Case Study - Moondarra Fire Information Unit
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Contents
- The Objective
- Improvements post Alpine Fires
- The Community
- Key Challenges and Approach
- Unique Innovations
- Key lessons Learned
- Quotes
- Contact
On the January 19 2006, a deliberately-lit fire was detected burning in the Moondarra State Park, north east of Moe in Gippsland, Victoria The fire was finally declared under control on 12 February, having burned an area of over 15,000 hectares. An Information Unit (IU) was established at the Erica DSE office, consisting of staff from various agencies including Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), Parks Victoria (PV), CFA and Metropolitan Fire Brigade. The purpose of IU’s is to compile accurate, timely and relevant information about an incident to the media, the public and other agencies.
During the Moondarra Fire, IUs and Information Officers from DSE, CFA and PV used experiences gained in the Alpine Bushfires of 2003 and previous fires to develop a number of new tools, processes and concepts that were successful in establishing information flows during the incident. Following the Alpine Fires, the Victorian Bushfire Inquiry and subsequent reports recognised the achievements of Information Units in ensuring timely and accurate information flow to the community.
The project involved a range of stakeholders including private business, the community, Country Fire Authority, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria, Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), VicRoads and Victoria Police. During the immediate threat period, up to nine staff operated the Information Unit during the day and one to two people overnight. After the first rain event the unit was scaled down to two DSE staff. The fire was declared under control on February 12 and one Information Officer remained for a further five days.
After February 17 and until April 24 when the fire was declared safe, the Regional Media and Communications Officer managed the ongoing flow of information to the community from the Traralgon DSE office.
The key engagement tools used to inform, consult and empower the community were:
- Core advice and immediate threat messages
- Media Community updates
- Community meetings
- Daily visits to local communities
- School visits
- Community shopping trips
The Information unit established for Moondarra applied the procedures, learnings and experience sourced from many fires and many events in the past. Staff agreed that the Information Unit could be expanded beyond just providing for the flow of information to the community and in fact could adopt community engagement principles to assist in the development of positive and lasting relationships beyond the immediate event of the wildfire.
There had been significant community concern following previous large wildfires, so the IU agreed to plan for strategies to minimise potential community concern following this fire event.
After referring to DSE’s practical guide for “Community Engagement about Fire on Public Land” for further advice, the following objectives were adopted by Information Officers in the Moondarra IU:
- Inform the community by providing timely, relevant, accurate and authorised incident information relating to risks, fire safety messages, firefighting strategy, weather predictions, relevant local community messages, rehabilitation and recovery processes.
- Seek relevant local knowledge from the community by consulting with them about the fire, its effect and impacts to better inform the Incident Management Team. Listen, record and respond to community needs and concerns.
- Empower the community to respond and implement personal fire plans through provision of relevant, timely and accurate information to assist them in their decision making.
The community affected by the Moondarra Fire included the rural townships of Erica (300 people) and Rawson (300 people), Tyers (500), Yallourn North (2000) and farming and hobby farm owners in the Moondarra, Caringal and Tanjil areas. Residents in the Cowwarr, Toongabbie and Glengarry were also under threat of potential spread of the fire.
During the fire event there were many considerable events and issues. Many of these issues were practical fire fighting concerns such as the availability of water, access to property, telecommunications, transport and the ever present weather related risks. Some other significant community related issues were:
- The roads that lead south of the townships of Rawson, Erica and Walhalla were closed, forcing residents to decide very early whether to stay or go and preventing absentee landowners who had not arrived yet from accessing and defending their properties
- Local businesses were unable to replenish stock and supplies
- The fire continued over Australia Day, one of the busiest weekends on the tourist calendar for local tourism associated businesses, leading to significant financial impacts
- The Moondarra fire did not travel quickly through towns, but remained a constant threat for many days, burning on predominantly public land. Therefore residents sustained prolonged periods of stress and anxiety. Emotions showed in various ways, as expected during a crisis.
To achieve the objectives of the Moondarra Information Unit, incorporate learnings from previous fires and begin building positive connections with the community, Information Officers set about:
- Being accessible and having a presence in communities
- Listening and supporting local residents impacted by the fire
- Co-ordinating information across fire agencies using agreed messages and techniques
- Listening to community knowledge to help inform decisions in the Incident Management Team
- Providing information in a form that was understandable
- Being honest and empathetic
- Utilising Media, Community meetings, Community Updates, Presentations, Notice boards to keep the community informed
- Being a conduit for information – helping the community find the support they need
- Being clear about the parameters at community meetings (what the meetings were about, and what they were not about!)
- Being aware of and establishing community contacts, networks and processes to give and receive information
- Logging all issues, contacting the stakeholder/resident within an agreed timeframe with an answer, or if no answer yet, rescheduling when we could respond
- Where possible considered physical and social barriers that inhibited people receiving information
- Assisted people in the transition from the fire event to recovery – a long process requiring the efforts of a number of agencies and providers led by DHS. A challenge for the IU was in balancing the sensitivities of helping some of the community enter the recovery phase while others were still being directly impacted by the fire event.
