DFES pilots bushfire preparedness measurement tool

This article first appeared in the Autumn 2016 edition of Fire Australia magazine. By Brenda Leahy

Fire season after season, fire and emergency service agencies implore householders to plan and prepare for bushfire. But until now there was no proven, systematic method for agencies to monitor and report on how prepared their communities and householders were to achieve their goals for facing a bushfire. 

In a promising development, West Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) has piloted, and given its stamp of approval to, a new easy-to-use survey tool that can be used to assess a community’s level of preparedness and allow householders to check how well they are prepared to meet their goals for bushfire. 

The tool is based on a survey method initially developed by researchers for the Bushfire CRC that defined preparedness in terms of three householder goals: preparedness for safe evacuation, preparedness for safe, active property defence, and improving the fire resistance of the property. 

The new Bushfire Household Preparedness Tool piloted by DFES can deliver useful information for monitoring, evaluation and review of bushfire education programs and offers meaningful data for reporting on levels of community preparedness. 

In the past, agencies such as DFES have typically relied on methods such as post-fire surveys to determine whether and how well householders were prepared to inform bushfire education, together with qualitative information captured from bushfire engagement activities, according to Suellen Flint, DFES’s Director of Community Engagement. 

As the lead for the pilot project at DFES, Ms Flint says the new tool provided baseline data for monitoring the effectiveness of its community-based Bushfire Ready Groups in helping communities to prepare. 

“An important benefit is that it can be used to show where to address any gaps and also where, over time, we are making an impact on preparedness levels.  

“This is particularly useful for reporting where we have made a positive impact, an area that has typically been difficult to measure quantitatively in the past,” she explains. 

Another key benefit is that it can used for awareness and education purposes. 

The tool provides a self-assessment scoresheet for householders to check whether they’re prepared, along with a comprehensive checklist of what’s required to get ready, providing visual cues and instructions. 

Due to the success of the pilot, DFES has already started ‘gamifying’ the tool, creating a novel card-shuffle game and innovative digital version with plans to integrate the approach fully in the agency’s soon-to-be-released Community Resilience Strategy. The pilot project, which was initially applied only to a bushfire context, has also recommended that the tool be considered for national adoption and for an all hazards context. Guidelines to support its adoption as a national standard would need to be developed to support its administration and use. 

The tool is based on a survey method initially developed by Dr Patrick Dunlop of the University of Western Australia with co-researcher Dr Illy McNeill (University of Melbourne), for their Bushfire CRC research project, Information Processing Under Stress: Community Reactions. Their study defined preparedness from a householder perspective in terms of their goals and provided checklists of actions to self-assess whether they were prepared to achieve these goals. The findings were published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire. 

Dr McNeill is continuing this work for an all hazards context through her research project for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, aiming to identify key barriers and enablers to motivating preparedness and planning by residents in order to improve the effectiveness of agency community engagement strategies. 

Communities planning for bushfire

DFES conducted the pilot to test the tool and its potential applications within agencies as a research utilisation initiative though AFAC.  

The original survey developed by the researchers had been presented to AFAC’s Community Safety Group for consideration for agency use and possible national adoption. At the time, explains AFAC’s Director of Information and Community Safety Amanda Leck, the group recommended that the survey methodology, including factors such as language and potential fit for agency applications be reviewed.  

“The Community Safety Group then referred the initiative to the Community Engagement Technical Group to test and refine the survey and investigate potential opportunities for its use nationally,” she says. The pilot study was recommended with the findings set to be reported back these AFAC groups in 2016. 

DFES was keen to participate in the pilot as part of its agency-wide focus on innovation. This strategy encourages best practice through learning, knowledge management, continuous review and evidence-based practice across all operational areas. 

To start the ball rolling, Ms Flint engaged WA-based Community Engagement Consultant Viv Warren for the tool’s development. Ms Warren pre-tested the original survey tool, including its language and accessibility, to make it more practical for DFES or potential broader agency purposes. She then worked closely with Dr Dunlop to adapt and simplify the tool for everyday use to ensure its scientific integrity remained intact.