Bushfire safety drive

[CFS_Firey]

Someone (non-CFS) mentioned an interesting idea to remind about and help prepare the public for Bushfires.
She suggested that we go around to all the shops in the district and get them to have a display for the bushfire season...


*So the Hardware store would sell packages with Rake, Garden hose, goggles, gloves, etc.
*Clothes store have a display of Cotton clothes with overalls, bandanna's etc,
*Book store / Newsagent sells copies of The bushfire book, or other related material,
*Chemists sell special "bushfire" first aid kits, with eye wash/gel, burns treatment etc.
*And anything else you can think of


I thought it was a good idea, as information session's put on by CFS or Bushfire blitz tend to get ignored, but if people are seeing an opportunity to prepare everywhere they go, it could help.
Do you think this would be a good / effective idea?  Should the CFS maybe look at organizing this statewide?

[CyberCitizen]

She suggested that we go around to all the shops in the district and get them to have a display for the busfire season...

CFS_firey,

Do You Get That Many Bus Fires That You Have A Season For Them LOL

I Like The Idea, Its Something A Little Bit More Practial.

[CFS_Firey]

Thanks CyberCitizen all fixed now (I hope )

[oz fire]

What a great idea!

Community involvement in helping an community based emergency service protect and educate it's community!!!

I hope you are pushing this idea up the line - ie to Leigh Miller - Manager Prevention Services (CFS HQ) and Brenton Ragless (Media Guru CFSHQ) - i would email them direct with your thoughts - after all it's only 2 1/2 months away

If CFS could get a community or two to adopt that style of pro-active approach that would be fantastic!!!!!!

Maybe you could add - supermarkets - water and food packs, rural suppliers - specials on pumps, sprays and alike!!!

[CFS_Firey]

I hadn't thought of going to high places with the idea, but I will... Is there somewhere I can get email addresses without troubling SHQ?

[firefighter_sa]

I agree

I have allot of friends whom live within the Port Lincoln area - and after the devastating fires they all were asking similar Fire Prevention questions.

Should we have stayed or left, what could have I done, I didn't have any fire protection (portable pump and water source) and the trees & vegetation surrounding my house looks lovely BUT:

Everyone always questions them selfs after a devastating fire which they experienced but the Fire Prevention education need to be ongoing.  I have some ideas as well - there should be presentations in the country areas - like your local sports clubs, apex and lions etc.  They use scare tactics on the news for driver fatigue, speeding and drink driving we also need to use this sort of eductation process for Fire Prevention & Protection for the general public

I also live in a highly fire danger area (to B---dy close to the National Parks) and I hope I have taken the right precautions, sprinklers on the roof, portable fire pump, clean and tidy around the house and educated the family (I also collect vintage Fire Engines with three in the shed).  But like a lot of CFS Volunteers will I be home in time or on the truck?

Thanks for reading

Wayne

[Mike]

I dont think that scare tactics are the way to go in this case. For all intensive purposes I dont think they really work that well anyway. Look how many people still get caught for speeding....

Ongoing education and ideas such like this go a lot further, as its amazing how much information people take in sub-consiously as well.

By having things for people to buy everywhere you go, accompanied by a bit of a display (something a little different at every place). It will get people thinking a little at first, but the more they see it the more they think.....

Definately worth suggesting to those up the chain.... Fantastic idea 

[rescue5271]

Bushfire season and education should be an all year round thing not just a few months when its hot,I like the idea of getting shops to do displays but could we not take this one step more and have community fire units like NSW does?? The only wat to get the message across is education and that means starting at a early age with school visits and street talks...

[CFS_Firey]

Do you think members of your brigade would volunteer their time to teach kids fire safety? I'm sure my brigade could teach a few lessons, but the CFS should look at full hiring full time teachers... (I believe this was something that came out of project Phoenix?)

[oz fire]

but could we not take this one step more and have community fire units like NSW does??

Whats a community fire unit???

[rescue5271]

A community fire unit in NSW are residents that are trainned by the NSWFB to deal with fires in there street. They have PPE,pumps and hoses and are very good at what they do... That is all I know about them

[oz fire]

Oh - now I know what you are talking about - from Personal experience - we don't want them here!
They may be trained (very, very limited) and they may have equipment, but there is no coordination and as some CFS crews will attest who had the misfortune of encountering them in the 2001/2002 NSW fires, they would have been better if they had been evacuated with the rest of the community!!!!

Good concept, but the dollars would be better spent going back into the fire service - we have fire services for that reason, to fight the fire, if people want to participate join the fire service (at least in urban/rural interface areas)

My view only - from several encounters with them in NSW!!!!

[CFS_Firey]

My understanding of the community fire units is that they are meant to be separate from the fire service. They ares supposed to stay in their street, and save the houses there, so that the Fire service can focus its resources on the fire, and wouldn't need to coordinate them. that is, they are like a neighborhood watch system, except watching for, and putting out fires.

