Australia is at the forefront of research on community bushfire
safety and resilience according to a new book. Community
Bushfire Safety brings together in one comprehensive volume
the results of the most important community safety research being
undertaken within the Australian Bushfire Cooperative Research
Centre.
Using perspectives derived from social science, economics and
law, Community Bushfire Safety supports the increasing
emphasis on community self-reliance and the vital role it plays in
bushfire management.
Co-editor Professor John Handmer, Bushfire CRC Program Leader,
said this was an effective approach in dealing with bushfires.
Professor Handmer (above, at the launch) is an Innovation Professor
at RMIT University and holds Adjunct Professor positions at
Macquarie University’s Risk Frontiers, the Flood Hazard
Research Centre at Middlesex University and at the Australian
National University.
“Communities in other parts of the world, in particular
the United States and in southern Europe, have a very different
relationship with bushfires. In Australia, we know that a community
safety and resilience approach saves lives and property, and
ultimately saves the community money, because the evidence and the
research have shown this to be true,” said Professor
Handmer.
“There is a growing understanding in Australia that to
effectively deal with the bushfire threat people living in bushfire
zones must share the risk with the fire agencies. They must be
self-reliant, prepared and informed. The book is all about the
research that underpins that approach.”
“We know this approach works because most of our research
published in this book has been conducted around the extreme
bushfire events of recent years, including the alpine and Canberra
fires of 2003 and the Eyre Peninsula fires in South Australia in
2005.”
The chairman of the Bushfire CRC, Mr Len Foster, said the book
provided the research evidence for all aspects of community
bushfire safety that support the public campaigns of fire agencies
around Australia each bushfire season. “This book will be of
interest to anyone involved in preparing communities before a
bushfire, dealing with communities during a bushfire and assisting
communities to rebuild once the bushfire has gone,” said Mr
Foster.
Chapters cover issues such as preparing the home, preventing
arson, understanding the value of local knowledge, and
communicating with the media and directly to the public. It also
tackles the broader issues like how an increasingly warming world
will create the conditions for more severe bushfires and the
implications this has for communities that are expanding into
bushfire zones.
The book is a product of research out of Bushfire CRC Program C:
Community Self-Sufficiency for Fire Safety. It is co-edited by
Program Leader Prof John Handmer and Katharine Haynes.
Community Bushfire Safety was
launched on 15 April 2008 at the Metropole Hotel, in
Melbourne.
Community Bushfire Safety is published by CSIRO
Publishing. Order online at www.publish.csiro.au
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Co-editor Katharine Haynes
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