Prepare, Act & Survive

Thinking "I will leave early" is not enough.
You must PREPARE to ACT and SURVIVE.

Your plan will help you take action and avoid making last minute decisions that could prove deadly during a bushfire.

Reasons for having a Bushfire Survival Plan

The majority of people who die during bushfires in South Australia are caught fleeing their homes at the last minute.
Preparing your Plan allows you to identify the triggers to leave early or prepare to actively defend your property
Bushfires can be scary and overwhelming. This is not the time to be making major decisions.
Preparing your plan allows you to make major decisions in advanced and will help keep you focused and make better decisions in the event of a bushfire threat.
During a bushfire, you will most likely be worried about your loved ones.
A prepared and practised Bushfire Survival Planwill help family members know where others are and what they'll be doing.
You might find at the last minute that you don;t have the clothing, equipment or resources to enact your plan to leave early or sty and defend.
A prepared and practised Bushfire Survival Plan will help you to identify the resources you need.
Bushfires can be unpredictable and the best laid plans can go wrong.
A well prepared Plan will include contingencies and back-ups if your primary plan fails.

A written and practised Bushfire Survival Plan is the most important part of your preparation to survive a bushfire.

Preparing a Bushfire Survival Plan

Your plan will help you take action and avoid making last minute decisions that could prove deadly during a bushfire.

Your Bushfire Survival Plan outlines what you need to do to help safeguard your property and, most importantly, what actions each member of your family will take on fire risk days and if a fire threatens.

Making a choice when a bushfire threatens is too late. The majority of people in bushfires die fleeing their homes at the last moment. Leaving late is a deadly option.

What will you do?

It is difficult to make a single decision - whether you intend to stay and defend your property or leave early - as circumstances can vary. It is important to recognise that in an emergency, unexpected things are likely to occur so you will need to adapt to changing circumstances and have a plan that will work in different situations.

Your plan should alter according to the forecast Fire Danger Rating and may need to take into account questions like: will it need to be different weekends to weekdays? What if the children are at school? What if we have house guests or someone is home sick?

You may also decide to have different plans to suit the daily Fire Danger Rating and enact one plan on days where the Fire Danger Rating is forecast to be Severe and a different plan when the Fire Danger Rating is forecast to be Catastrophic.

Regardless of your decision, you'll need to have a backup plan in case unexpected things happen on the day.

Practice makes perfect

Advantages of a practised Bushfire Survival Plan

Provides purpose and motivation

Your preparation accomplishments are built on a series of small steps.

Provides specific direction

you know where you are going, what to do and what your family will be doing.

Helps prevent panic

A written and practised plan will help you focus on what you have to. If you have practised your plan, it will be easier for you to cope and your responses will be more automatic.

Irons out the kinks

There may be things you have planned that prove to be impractical, or for which you need extra resources. Practising your plan will help you to identify the things you need to change, or the resources you need to source.

Prepare, Act & Survive

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