I can see great advantages in training community members like this, but the CFS shouldn't pay for it... maybe local councils?

[rescue5271]

So you would have to agree that there is a place for these units in this state??? Lets face it its better to have some trained people to help rather than not. As for being not part of the fire service, well where would these people get there training and leadership from??? They could be part of the community street programe???

On an other note why is it that only high risk areas like the HILL'S get the white van over summer to talk to groups of people?? I would like to see a van in each region so as we can spread the word about fire safety not just in one high risk area...

[CFS_Firey]

On an other note why is it that only high risk areas like the HILL'S get the white van over summer to talk to groups of people?? I would like to see a van in each region so as we can spread the word about fire safety not just in one high risk area...

I agree that Bushfire Blitz should be state wide, but at the same time, don't think you're missing much... No offense intended to Bushfire Blitz, but the session I saw wasn't much good. they said what anyone who new a little bit about bushfire safety would already know, and the woman who was presenting it didn't know much else about bushfires, so couldn't talk from experience... its a good thought, but at the moment, i think it has a long way to go...

[rescue5271]

dont the people who teach bushfire blitz have to have some sort of understanding of bushfires? and did they not have to have a fire background?

[CFS_Firey]

don't the people who teach bushfire blitz have to have some sort of understanding of bushfires? and did they not have to have a fire background?

I can't speak for all of them, but the session I saw was run by someone who didn't seem to... She knew the speech off by heart, but as soon as someone would ask a question outside of the training material, she didn't know. For example, the book says that you need to clear a 30M firebreak around your house... In the hills that's just not going to happen (I don't think anyone would want to cut down all their trees let alone have council permissions to do it), However when asked if there was anything else that could be done, she didn't suggest planting fire resistant plants, etc, just said she didn't know about it... Maybe she was just new?

I'm not saying she was hopeless - she certainly conveyed very important information, but I doubt she had a fire background...
You can be taught about fire behavior in level 1 but you only really understand it when you've been to a fire....

[rescue5271]

ok,well if that is the case may be we need to have firefighter's do this job over summer but pay them lets face it the public relate well to people in uniform who know what they are talking about. But you could be right she may have been new to the job and she did get some of the message across,but she was not able to give more information to that group or that one person.....

One would hope that may be this year CFS will get firefighter's doing the job........

[oz fire]

Bush fire blitz did go outside R1 & R2 - they did big campaigns in the Riverland, Mallee and Murraylands, includeing several holiday sessions on every ferries from Renmark to Jervois - it was a great way to spread the message and I found them very informative (although after the 3rd crossing at Mannum I did get sick of seeing them .. lol).

I guess the underlying thing still remains though - what does the prevention section in HQ do, apart from drive cfs cars and get a nice wage - maybe a bushfire blitz program on a state level may have helped some of the West Coast communities - maybe, it's a valuable lesson, fire safety isn't ony an Adelaide Hills issue - it happens state wide!

The problem, often the political dollar and preasure dries up after you can't see it from North Terrace - and as we often see the country areas, where the population is less, the need greater, it is often left to make do with what they have!!!!

[corocfs]

this is possibly why some brigades need to take it into there own hands in rural areas, and initiate the contact with the public to inform them about bushfire safety..

[oz fire]

this is possibly why some brigades need to take it into there own hands in rural areas, and initiate the contact with the public to inform them about bushfire safety..

I think this is one of the problems. Unlike the urban brigades, where allot of the members join CFS initially for something to do, a way to give back, from what I have seen, in rural areas the CFS members are also the local progress association members, on the cricket, football or netball club, help out with CWA, on the local hall committee, other community groups and alike, plus they travel, a long way to undertake their various tasks - people who volunteer their time are few and the workload huge - the difference, in the more urban areas the numbers are greater and the "whole of community workload less........ due to the population!

[kat]

Interesting to know campaign came into Region 3. Never saw it or heard a thing about it! And Tailem Bend is on the other end of that Jervois ferry crossing! Surely more effective if local Brigades are at least given the opportunity to participate?

[oz fire]

Kat, don't think your alone, caught up with a Mannum member the weekend they had Blitz on the ferries and the first they knew about them was when they went across the ferry - great communication skills those prevention people  Obvious they are employed by CFS prevention services   

[CFS_Firey]

Back to the original topic again, 
I emailed Leigh Miller and Brenton Raglass a couple of weeks ago (23/08/05) but haven't heard back... If anyone else is interested in doing this in their area, it would make it easier for everyone if we helped each other out (ie, with lists, and ideas etc)
So if anyone's interested, let us know here, and we can either be ready when HQ say they'll do it, or we can do it anyway if they don't want to help

[rescue5271]

Sounds good to me I am all for education for people and have been asking for a number of years if we can run the blitz program down here in region 5. I will see ragless on Saturday at a workshop so I may ask him about blitz and a few other media things that are on my list...