Bushfire planning for business

24 February 2023

AUSTRALIA – Bushfires are responsible for destroying many things including the lives of people, livestock, pets and wildlife and every business faces different circumstances when developing a bushfire plan.

WorkSafe SA has highlighted key fire safety tips for all types of business with a series of things to consider when putting together a bushfire plan.

Critical considerations for business include:

Can you change how, when and where you operate to reduce the risk of bushfire on your business?
Are you confident that you could keep your staff and customers safe during a bushfire?
Would your business still be able to operate after major and ongoing impacts such as road closures, loss of power or damage to infrastructure?

Additionally, the ability for business to assess the level of bushfire danger is critical.

Essentially, the level of immediate danger to your business from bushfire depends on the proximity to bushfire fuel sources such as scrub, paddocks, forest and grassland.

As a general rule of thumb, the more fuel there is to burn, the hotter and bigger the fire will burn.

Weather and topography are also major factors.

Critically, the hotter, drier and windier the weather is, the faster and hotter a fire will burn through the landscape.

Business operators must clearly identify the fire ban districts that they operate in, and the fire danger rating for each, across every day of the fire danger season.

It is highly recommended that businesses rely upon the daily fire danger rating to determine a minimum level of action.

In 2015 the Pinery Fire north of Adelaide travelled more than 40km in just four hours before burning an estimated 82,500 hectares in just nine hours and killing two people.

Embers can travel many kilometres and are the major cause of buildings burning down during a bushfire and smoke can also cause low visibility, respiratory problems and can linger for days after a major bushfire.

During the Black Summer fires in 2019-20 ongoing exposure to significant levels of smoke resulted in more than 2,000 people presenting to hospital with respiratory issues.

Smoke exposure was also linked to 417 deaths.

Information on bushfire smoke impacts in the workplace is outlined at Safe Work Australia’s website which can be found here.

SafeWork SA indicates a bushfire plan for a business should address actions and strategies to be implemented before a bushfire, during a fire and after a fire.

The CFS publishes a detailed Bushfire Safety Guide for Business, which is a crucial resource for businesses and provides more detail about what to consider when creating a plan.

General planning should identify the following:

Clear roles and responsibilities and a chain of command to follow during an emergency
Triggers for action to assist decision making during times of high stress and uncertainty
Contingency planning such as relocating staff to a bushfire safer place
Communications planning to consider how important information is delivered to employees, customers, contractors and visitors
Minimum expectations on practising, reviewing and updating emergency procedures.

24. February 2023/by GFMCadmin