INQ196

Explain the meaning of ‘timely, relevant and tailored’ community bushfire warnings through training and meetings particularly of Information Section staff and Incident Controllers.

Review OSOM to enable monitoring or tracking of where messages were sent, who they were sent to and when they are due for review.

Integrate social media into the OSOM system.

Review the potential use of ‘crowdsourcing’ sites such as Bushfire Connect in community bushfire warnings.

Educate and engage with fire-affected landholders about the types of warnings, what they might expect from the warnings and their responsibility for response to prevent loss of life.

Amend SOP J4.01and other strategic and procedural documents to reflect the goal of ‘timely, relevant and tailored’ for community bushfire warnings.

Develop a robust evaluation framework to review community bushfire warning policies, processes, systems and procedures both internally and with communities at regular intervals and immediately after a major bushfire event.

Review the suite of community bushfire warning systems available to tourists across the State.

Allow the MFB and SES access to using OSOM.

Review the use of the terms in the templates e.g. ‘out of control’ so that community misconceptions are minimised.

Ensure that warning terminology used in the templates and FireWeb is consistent.

Review Emergency Alert and OSOM systems to improve ease of use.

Improve links and interactions between the communication systems e.g. customise OSOM messages to each of the communication mechanisms, link OSOM with Emergency Alert.

Ensure that local knowledge, local flavour and local language is used where possible in the development of all community bushfire warnings.

Encourage ICCs to use local knowledge to review templates prior to release.

Consider the ‘secondment’ of staff into Information Section roles during the fire season along the lines of the seasonal Project Fire Fighters model

Increase the regularity of training for ICC Information Section staff and encourage pre-season drilling and trials in the use of OSOM and Emergency Alert particularly under critical capacity conditions.

Further train Incident Controllers in the management of the Information Section and its roles.