Information response

   There is a possibility that a bushfire may impact the development within 1 hour, 6 hours,
    or 12 hours;
   There is so much smoke about that it is causing medical problems for residents and that
    they should be taken somewhere less affected by smoke.
The emphasis should be on an early evacuation for an Aged Care Facility. If done early,
evacuation would be via the proper road network, in which case buses could turn around at
the roundabout to the south and then head north and not be impacted by an approaching
fire. In this instance no other evacuation route would be required. It is likely that residents
would be taken to a sister facility owned by Arcare until it was deemed safe to return to the
Noosaville facility.
Danger ensues when the decision to evacuate is delayed until it is too late and people are
caught by the fire while trying to escape.

The Bushfire CRC has undertaken research into evacuation in the event of a bushfire
emergency. The research concluded that the most important solution to decision delay was
to have brigades advise residents on how to identify appropriate decision triggers and
therefore appropriate actions to take under a variety of conditions.
The bushfire CRC identified some other triggers such as:
   a predicted fire danger rating, such as a warning of extreme fire danger.
   a fire actually breaking out within, five kilometres of their home when the fire danger
    rating is ‘severe’,
   10 kilometres if it’s ‘extreme’, and
   20 kilometres if it’s ‘catastrophic’.
The appropriate actions would vary according to the intensity of the fire and the time until
impact. All fire agencies in Australia urge people to leave their homes if there is a fire
burning in the vicinity and the conditions are ‘catastrophic’.

In the unlikely event that the facility was not evacuated by the time a serious bushfire
impacted the facility, all staff and residents would be required to seek shelter inside the
building until the fire front had passed. The facility is well designed to resist the impact of a
bushfire including being sited and constructed to withstand anticipated radiant heat and
ember attack.
7      Written State consent for the formation of a roadway across a piece of the
       Noosa National Park.
The formation of a roadway across the Noosa National Park is not required as explained
above.
8      Provide an Emergency Response Plan that identifies: -
       (a)   Safe and accessible ingress and egress points for the facility where
             should one be closed due to any reason an alternative egress/ingress
             point would still be available,
       (b)   Actions the facility will initiate should a bushfire threaten the area or the
             facility including resources and training staff and management will
             receive to ensure they are able to respond to a bushfire emergency in
             an effective and efficient manner.
There are two egress points depicted on the site plan prepared by Oksio. The bushfire
evacuation plan template submitted with the original application provides a sound basis to
develop appropriate triggers for evacuation of the facility. The plan is best to be developed
and updated by the facility management team prior to the commencement of the use so that
the people implementing it have ‘buy in’ of the plan.