Bushfire warnings must improve: report

Bushfires would be rated like cyclones, fire danger warnings made more explicit and
sirens reinstated in local towns under recommendations handed down by Victoria's
Bushfires Royal Commission.
The commission also wants emergency signals broadcast on radio and television, and
says fire warnings should be extended to commercial media.
Thirteen of the 51 recommendations in the commission's interim report relate to
warnings and public information.
February's Black Saturday bushfires, in which 173 people died, exposed gross
failures in communication that meant many people in danger were warned too late or
not at all, the report said.
System crashes also meant 80 per cent of calls to the Victorian Bushfire Information
Line went unanswered and large numbers of triple-zero callers could not get through.
"Warnings were often delayed which meant that many people were not warned at all or
the amount of time they had to respond to the warnings was much less than it should
have been," the report said.
"The methods of delivery of the warnings were also inadequate. Some techniques for
raising awareness ... were not used."
The commission says warnings should be made relating to specific threats, as
distinct from information routinely relayed to the public.
To boost warning systems, town sirens should be re-instated on demand and a standard
emergency warning signal should be adopted for radio and television to seize
listeners' attention.
Bushfire warning messages should be carried by commercial media, not just the ABC,
the report says.
The commission also wants more public information about bushfires that are underway
and in the lead-up to days of high fire risk.
It says a new fire severity scale should be investigated that would rate bushfires
according to danger, similar to cyclone rating categories of 1 to 5.
On high-risk days, the public should be told of forest and grass fire indexes.
Consideration should also be given to increasing fire danger ratings beyond
"extreme".
The commission has recommended:
- The acceleration of a national telephone warning system.
- That the Country Fire Authority (CFA) chief fire officer take responsibility for
issuing warnings.
- Increasing the capacity of emergency communication services, like triple-zero and
the bushfires hotline, to handle peak demand.
- A multi-agency website for bushfire information.