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The Ferny Creek Bushfire Alert System

Fire is an important and widely used tool to meet land management goals. However, wildfires, which burn millions of hectares of forests, woodlands and other vegetation globally each year, kill many people and animals and cause immense economic damage through the destruction of resources and the costs of suppression. Wildfires also have major impacts on society and the environment. Their smoke is harmful to human health. They also cause losses in biodiversity, release greenhouse gases and damage recreational areas and infrastructure. 

In some regions, there is evidence of a trend towards more fires of greater intensity that are affecting larger areas. The risk of fire may be increasing due to climate change in association with land-use changes and institutional constraints on sustainable forest and fire management. 

Preventive landscape management is needed to address the cultural, technical, social, financial, organizational, economic, commercial, and policy-related aspects of fire. Local communities suffer directly from fires that threaten their livelihoods. In some cases, they are the cause of fire. Because local communities are often the main actors in landscape management, participatory, community-based approaches should be used to involve them in the decision-making processes related to preventive landscape management. 

The Ferny Creek Bushfire Alert System (FCBAS) in Victoria, Australia, is an emergency communication system that broadcasts using three independent, strategically located sirens. Operational in declared fire-danger periods, the purpose of the FCBAS is to alert residents when an emergency call fulfils predetermined criteria that indicate a potential threat in the vicinity. The alert provides residents with essential extra minutes in which to implement their predetermined fire-safety plans. This is necessary because steep, densely forested terrain in the district severely restricts visibility and precludes the normal visual warning of the outbreak and approach of wildfire. A systemic community education campaign has proved to be highly effective in making the system work.

The FCBAS combines old and new technology. An abundance of 'quality' information has been made available to the community. The siren system provides a simple 'quantity' message, alerting as many people as possible in the quickest possible time. Residents respond by informing themselves of the cause of the alarm and implementing fire safety plans. The FCBAS is not a signal to evacuate.

The Ferny Creek community has its own initiatives to increase education on the alert system and augment the knowledge base so that all responses to a siren and a wildfire emergency are appropriate and planned. New residents are contacted and the importance of understanding wildfire safety messages is explained. A reliable network of the latest information is provided to ensure preparedness, appropriate fire management and prevention. The FCBAS has facilitated an ongoing commitment to community safety. The project has been evaluated by the Victorian Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner and serves as a benchmark for community warning within the state. The FCBAS provides opportunities for engaging and empowering the local community by enabling partnerships between local emergency service agencies and local, state and federal governments. The win-win partnership of the system is in its simplicity. Three sirens with response areas strategically designated within and beyond the local fire brigade area maximize the relevance and timeliness of the alert to the community. 

The systematic education campaign links all emergency service agencies and makes residents aware of the roles of each of the agencies and the interactions and cohesion among them. The siren system has backup power, so that if electricity is lost, its alert capability will not be compromised.

Source: FAO (2013)