Not only was the Information Unit effectively integrated into the Incident Management Team, but also the Unit and two Information Officers remained with the IMT past the immediate threat of the fire and into the recovery stages. This allowed for a more deliberate approach in supporting the community during the fire and during the "clean up", collecting and sharing information, listening and helping. It also ensured a quick response to community concerns, reducing negative criticism or inaccurate information amongst the community.
In addition to community meetings, Information officers visited localities daily and walked the streets of towns to talk to residents. Some residents had stated that they weren’t comfortable asking questions or discussing their concerns at community meetings. Information Officers organised times at Erica where people could meet with them outside of community meetings to discuss concerns, local issues or just talk. This was particularly useful for those who couldn’t make the meetings in the evenings.
Community bus shopping trips were instigated through traffic control points in an effort to assist isolated community members to access much-needed supplies. This also strengthened the community rapport and was a further opportunity for the community to come together.
Information Officers collected feedback, comments, frequently-asked questions and recorded learnings from the Moondarra Fire event to assist others who may undertake a similar role in future fire seasons.
Key lessons learned
Knowing each other provides comfort and reassurance
- The IU already knew that having a presence in the community and encouraging/supporting other IMT staff to attend the meetings helped people to identify with who was making the decisions during the fire. People were able to put a face to the decision-makers and we built strong rapport
- Face-to face contact allowed for people to talk and feel that they were being listened to and understood. We weren’t always able to fix their issue or concern and sometimes they didn’t have any issues or concerns, however people felt comforted having someone who was listening.
- It became apparent early that the Erica community was using the meetings to check on community wellbeing after difficult nights and to pass on local messages. The community meetings emerged as a critical link for the people in the community who were feeling stressed and anxious to regroup
- The portrayal of the fire as a "community fire" not an agency fire was a very powerful message, ie. we are all in this together, not DSE or CFA are the “cavalry”
- Community members who are not volunteer CFA or DSE employees may feel “helpless” during a fire. People want to contribute in anyway they can. Encouraging people at the meetings to look out for each, visit their neighbours and see if they needed help, share the information they had gathered including the community updates to those who were unable to attend the meetings was a positive way for people to contribute.
- As we know, honesty and transparency is critical. Tell people what to expect.
The community appreciation was obvious - they had been informed, understood the difficulties associated with the decision, were able to provide feedback and demonstrate their support for the final decision.
Record and respond to community concern and “stories”
The IU established a database early to log all issues, concerns and requests for information. Initially at the meetings, there was a feeling of “why bother talking to you, no one ever gets back to us”. Information Officers ensured they called back or revisited everyone with a response to their queries. Where we weren’t able to provide an answer, the IU provided people with details of who the matter had been referred to and its progress.
People were genuinely pleased and thankful even when we hadn’t been able to help them. This process enabled a lot of issues to be resolved immediately rather than allowing them to linger. Consequently, community concern in the weeks and months following the event was low.
Staying with the community after a traumatic event assists in recovery
- A learning from the Alpine fires was that it is important to the community that fire agencies continue to maintain information flow after the immediate threat has passed. The community still has critical information needs in terms of rehabilitating their properties and community and coping with post fire stress in themselves, their friends and family. The experience during the Moondarra fire was that information needs were certainly as strong during the rehabilitation and recovery phase. The community made a connection with Information Officers during the event, built familiarity and look to that same information source for post-fire needs. There was much value demonstrated in continuing the IU beyond the immediate period of the incident by allowing IU staff to coordinate ongoing information needs in conjunction with DHS and other agencies.
- Make the opportunity to listen to children’s experiences. The event is fresh in their minds and they are eager to learn and share. Be sensitive to the impact of the fires on the students and teachers and visit the school after the teachers have had time to help the students to work through their experiences”
- Don’t forget about the good news stories too, particularly through the rehabilitation and recovery phase. It’s important to reflect on the positives and report the amazing work achieved during a fire event and particularly during the recovery phase.
- One regret was that the Unit chose not to have a celebratory thankyou after the fire. The overwhelming community response was positive and a celebration on thanking community people who helped out could have been jointly hosted by the CFA, the Shire and DSE. A celebration of some sort would have given the team the opportunity to be connected to the community in recovery (as opposed to the community in distress) and could have provided the team and the community with a further level of closure.
“It’s great to have a 'face' to DSE” Erica resident
“We all felt really supported” Willow Grove resident
“It was very beneficial to receive the facts first hand and discuss fire plan strategies” Tyers resident
“At all times we knew as much about the situation and the likely future moves of the fire as necessary to make our decision about stay or go” Tyers resident
“I feel like I am being listened to and cared about” Erica resident
“The Community Updates helped me to help others” Erica shopkeeper
“It’s great to have someone to listen to you and take you seriously” Erica resident
“Gives me a chance to talk and ask questions as I feel a bit overwhelmed at the meetings" Moondarra resident
“The community meetings run by DSE and CFA were very well attended and gave us much needed information and advice.” Resident, quoted from the Tyers Times
“Information provided at the community meetings, on the internet and especially ABC radio was consistently outstanding and appreciated by those of us who were feeling vulnerable and isolated during this time. ”Kerryn Chewe, Erica
“It was one of the most worthwhile things I have ever been involved in” Liz Langford, DSE
Contact
Janet Drummond
Community Engagement Facilitator, Fire DSE
Janet.drummond@dse.vic.gov.au
03 5172 2156