Information response

                                                                                                                           REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
                                                                                                                           Cacioppo J and Petty R, 1982, The
                                                                                                                           need for cognition, 42(1), Journal of
                                                                                                                           Personality and Social Psychology,
                                                                                                                           116–131.
                                                                                                                           Dunlop P, McNeill I, Stacy J, Morrison
                                                                                                                           D, Skinner, T, 2012, Preparing … for
                                                                                                                           what? Exploring the dimensionality
                                                                                                                           of community wildfire preparedness,
                                                                                                                           paper presented at the 3rd Human
                                                                                                                           Dimensions of Wildland Fire
                                                                                                                           Conference, Seattle.
                                                                                                                           Frost R and Shows D, 1993, The nature
                                                                                                                           and measurement of compulsive
                                                                                                                           indecisiveness, 31(7), Behavioral
                                                                                                                           Research Therapy, 683-692.
                                                                                                                           McLennan J, Elliot G, Omodei M, 2012,
                                                                                                                           Householder decision making under
                                                                                                                           imminent wildfire threat: Stay and
                                                                                                                           defend or leave, 21(7), International
                                                                                                                           Journal of Wildland Fire, 915-925.
                                                                                                                           Tibbits A and Whittaker J, 2007, Stay
                                                                                                                           and defend or leave early: Policy,
                                                                                                                           problems and experiences during
                                                                                                                           the 2003 Victorian bushfires, 7(4),
                                                                                                                           Environmental Hazards, 283-290.
        Residents were not likely to delay making a decision on their action due to a lack of risk awareness, or
         avoiding responsibility. Photo: CFA Strategic Communications                                                      Whittaker J, Haynes K, McLennan J,
                                                                                                                           Handmer J, Towers B, 2010, Victorian
     or ‘evacuate’, or by increasing their risk                 The most important solution is to have
                                                                                                                           2009 Bushfire Research Response:
     perception. A solution could be to transform               brigades advise residents on how to
                                                                                                                           Household Mail Survey, Bushfire
     their delay into a contingency plan that spells            identify appropriate triggers and therefore
                                                                                                                           Cooperative Research Centre, East
     out under which circumstances they would                   appropriate actions to take under a variety
                                                                                                                           Melbourne.
     defend, and under which circumstances                      of conditions. In Victoria, households can
     they would evacuate. This would also be in                 already get personalised advice on whether
                                                                                                                        own fire plans, which they then communicate
     line with what a good fire plan would entail.              they should even consider defending
                                                                                                                        to the community.
     However, this may be problematic due to                    their house.
     obstacles such as the complexity involved in                                                                       Finally, random fire drills across neighbourhoods
                                                                Over the longer term, agencies could
     making a contingency plan, and the lack of                                                                         could help households to practise and improve
                                                                eventually reduce the community’s reliance
     the necessary support from brigades or fire                on the agencies’ advice by establishing better          their plans. This is already undertaken in NSW.
     agencies in helping these householders to                  links with the community and increasing                 It is clear that delaying the decision regarding
     develop their contingency plans.                           community-driven education. Community                   individual or household bushfire response is
     FUTURE DIRECTIONS                                          members could then use this knowledge to                a substantial and complex problem, which
                                                                help individual households to develop good              will be challenging to resolve. It is hoped that
     During the workshop for community
                                                                contingency plans.                                      this study helps to clarify the problem and
     engagement managers, the group also
     identified several ways to overcome obstacles              Fire agencies and brigade members should                identify the strategies that are most likely to
     to developing contingency plans.                           also model this activity by developing their            succeed or fail.


    Fire Note is published jointly by the                       Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre                    Australasian Fire and Emergency Service
    Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre                        Level 5/340 Albert Street                               Authorities Council
    (Bushfire CRC) and the Australasian Fire                    East Melbourne VIC 3002                                 Level 5/340 Albert Street
    and Emergency Service Authorities Council                   Telephone: 03 9412 9600                                 East Melbourne VIC 3002
    (AFAC). This Fire Note is prepared from                     www.bushfirecrc.com                                     Telephone: 03 9419 2388
    available research at the time of publication                                                                       www.afac.com.au
    to encourage discussion and debate. The                     Bushfire CRC is a national research centre in the
    contents of the Fire Note do not necessarily                Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) program, formed       AFAC is the peak representative body for fire,
    represent the views, policies, practices or                 in partnership with fire and land management agencies   emergency services and land management agencies
    positions of any of the individual agencies                 in 2003 to undertake end-user focused research.         in the Australasia region. It was established in 1993
    or organisations who are stakeholders of the                Bushfire CRC Limited ABN: 71 103 943 755                and has 35 full and 10 affiliate member organisations.
    Bushfire CRC.

4      Background briefings on emerging issues for fire managers from AFAC and Bushfire CRC.