How does shared responsibility translate into effective programs that will reduce the risk of bushfire attack particularly for those people living in the Rural Urban Interface areas?

In this paper I suggest that a different approach is called for as to how the Emergency Management industry regards the householder in fire-prone areas. Instead of being a passive recipient of emergency management services with the preferred option being to evacuate early, the householder needs to become a far more active participant to ensure their own safety and their property’s survival in a bushfire. By aiming to have properties at a much lower risk of bushfire attack in advance of any bushfire threat the response effort required will less hazardous and less expensive.

To bring about this change, the householder needs firstly to be viewed as a customer - they pay an ESL - and a vital stakeholder in both the policy development and the on-the-ground involvement in bushfire risk management.

To implement this changed view lessons can be learnt from organizations such as the Water Corporation of Western Australia and the Firewise Communities USA program run out of the National Fire Protection Association in the US. Education, marketing and promotion using the techniques of the advertizing industry with a strong social media and web presence especially for the latter, is instrumental in bringing about desired changes in behaviour with water use and wildfire, respectively.

A Customer Advisory Council modelled on that at the Water Corporation could be a useful way of receiving feedback from a range of people living in fire-prone areas. This approach would assist policy development and inform decisions about how best to treat landholders and residents at risk.