addressed to ensure that the community is well prepared and able to effectively adopt the advice.
The CRC is now focussed on ensuring agencies are able to access the research findings from various projects and use these findings to improve delivery of programs and services to better manage the fire risk. As part of this process the AFAC Community Safety Group is convening a national workshop in Melbourne in mid November to assess the research findings on ‘stay or go’ and to identify how this research can be used to better implement the national position. The workshop will provide an exciting opportunity for researchers and agency staff to collaborate on improving our approach to community safety. The output of the workshop will be made widely available to agencies through their representatives on the Community Safety Group.
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