Attachment C - Bushfire Management Plan · 132008.1128.04

                                                                           Bushfire Emergency Provisions
                                       Residential Aged Care Facility – 6 Grasstree Court, Sunrise Beach

Primary Action 3: Decision to Evacuate
These provisions seek to mitigate the threat of a bushfire emergency by initiating consistent
monitoring and early action, to prevent staff and occupants being placed in a situation of potential
danger in an emergency.

ACTION TRIGGER 1: FIRE WEATHER
The measures outlined below seek to ensure the facility is vacated well in advance of any bushfire
threat on days of increased fire danger, avoiding the need for emergency evacuation. This trigger
for action is based upon fire danger weather, rather than a warning, and represents the preferred
approach to increased fire danger days to enable safe and orderly evacuation of the facility.

In instances where the three day fire danger forecast, checked by the chief or deputy chief fire
warden at 9am each day, indicates SEVERE, EXTREME OR CATASTROPHIC fire danger, the following
actions should be followed:

     •    Convene an urgent meeting of the EPC to discuss the situation

     •    The EPC is to contact Noosa Shire Council’s Disaster Management Team (including
          Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and Queensland Police Service) to discuss the
          situation, to determine whether early evacuation (before a specific threat is identified) is
          necessary. The following provides a guideline for action in these fire weather events:

                a. On consecutive days of EXTREME OR CATASTROPHIC fire danger, in any combination,
                   residents must evacuate the facility no later than 9am on the day of increased
                   danger (but preferably the day prior), and residents may only return after 7pm on the
                   final day of the increased forecast – and only when instructed it is safe to do so by
                   Queensland Fire and Emergency Services or Noosa Shire Council.

                        i. The only exception to the above is in instances where Extreme and/or
                           Catastrophic fire danger days are punctuated by a day of lower fire danger
                           (i.e. a Severe or Very High danger day). In these cases, occupants should
                           continue to remain off premises.

                b. On single days of EXTREME OR CATASTROPHIC fire danger, the facility must be
                   evacuated no later than 9am on the day of increased danger (but preferably the
                   day prior), and residents may only return after 7pm – and only when instructed by
                   Queensland Fire and Emergency Services. It is acknowledged this presents a stressful
                   situation for occupants, but these conditions are ‘rare’ in Queensland.

                c. On single days of a SEVERE fire danger forecast, the EPC must remain vigilant and
                   maintaining constant situational awareness by remaining in direct and frequent
                   contact with Noosa Shire Council’s Disaster Management Team, Queensland Fire and
                   Emergency Services or Queensland Police Service.

                d. Alternatively, the EPC may act on the advice of emergency services.

Occupants may only return when the fire danger rating drops to Very High for consecutive days (i.e.
occupants should not return if periods of Extreme and/or Catastrophic fire weather are again
forecast after single days of lower severity).

RESPONSIBILITY: The evacuation destination(s) for occupants should be arranged in advance by the
operators of the facility. The facility operators should collate information in advance on the locations
of off-site evacuation. The whereabouts of residents during off-site evacuation should be known,
and the overall emergency plan for the facility should make provision for this.

The process for off-site evacuation based on the above triggers should accord with that prescribed
by the overall emergency plan for the facility. This plan does not prescribe any changes to the
overall off-site evacuation model determined for the facility but some detail is provided below
which aligns with BlueCare’s standard triaging approach to off-site evacuation.

Status: Provisions                                                                          December 2018
Project No.: 18-030                                                                              Page 17