Community Protection Plans

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Community Protection Planning:

What is it?

An innovative emergency planning project to identify protection priorities and additional shelter options for bushfire prone Tasmanian communities.

More information about the planning process >>

Outputs

Community Bushfire Protection Plan

A simple plan for community members, it includes information on the location of nearby safer places and exit routes, and the names of local emergency broadcasters as well as general bushfire safety information.

The purpose of the protection plan is to better inform the community of their options when bushfire threatens, and assist with the development of personal Bushfire Survival Plans.

Community Bushfire Response Plan

A plan for firefighters and emergency managers, it includes information on public safety priorities, hazards, community assets and operational features.

The purpose of the response plan is to better inform emergency managers, so that the community and its assets are better protected, particularly when bushfires are burning out of control.

How to use your Community Bushfire Protection Plan:

Guide to using the Community Bushfire Protection Plan.
Download your Community Bushfire Protection Plan from the TFS website, or request a printed copy by calling 1800 000 699.
Take the time to carefully read your Community Bushfire Protection Plan.
Use the information contained in your Community Bushfire Protection Plan, such as the location of nearby safer places and exit routes, to help develop your Bushfire Survival Plan.
Keep your Community Bushfire Protection Plan and Bushfire Survival Plan together, in an easily accessible location.

Newly released Protection Plans

Turners Marsh area click here
Tomahawk area click here

Map location and link to follow

More planning is underway. Keep watching this page for more info.

Northern Region

Bellingham
Binalong Bay Area
Blackstone Heights
Falmouth
Four Mile Creek
Hadspen
Gladstone Area
Lilydale Area
Priory
Prospect Area
Scamander Area - including Beaumaris and Upper Scamander
St Helens Area
St Marys Area
Stieglitz Area
Weymouth Area - including Lulworth and Tam O'Shanter

Southern Region

Bagdad Area - including Green Valley and East Bagdad
Bonnet Hill
Coles Bay Area - including Point Meredith, Swanwick and The Fisheries
Collinsvale - including Collins Cap, Glenlusk, Fairy Glen and Springdale
Coningham
Cranbrook
Dolphin Sands
Dulcot
Eaglehawk Neck Area
Fentonbury
Fern Tree
Greater Bagdad - including Dysart, Mangalore, Black Brush and Broadmarsh
Kempton - Melton Mowbray
Maydena
Molesworth Area - including Malbina and Sorell Creek (South)
Mt Nelson and Tolmans Hill
Mt Rumney Area - including Mt Canopus
National Park
Neika - Leslie Vale
Ridgeway
Snug Area
South Hobart
Summerleas
Swansea
Taroona Area
The Lea
Tinderbox Area
Westerway

NorthWest Region

Lorinna Area
Sisters Beach Area

More about the planning process....

Community Bushfire Protection Planning – Planning Process

Community Bushfire Protection Planning is an Emergency Management Planning process which involves:

Bushfire risk assessment
Community engagement & consultation
Stakeholder consultation
Investigation and analysis, including using Geographic Information Systems
Field assessment and survey
Bushfire modelling, prediction and assessment
Drafting maps and plans

An analysis of predicted fire impact, together with social and physical geography, allows the planning team to develop an emergency management planning response to best suit the characteristics of a community.

The bushfire risk identification and analysis process used in Community Bushfire Protection Planning is guided by the National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines (NERAG).

Community Bushfire Protection Plan – Content

The Community Bushfire Protection Plan provides members of the community with specific information on:

Safety options for surviving a bushfire, including the location of nearby safer places
Communications for receiving emergency warnings and bushfire updates
Access in and out of the community area
Advice on what to do to prepare and survive a bushfire
How and where to source additional bushfire safety information

Community Bushfire Response Plan – Content

The Community Bushfire Response Plan provides emergency managers and responding brigades with vital community specific information for effective response to bushfires. Input is sourced from a range of groups such as the local community, key stakeholders, infrastructure managers, local brigades, land managers, industry experts, and service providers. The Community Bushfire Response Plan includes information on:

Nearby safer places
Vulnerable group locations (places where groups of people may need protecting)
Community Assets (high value assets to protect as a priority)
Hazards (features that may impact on the wider community or emergency responders)
Water points (access to water for firefighting)
Bushfire ready schools (the level of bushfire preparedness of an education facility)
Community Fire Refuge options
Community demographics (e.g. age profile, languages, population size, number of dwellings)
Communications (e.g. mobile phone, radio, emergency broadcaster coverage)
Vehicle access (e.g. limitations, evacuation & fire trails)
Bushfire mitigation work (e.g. fuel reduction and fire breaks)
Physical geography (e.g. vegetation types, topography, fire behaviour)
Urban development (e.g. rural/peri-urban density, land tenure, land managers)

Nearby Safer Places

A key component of the Community Bushfire Protection Planning process is the identification of nearby safer places. A nearby safer place is a site that provides a shelter option for people, as a last resort.

The identification and assessment of nearby safer places involves:

Consulting the local community to identify where they are likely to go to seek shelter in a bushfire
Using desktop geographic information systems and site visits to evaluate shelter options
Undertaking field surveys to accurately measure and asses sites
Analysing bushfire attack level and radiant heat flux using computer modelling

The nearby safer place assessment process allows planners to predict how a site will be affected by bushfire, and determine if a site will provide adequate protection or separation from radiant heat so that people may survive a bushfire.

Nearby safer place assessment draws from the assessment methodology detailed in the Australian Standard AS3959 - 2009: Construction of Buildings in Bushfire Prone Areas.

In some communities Tasmania Fire Service may not identify any nearby safer places, as there may not be any suitable sites that provide adequate separation from flammable vegetation in order to protect people from radiant heat.

What else is involved?
The Community Protection Planning initiative includes a number of other aspects, aimed at better protecting the Tasmanian community when bushfires are unable to be controlled:

Community Fire Refuge Arrangements:

Community fire refuges are another safety option that might be used by the TFS during bushfires.
Community fire refuges are not evacuation or recovery centres-they will only be used for a few hours.
They will not be used in every bushfire and there will not be one in every local area.

Read more: Community fire refuges

Bushfire Ready Schools:

The ‘Bushfire Ready Schools’ initiative is another joint effort between TFS and the education sector in Tasmania with DoE, Catholic and Independent school associations actively involved.
This initiative supports the provision of consistent and coordinated advice to improve the bushfire preparedness of schools and child care facilities.

TFS Info about Bushfire Ready Schools

Building in Bushfire Prone Areas: