INQ172

A standard for signage at fire incidents be developed and caches of this equipment be established at DEC and Local Govt facilitates to enable its rapid and effective deployment by Ground Support Unit at fires.

At Level 3 incidents the Information Services Unit should be adequately resourced with information technology and at least 6 persons, all of whom are very experienced and capable in dealing with the information demands of a Level 3 incident.

A centralised emergency services website should be established that the public can access for reliable and up to date information on any incident. The website must be capable of reliably servicing a very high traffic load and be easily updated by HMA’s.

Public meetings are to be encouraged for all Level 3 incidents that affect, or have the potential to affect communities.

A review of community messages, their construction and component parts, the process to activate them and the technology required to deliver the messages by digital and non-digital media should be undertaken.

Pre-season refresher training to include an emphasis on check in/out procedures

A strategically located Staging Area serviced with check in/out personnel should be considered as early as possible at incidents involving an extended attack.

Provide a photocopier in the Mobile Communications Facility or the mobile equipment cache that is capable of large volume production of collated documents.

Ensure the S61 helicopter has all appropriate channels for water bombing operations throughout the State by including this requirement on a pre-deployment checklist.

Add an ‘Aviation’ map to the standard set of incident maps. The standard for this map will need to be developed by subject matter experts from the Air Ops group.

At large incidents a communications bus should be provided for the use by Air Ops and a designated work space should be provided for the Air Ops management group.

Wherever possible the ISU should be co-located with Operations and Logistics Sections to ensure effective communications and the ICC in which they operate should be located in the affected community.

ABC Radio should be a participant in IMG and/or OAMG. LEMC and DEMC should plan for this involvement in Local and District Emergency Management Plans.

There is an established need to develop mobile accommodation and accommodation facility support solutions that allows an acceptable standard of accommodation to be provided to fire fighters in close proximity to the incident.

Perishable food should be ‘stamped’ with an expiry date.

Food storage should be a design consideration in all fire ground appliances

Pre-season arrangements to provide high quality food should be encouraged in all emergency management plans

There needs to be a system that allows laptop computers brought to an incident to be configured at the start of the season and allow them to be easily activated to the correct configuration when they arrive at the incident.

Portable, reliable mobile repeaters are required to provide radio communications into areas not covered by existing repeater networks. These repeaters need the capacity to be linked.

Media liaison personnel are needed to ‘ride’ shotgun’ on media personnel to facilitate them getting their stories without imposing on the effectiveness of operations.

The information templates used by the ISU in developing public information boards need to be standardised and posted on the DEC Fire Management Services webpage to allow access and use by the ISU.

Dedicated information packages should be made available to personnel operating Vehicle Control Points at the shift briefing.

The ISU should be provided with a person with local knowledge at Level 3 incidents.

Suppression resources should be ordered and mobilised as 2 truck Strike Teams with a STL and consistently deployed to the fire ground as a unit.

Transport plans for BFB resources should be prepared by the Ground Support Unit in close liaison with FESA who will liaise with the home jurisdictions of the brigades.

At Level 3 incidents the position of ‘Traffic Operations Officer’ –be established and filled by a WAPOL officer. A role description for this position is required and should be included in the “Guidelines for the Operations of Road Closures During Bushfires 2008”.

The responsibilities and obligations for an OAM and OAMG (when established) needs to clarified and codified in Westplan Bushfire with regard to • Provision of information to participating organisations about the progress and potential of an incident; • Dealing with information disseminated to the

When an OAMG is established, a formal declaration of its establishment needs to be transmitted to all organisation/agencies involved. The declaration should clearly establish the reporting arrangements for Incident Controllers to the OAM as described in Westplan Bushfire.

Potential OAMG membership should be identified in DEMC protocols and local hazard management plans. The information needs to be kept current. The contact details for each member should be recorded.

A formal OAMG meeting should be convened as early as possible for incidents with the potential to be Level 3 incidents.

Prior to the bushfire season, potential IMG members, many of whom are members of the Local Emergency Management Committee (LEMC) should be made aware of, and possibly exercise, their role as an IMG member.

Potential IMG membership should be identified in local hazard management plans. The information needs to be kept current. The contact details for each member should be recorded.

A formal IMG meeting should be convened as early as possible at initiating incidents with potential. At the very least early advice to potential IMG members should be made that a meeting is likely to be convened.

All incidents where the HMA delegates the authority to manage suppression operations to another agency on its behalf, should be achieved via a written delegation setting out the scope, limitations and duration of the delegation.

The Emergency Management Act 2005 is amended to provide a mechanism for one HMA to transfer responsibility to another HMA and ensure that both HMA’s are provided the powers and protection necessary under that Act.

Main Roads Western Australia, Police and LGA’s be encouraged via State emergency arrangements to establish a distributed cache of “hard” road barriers for deployment to major incidents

In preparing traffic management plans consideration should be given to which VCP’s are critical and need to be resourced with uniformed Police Officers and which VCP’s can be manned with civilian contractors.

Pre-season multi- agency refresher training for Ground Controllers should be undertaken each year.

The declaration of a potential Level 3 incident should be notified to FESA who can facilitate an early warning to CFCO’s in the Shire and surrounding LGA’s.

Unassigned resources arriving at incidents should be encouraged to make themselves known and to undertake alternate duties.

The role of ‘BFB Task Force Liaison’ be defined and appropriately trained personnel be provided by the HMA (possibly from support brigades) to facilitate brigade movements on and off the fire ground.

A centralised, regional, multi-agency resource coordination and tracking system/facility be established to accommodate and coordinate the movement of resources from all agencies within and between regions.

The Interagency Guidelines need to be amended to reflect what is operationally possible with regard to risk management rather than what is required to achieve an absence of risk.

Information packs to be provided to road traffic personnel to assist with enquiries by public or provision to members of public and landholders who are defending homes/stock etc

Full briefings of traffic management personnel should be provided prior to dispatch to work areas – why road closed, what their authority level is, level of current risk etc

Provision of timely, accurate and regular information to the community via electronic media (radio and internet) is a recognised function of the Information Unit in liaison with the Traffic Operations Officer.

The Interagency Guidelines for Road closure needs to be reviewed to incorporate a mechanism to identify bone-fide local landholders to facilitate their movement in and out of cordoned areas in sympathy with the Stay and Defend requirements.

The Emergency Management Regulations 2006 be urgently amended to determine a HMA(s) for bushfire.